Solar flat plate collector's heat transfer enhancement using grooved tube configuration with alumina nanofluids: Prediction of outcomes through artificial neural network modeling

Abstract

Solar thermal systems are far more important than solar PV systems in residential and commercial applications. Improving the efficiency of solar thermal technology is a major challenge. Several researchers separately studied the effects of turbulence enhancers and nanofluids to enhance heat transfer of solar flat plate collectors (SFPC). The current research focuses on the synergic effect of an internally grooved absorber tube and Al2O3-WEG-based nanofluid on SFPC performance. The experimental investigation used various concentrations of nanoparticles (0.01 %, 0.05 %, 0.1 %, and 0.2 %) and mass flow rates (MFR) (0.024 kg/s, 0.036 kg/s and 0.048 kg/s). The outcomes of Al2O3-WEG based nanofluid and plain working fluid were compared. MFRs of 0.036 kg/s and 0.2 % vol. Showed the highest efficiency for SFPC models 1 and 2. The efficiency enhancement of model 2 over model 1 of plain fluid increased in an order of 46.37 %, 54.13 %, and 33.83 % for MFRs of 0.024, 0.036, and 0.048 kg/s, respectively. The maximum efficiency enhancement of model 2 over model 1 was 54.1 % for a MFR of 0.036 kg/s with 0.2 % vol. The created ANN models predicted the output values of the SFPC experiment accurately in real-time.