Numerical Simulation of Heat Transfer of Synthetic Oil-based Nanofluids in a Parabolic Trough Solar Receiver

doi:10.19596/j.cnki.1001-246x.8183

Abstract

Abstract: A computational fluid dynamics numerical simulation was performed on Al₂O₃-synthetic oil nanofluids to study heat transfer in a trough solar receiver. Different nanofluid thermal conductivity models were tried. Calculated Nusselt numbers were compared with results of semiempirical model models. It was found that the thermal conductivity model based on Brownian motion predicted heat transfer characteristics well. The relative motion between nanoparticles and base fluid was found important in enhancing heat transfer. Further volume fraction analysis shows that the nanoparticles improved significantly average heat transfer coefficient, which indicates that nanofluids have great potential in solar collector applications.

Key words: nanofluid, computational fluid dynamics, parabolic trough solar receiver, thermal conductivity model

CLC Number:

TK123

ZHOU Lu, MA Honghe. Numerical Simulation of Heat Transfer of Synthetic Oil-based Nanofluids in a Parabolic Trough Solar Receiver[J]. CHINESE JOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICS, 2021, 38(1): 99-105.

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