[1]

PROJECT REPORT
ON
USE OF NANO COLLOIDAL DISPERSION
FOR
SOLAR ENERGY RECOVERY


By
ANAMIKA SINHA
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF
MR. TAPAN KUMAR ROUT
R&D department, Tata Steel Ltd.



[2]

CERTIFICATE


It is certified that the work contained in the project report entitled USE OF NANO
COLLOIDAL DISPERSION FOR SOLAR ENERGY RECOVERY" has been carried out by
Anamika Sinha during the period of project training from 20
th
May 2014 to 14
th
July 2014
under my supervision and guidance at R&D and Scientific Services, TATA STEEL,
Jamshedpur. She has completed her project successfully. Without prior approval of Tata Steel
Ltd. no data/information should be shared with any other agency or no communication should
be there in any journal/ patent body.





Mr. Tapan Kumar Rout
14
th
July, 2014







[3]

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my guide Mr Tapan Kumar Rout, Manager, R&D
department, TATA STEEL Ltd. for his invaluable guidance, excellent supervision and
constant inspiration throughout this project work. His encouragement and advice kept me
motivated and ensured a timely completion of my project.I would also like to thank all the
members of MMPD/OSP Lab, Scientific Services, Tata Steel for their constant support and
coordination without which, this project would not have been a success.
I would also like to extend my sincere gratitude to Mr Anup ----, MMPD/ OSP Lab,
Scientific Services, TATA STEEL Ltd., for his constant support during the course of my
project.
I thank once again all other people, who were directly or indirectly involved to complete my
project successfully.


Anamika Sinha
VT 20142553









[4]


ABSTRACT
Solar energy radiant light and heat from the sun, is being harnessed using several
technologies such solar collector, solar cells, solar architecture, etc.
Solar collector is a device for capturing solar radiation. Conventional solar collector used
water as a coolant inside tubes to transfer heat. Efficiency of these collectors is limited by
absorption properties of the working fluid. Conventional solar collectors are available with
poor efficiency and high cost. Mixing nano-particles in a liquid increases its thermal
conductivity. Nanoparticles also improve the radiative properties of liquid improving the
efficiency of solar collector.
Aim of our project is to study about nanoparticles and their dispersion in water in order to
increase the heat absorbing capacity of working fluid in solar collector and also to design a
suitable model of solar collector.














[5]


CONTENTS

Page no
1. INTRODUCTION----------------------------------------------------------------------------6

2. STUDY OF NANOPARTICLES FOR SOLAR ENERGY RECOVERY ------- 7-11
2.1. ABSORBING CAPACITY OF DIFFERENT NANOFLUID--------------------7
2.2. THERMO-PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF NANOFLUID------------------------8
2.3. CURRENT RESEARCH---------------------------------------------------------------8

3. SOLAR COLLECTOR DESCRIPTION------------------------------------------------11-17
3.1. HEAT PIPE------------------------------------------------------------------------------12
3.2.STUDY OF FLAT PLATE COLLECTOR USING HEAT PIPE--------------- 14
3.3.PROPOSED DESIGN OF SOLAR COLLECTOR---------------------------------15
3.4.EFFECT OF L/di RATIO ON EFFICIENCY---------------------------------------16
3.5.EFFECT OF Le/Lc RATIO------------------------------------------------------------17

4. THERMAL ANALYSIS------------------------------------------------------------------17-22

5. PREPARATION OF CARBON BLACK NANOFLUID------------------------------22

6. EXPERIMENTAL RESULT-------------------------------------------------------------23-26


7. DISCUSSION ON RESULT---------------------------------------------------------------27

8. CONCLUSION------------------------------------------------------------------------------27


9. REFERENCE--------------------------------------------------------------------------------28






[6]

1. INTRODUCTION
Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient
times using a range of ever evolving technologies. Of all the sources of renewable energy
especially solar energy has the greatest potential when other sources in the country have
depleted. Because of the desirable environmental and safety aspects it is widely believed that
solar energy should be utilized instead of other alternative energy forms, even when the costs
involved are slightly higher. Solar energy technologies include solar heating, solar
photovoltaics, solar thermal electricity and solar architecture, which can make considerable
contributions to solving some of the most urgent problems the world now faces. Solar
technologies are broadly characterized as either passive solar or active solar depending on the
way they capture, convert and distribute solar energy. Active solar techniques include the use
of photovoltaic panels and solar thermal collectors to harness the energy.
Solar collector is a device used for absorbing solar energy. It consists of basically three parts,
a transparent cover, tubes carrying coolants and back plate. Solar radiant incident upon the
transparent surface of the solar collector is transmitted through this surface. The inside of the
solar collector is evacuated and trapped solar energy inside is used to heat the coolant
contained within the tubes. The back plate is black painted to absorb solar radiation. The
solar collector is insulated to avoid heat loss. The solar collector box is usually made up of
wooden frame.
Conventional solar collector uses water as a coolant inside the tube which has poor efficiency
and high cost. Instead of using water we can use nanofluid which has high thermal
conductivity and thus helps in increasing the efficiency of solar collector. Nanoparticles such
as graphite, copper, silver and carbon nanotubes increase the thermal conductivity of working
fluid in achieving efficiency improvements upto 5%.










[7]

1. STUDY OF NANOPARTICLES FOR SOLAR ENERGY
RECOVERY
There are so many methods introduced to increase the efficiency of the solar water heater
(Xiaowu and Hua, 2005; Xuesheng et al., 2005; Ho and Chen, 2006; Hussain, 2006). But the
novel approach is to introduce the nanofluids in solar water heater instead of conventional
heat transfer fluids (like water). The poor heat transfer properties of these conventional fluids
compared to most solids are the primary obstacle to the high compactness and effectiveness
of the system. The essential initiative is to seek the solid particles having thermal
conductivity of several hundred times higher than those of conventional fluids. An innovative
idea is to suspend ultra fine solid particles in the fluid for improving the thermal conductivity
of the fluid by Hetsroni and Rozenblit (1994). These early studies, however, used suspensions
of millimeter- or micrometer-sized particles, which, although showed some enhancement,
experienced problems such as poor suspension stability and hence channel clogging, which
are particularly serious for systems using mini sized and micro sized particles. The suspended
metallic or nonmetallic nanoparticles change the transport properties and heat transfer
characteristics of the base fluid. Hwang et al. (2007) studied the stability and thermal
conductivity characteristics of nanofluids. In this study, they concluded that the thermal
conductivity of ethylene glycol was increased by 30%.
Nanofluid is a new class of heat transfer fluids containing stably suspended nano-sized
particles, fibers, or tubes in the conventional heat transfer fluids such as water, ethylene
glycol, etc. When nanofluids are used as working fluids of the direct solar absorbers, the
thermal properties of nanofluids are critical to the solar utilization. Photothermal property is
very important to the assessment of solar energy absorption of nanofluids because it directly
reflects the solar absorption ability of nanofluids. Viscosity and rheological behaviors not
only are essential parameters for nanofluid stability and flow behaviors but also affect the
heat transfer efficiency of direct solar absorbers. Thermal conductivity is an important
parameter for heat transfer fluids. It also affects the collectors heat transfer efficiency. Great
efforts have been made to the rheological behaviors and thermal conductivities of nanofluids,
and these studies are helpful to the research of nanofluids as solar absorption working fluids.

2.1. ABSORBING CAPACITY DIFFERENT NANOFLUID:
The absorbance of AlN water nanofluid and Zno- water nanofluid is lower than
50% in wide spectral region (wavelength > 1170nm). The absorbance of these two
nanofluids is greater than 90% in spectral region of wavelength > 1330nm.
The absorbance of ZrC water nanofluid is greater than 90% at most wavelength.
The absorbance of TiN water nanofluid is greater than 95% in whole spectrum.
ZrC water nanofluid has the highest absorptance among TiO2 and SiO2.
Carbon black has very good absorption in the whole sunlight wavelength range. The
solar absorbance in the wavelength range 200nm 2500nm is over 96% somewhat
better than TiO2, SiO2 and ZrC.


[8]

2.2. THERMO-PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF NANOPARTICLES
NANO-
PARTICLES
PARTICLE
SIZE
nm
THERMAL
CONDUCTIVITY
W/m/k
HEAT CAPACITY

J/kg/k
WATER SOLUBLE?
COPPER 40 400 385 INSOLUBLE
SILVER 20 - 80 429 233 INSOLUBLE
GRAPHITE 40 25 470 711 INSOLUBLE
TITANIUM
OXIDE
39 11.7 711 INSOLUBLE
ZINC OXIDE 20 26 962 INSOLUBLE
ALUMINA 30 30 930 INSOLUBLE
ZIRCONIUM
CARBIDE
20 25 - INSOLUBLE
SILICON
DIOXIDE
15 - 30 1.4 - SOLUBLE
ALUMINIUM
NITRIDE
<100 285 - REACTS

2.3. CURRENT RESEARCH:
1) Pak and Cho (1998) investigated experimentally the turbulent friction and heat transfer
behaviors of dispersed fluids. Two different metallic oxide particles -alumina (Al2O3)
titanium dioxide (TiO2) with mean diameters of 13 and 27 nm, respectively, were used as
suspended particles. The heat transfer section was made using a seamless, stainless steel tube,
of which the inside diameter and the total length were 1.066 cm and 480 cm, respectively.
2) Xuan and Li (2003) built an experimental rig to study the flow and convective heat
transfer feature of the nanofluid flowing in a tube. They investigated convective heat transfer
feature and flow performance of Cu-water nanofluids for the turbulent flow. They found that
at fixed velocities, the heat transfer coefficient of nanofluids containing 2.0 vol% Cu
nanoparticles was improved by as much as 40% compared to that of water. Their test section
was a straight brass tube of the inner diameter of 10 mm and the length of 800 mm. Eight
thermocouples were mounted at different places of the heat transfer test section to measure
[9]

the wall temperatures and other two thermocouples were respectively located at the entrance
and exit of the test section to read the bulk temperatures of the nanofluid.

3) Wen and Ding (2004) were first to study the laminar entry flow of nanofluids in circular
tubes. Their results showed a substantial increase in the heat transfer coefficient of water-
based nanofluids containing -Al2O3 nanoparticles in the entrance region and a longer entry
length is needed for the nanofluids than that for water. A straight copper tube with 970 mm
length, 4.5 mm inner diameter, and 6.4 mm outer diameter was used as the test section.

4) Yang et al., (2005) measured the convective heat transfer coefficients of several nanofluids
under laminar flow in a horizontal tube heat exchanger. The average diameter of the disk-
shaped graphite nanoparticles used in this research was about 1 to 2m, with a thickness of
around 20 to 40 nm. Small circular tube of inner diameter 0.457 cm, outside diameter of
0.635 cm and length 45.7 cm was used as test section. The whole system was heavily
insulated to reduce heat loss. Pipes were wrapped with insulation material, and plastic fittings
were attached at both ends of the test area to thermally isolate the connection.

5) Heriz et al., (2006) investigated laminar flow convective heat transfer through circular tube
with constant wall temperature boundary condition for nanofluids containing CuO and Al
2
O
3

oxide nanoparticles in water as base fluid. The experimental apparatus consisting of a test
chamber constructed of 1 m annular tube with 6 mm diameter inner copper tube and with 0.5
mm thickness and 32 mm diameter outer stainless steel tube. Nanofluid flows inside the inner
tube while saturated steam enters annular section, which creates constant wall temperature
boundary condition. The fluid after passing through the test section enters heat exchanger in
which water was used as cooling fluid. The experimental results emphasized that the single
phase correlation with nanofluids properties (Homogeneous Model) was not able to predict
heat transfer coefficient enhancement of nanofluids. The comparison between experimental
results obtained for CuO/ water and Al
2
O
3
/ water nanofluids indicated that heat transfer
coefficient ratios for nanofluid to homogeneous model in low concentration were close to
each other but by increasing the volume fraction, higher heat transfer enhancement for Al
2
O
3

/water was observed. They concluded that heat transfer enhancement by nanofluid depends
on several factors including increment of thermal conductivity, nanoparticles chaotic
movements, fluctuations and interactions.

7) The flow and heat transfer behavior of aqueous TiO
2
nanofluids flowing through a straight
vertical pipe was carried out by He et al., (2007) under both the laminar and turbulent flow
conditions. Their experimental system consisted of a flow loop, a heating unit, a cooling unit,
and a measuring and control unit. The test section was a vertically oriented straight copper
tube with 1834 mm length, 3.97 mm inner diameter, and 6.35 mm outer diameter.
The tube was heated by two flexible silicon rubber heaters. There was a thick thermal
isolating layer surrounding the heaters to obtain a constant heat flux condition along the test
section. Two pressure transducers were installed at the inlet and outlet of the test section to
measure the pressure drop. They investigated the effects of nanoparticles concentrations,
particle size, and the flow Reynolds number. They reported that, addition of nanoparticles
[10]

into the base liquid enhanced the thermal conduction and the enhancement increased with
increasing particle concentration and decreasing particle size. Their results also showed that
the convective heat transfer coefficient increases with nanoparticle concentration in both the
laminar and turbulent flow regimes and the effect of particle concentration seems to be more
considerable in the turbulent flow regimes for the given flow Reynolds number and particle
size. Pressure drop of nanofluids was very close to that of the base liquid for given flow
Reynolds number. Predictions of the pressure drop with the conventional theory for the base
liquid agree well with the measurements at relatively low Reynolds numbers. Deviation
occurs at high Reynolds numbers possibly due to the entrance effect.

8) Kulkarni et al., (2008) investigated heat transfer and fluid dynamic performance of
Nanofluids comprised of silicon dioxide (SiO
2
) nanoparticles suspended in a 60:40 (% by
weight) ethylene glycol and water (EG/water) mixture. The heat transfer test section was a
straight copper tube with outside diameter of 4.76 mm, inside diameter of 3.14 mm, and a
length of 1 m. The wall temperature was measured by means of six thermocouples mounted
on the tube surface along the length. The inlet and outlet temperatures of the nanofluid were
measured using two thermo wells at the inlet and outlet of the test section. Two plastic
fittings at inlet and outlet section of the copper tube provide a thermal barrier to axial heat
conduction. The test section was heated electrically by four strip heaters to attain the constant
heat flux boundary condition. The test section was insulated by 10 cm of fiber glass to
minimize the heat loss from the heat transfer test system to ambient air. A four-pass shell and
tube counter flow heat exchanger cools the nanofluids to keep the inlet fluid temperature
constant using shop water. The effect of particle diameter (20 nm, 50 nm, 100 nm) on the
viscosity of the fluid was investigated. They performed experiments to investigate the
convective heat transfer enhancement of nanofluids in the turbulent regime by using the
viscosity values measured. They observed increase in heat transfer coefficient due to
nanofluids for various volume concentrations and loss in pressure was observed with
increasing nanoparticle volume concentration.

9) Hwang et al., (2009) investigated flow and convective heat transfer characteristics of
water-based Al2O3 nanofluid flowing through a circular tube of 1.812 mm inner diameter
with the constant heat flux in fully developed laminar regime. Water-based Al2O3 nanofluid
with various volume fractions ranging from 0.01% to 0.3% are manufactured by the two-step
method. They also measured physical properties of water-based Al2O3 nanofluids such as the
viscosity, the density, the thermal conductivity and the heat capacity. They presented that the
nanoparticles suspended in water enhance the convective heat transfer coefficient in the
thermally fully developed regime, despite low volume fraction between 0.01 and 0.3 vol%.
Especially, the heat transfer coefficient of water-based Al2O3 nanofluids was increased by
8% at 0.3 vol% under the fixed Reynolds number compared with that of pure water and the
enhancement of the heat transfer coefficient is larger than that of the effective thermal
conductivity at the same volume concentration. Based on their experimental results, it was
shown that the Darcy friction factor of water-based Al2O3 nanofluids experimentally
measured has a good agreement with theoretical results from the friction factor correlation for
the single-phase flow (f = 64/ReD).
[11]


10) Sharma et al., (2009) conducted experiments to evaluate heat transfer coefficient and
friction factor for flow in a tube and with twisted tape inserts in the transition range of flow
with Al2O3 nanofluid. Hydro dynamically and thermally developed heat transfer test section
is having 1.5 m long with an L/D ratio of 160. The tube was heated uniformly for a length of
1.5 m by wrapping with two nichrome heaters of 1 kW electrical rating. Their twisted tapes
were made from 1 mm thick and 0.018 m width aluminum strip. The two ends of the strip are
held on a lathe and subjected to 180 twist by turning the chuck manually and obtained twist
ratios of 5, 10 and 15. The results showed considerable enhancement of convective heat
transfer with Al2O3 nanofluids compared to flow with water. They found that the effect of
inclusion of twisted tape in the flow path gives higher heat transfer rates compared to flow in
a plain tube. They also observed the equation of Gleninski(1976) applicable in transitional
flow range for single-phase fluids exhibited considerable deviation when compared with
values obtained with nanofluid. The heat transfer coefficient of nanofluid flowing in a tube
with 0.1% volume concentration was 23.7% higher when compared with water at number of
9000.

3. SOLAR COLLECTOR DESCRIPTION:
Usually, conventional solar collectors use pipes attached to the collecting plate and a heat
transfer fluid, such as water, to transfer by natural or forced circulation the heat captured by
the solar collector to a storage tank. Some of the short comings associated with conventional
solar collectors include of the forced circulation system due to the pump and its extracted
power, extra space required for the natural circulation system due to the position limitations
required, the night cooling due to the reverse flow of cooled water, freezing of the water on
cold nights, pipe corrosion due to the use of water and the limited quantity of heat transferred
by the heat transfer fluid. Promising solution is the use of heat pipe.



[12]

3.1. Heat Pipe
The heat pipe is a device of very high thermal conductance; that is, it will transport
thermal energy without an appreciable drop in temperature. The heat pipe is suitable for a
wide range of applications including solar collector. In a heat pipe, the process is evaporation
Condensation convection. Thus, solar collectors with heat pipes have a lower thermal mass,
resulting in a reduction of start-up time.
A heat pipe is a very efficient heat conductor. Heat pipes are the heat transfer
devices available to deal with the high density electronic cooling problem due to their
high thermal conductivity, reliability and low weight. A Heat pipe uses the principles of
both thermal conductivity and phase transition to manage the heat transfer between two
solid interfaces. Due to the high capacity to heat transfer, heat exchanger with heat pipes
has become much smaller than traditional heat exchangers in handling high heat fluxes.
Furthermore, the thermal resistance and heat transfer capability are affected by the
influence of various parameters such as working fluid, tilt angle, fill ratio, wick
structure, thermal properties, heat input and applications in different fields.
Heat pipes are one of the most effective procedures to transport thermal energy from
one point to another. It uses two principles of thermal conductivity and phase transition to
efficiently manage the transfer of heat. Heat pipes contain no mechanical moving parts and
typically require no maintenance. The concept of heat pipe was originally invented by
Gaugler of the General Motors Corporation. In1944.
The advantage of heat pipes over many other heat- dissipation mechanisms is their
great efficiency in transferring heat. They are fundamentally better at heat conduction over
a distance than an equivalent cross-section of solid copper (a heat sink alone, though
simpler in design and construction, does not take advantage of the principle of matter phase
transition). A second feature of the heat pipe is that relatively large amounts of heat can be
transported with small light weight structures. The amount of heat that can be transported as
latent heat of vaporization is usually several orders of magnitude larger than can be
transported as sensible heat in a conventional convective system with an equivalent
temperature difference. The performance of a heat pipe is often expressed in terms of
equivalent thermal conductivity. In applications where conventional cooling methods are
not suitable, heat pipes are being used very often. Once the need for heat pipe arises, the
most appropriate heat pipe needs to be selected. Often this is not an easy task. For
applications involving energy conservation, the heat pipe is a prime candidate and has been
used to advantage in heat recovery systems and energy conversion devices. Conservation of
energy has never been more important before, as the cost of fuel is ever rising and the
reserves are diminishing. The heat pipe provides an effective tool in a large number of
applications associated with conservation.

[13]



The basic heat pipe is a closed container consisting of a small amount of vaporizable fluid
(e.g., a refrigerant).The heat pipe employs an evaporating condensing cycle, which accepts
heat from an external source, uses this heat to evaporate the liquid (latent heat) and then
releases latent heat by reverse transformation (condensation) at a heat sink region. This
process is repeated continuously by a return feed mechanism of the condensed fluid back to
the heating zone. In the solar collector, the condensation zone is at a higher level than the
evaporation zone .The transport medium condensed (in the condensation zone) returns to the
evaporation zone under the influence of the gravity. The maximum operating temperature of
a heat pipe is the critical temperature of the used heat transfer medium.





[14]

3.2. STUDY OF FLAT PLATE COLLECTOR USING HEAT PIPES
1. Two identical with same dimensions, experimental set up of flat plate collectors using
-heat pipes were fabricated. In each set up three identical wickless copper heat pipes
are used having length 620 mm and outer diameter of 18 mm. The working fluid used
in one set up is pure water and in another pure water with nanoparticles. The
nanoparticles used are CNT having diameter 10-12 nm & length 0.1-10 J.l. For the
dispersion of CNTs (0.15% by volume) in aqueous media (water) functionalization
process is used. These set ups are initially tested at Indian standard tilt angle 31.5 and
Maximum performance angle 50. At the same angles these collectors are tested using
the solar tracking system. Both collectors gave maximum instantaneous efficiency at
the 50 for with and without tracking. The nanofluid working fluid collector gave the
better performance in the all conditions. For both fluids Solar tracking system founds
more effective and the trend of difference of their instantaneous efficiencies are found
initially more and then decreases it becomes almost equal and then their difference
again increases.
The main objective of this study was to reduce the size of the solar flat plate
collector so that it can be a new innovation for Compaq solar collector would be
utilized in commercial scale.

2. The thermal enhancement of solar collector performance was investigated with silver
nano-fluid as working fluid. The silver nano-particle size was 20 nm with
concentrations at 1,000 and 10,000 ppm and the based working fluid was water. The
experiments were undertaken with three identical flat plate solar collectors each had
an area of 0.15 x 1.0 m2. When the concentration of silver nano-fluid increased more
heat from solar collector or less heat loss was obtained then the difference between
inlet and outlet temperatures of the working fluid from the flat-plate solar collector
increased. However, the concentration at 1,000 ppm showed insignificant results
compared with water. Use of silver nano-fluid as a working fluid could improve
thermal performance of flat-plate collector compared with water, especially at high
inlet temperature.
3. Thermomax Evacuated Heat Pipe Solar Collectors (tubes) operate differently than the
other collectors available on the market. These solar collectors consist of a heat pipe
inside a vacuum sealed tube, as shown.
Each tube contains a sealed cooper pipe (heat pipe).
The pipe is then attached to a black copper fin that fills the tube (absorber
plate).
Protruding from the top of each tube is a metal tip attached to the sealed pipe
(condenser). These tubes are mounted, the metal tips up, into a heat exchanger.
As the sun shines on the black surface of the fin, the liquid inside the heat pipe
is heated.
Hot vapor rises to the top of the pipe.Water, or glycol, flows through the
manifold and picks up the heat from the tubes.
[15]

The heated liquid circulates through another heat exchanger and gives off its
heat to water that is stored in a solar storage tank.
The system is simple to install and easy to expand.




3.3. PROPOSED DESIGN OF SOLAR COLLECTOR

A heat pipe acts like a high conductance
thermal conductor. Due to its thermal-physical
properties, its heat transfer rate is thousand's
times greater than that of the best solid heat
conductor of the same dimensions. The basic
heat pipe is a closed container consisting of a
capillary wick structure and a small amount of
vaporizable fluid. The heat pipe employs an
evaporating-condensing cycle, which accepts
heat from an external source, uses this heat to
evaporate the liquid (latent heat) and then
releases latent heat by reverse transformation
(condensation) at a heat sink region. This
process is repeated continuously by a return
feed mechanism of the condensed fluid back to
the heat zone.

[16]




Solar collector is a flat plate collector having dimension 0.85 m x 0.60m with a glass cover.
The collector absorber is a 2mm thick black painted steel sheet. It consists of six tin heat
pipes having inner diameter of 19mm and length 1m. Evaporator length is 85cm and
condenser length is 15cm. Each individual heat pipe is mechanically bonded to the steel
absorber plate. The absorber plate is anodized matt black to enhance its ability to absorb heat.
The heat absorbed by the heat pipes was removed and measured using a water-cooled heat
exchanger. The heat exchanger consisted of six inter-connected tin collars, with an outside
diameter of 25 mm and 150 mm length which fitted around the condenser section of the heat
pipes.
The absorber plate and heat exchanger are housed in wooden framework. The panel rests on a
backing insulation layer of 50 mm thick glass wool while the condenser section is insulated
with Aeroflex sheet insulation. Ordinary glass window is chosen as the upper glazing for the
collector. The air gap between the glass cover and the absorber plate is 40 mm.


3.4. EFFECT OF L/di RATIO ON EFFICIENCY OF SOLAR COLLECTOR:
Efficiency for lesser L/di ratio is better due to increase of capillary pumping pressure which
in turn results in increase in heat transport factor when L/di is reduced.


[17]

3.5. EFFECT OF Le/Lc ratio:

With the increase of the heated length-cooled length, Le/Lc, the absorber area will increase
and thus both the absorbed solar energy by absorber plate and the heat loss from the absorber
will increase. On the other hand the heat transfer coefficient in condenser will increase and
thus causing to increase the heat transfer rate in the condenser. As the solar energy absorbed
by absorber plate increases, heat transfer coefficient of evaporator section of heat pipe
decreases and heat transfer coefficient in condenser section increases with increase in the
heated length-cooled length ratio, Le/Lc. The increased Le/Lc seems to provide a more
efficient system as a whole. However, there is a limiting value of Le/Lc above which the
trend will become opposite [18]. The factors that dominate the optimum ratio are heat pipe
working fluid and heat pipe diameter.


4. THERMAL ANALYSIS:
The heat pipe solar collector was made up of a number of heat pipes where the condenser of
heat pipes mounted into a heat exchanger (manifold). The manifold was a copper pipe that
wrapped around each heat pipe condenser. The water flowed through the manifold and picked
up heat from the heat pipe condenser.
For the theoretical steady state analysis of the system assumptions made are:
The heat exchanger can absorb all the heat delivered by the evaporator.
The overall heat loss coefficient between the collector and the ambient is assumed to
be constant.
The heat loss from the heat exchanger and the ambient is negligible.
For a collector with n heat pipes, the water flows from one condenser to another. The outlet
water temperature of the first condenser becomes the inlet water temperature of the second
one, and so on.

The actual heat transfer rate for a single heat pipe Qhp1, which is the thermal energy transfer
from evaporator to the condenser section, may be written as:
[18]





The heat transfer between a single heat pipe and the cooling liquid may be expressed as
(3)

From Eqs (1) and (3) condenser outer surface temperatures may be written as:



The overall condenser heat transfer coefficient can be written as


Where Di is the inside diameter of heat exchanger and do is the outside diameter of heat pipe.
The fluid flow in the manifold is considered to be fully developed laminar flow. It is assumed
that the flow inside the condenser of the heat pipes is thermally developed and therefore
under a constant heat flux boundary condition at the wall, the Nusselt number is constant.


Thermal conductivity of water at 20 degree Celsius = 0.6 W/mk
Thermal conductivity of water at 40 degree Celsius = 0.63W/mk
Thermal conductivity of water at 60 degree Celsius = 0.654 W/mk
Thermal conductivity of water at 80 degree Celsius = 0.670W/mk
Thermal conductivity of water at 100 degree Celsius = 0.679W/mk

[19]

The outlet water temperature from the first condenser, Tc,o1 can be calculated from thermal
resistance analysis.

In the vapour space, the only end-to-end temperature variations are associated with changes
in vapour pressure caused by vapour flow pressure drops. These pressure drops are very
small, and the vapour space is assumed to operate at constant saturation pressure and
temperature along the axial length of the heat pipe. However, since heat is transferred radially
into and radially out of the heat pipe, temperature drops occur. In steady state operation, the
total heat added to the evaporator section must be rejected at the condenser section.

Evaporator resistances:
Within the evaporator section, the thermal resistances which account for temperature drops
are container wall and internal resistance at the evaporator. These can be expressed in term of
film coefficient he.

Re,p is the thermal resistances across the thickness of the container wall thickness, may
presented as follows:


Re,i is the thermal resistance that occurs at the vapourliquid interfaces in the evaporator and
may be written as


Condenser resistance:

The vapour condenses on the inner wall of the condenser releasing the latent heat of
condensation. The heat must then be conducted through the container wall to outer wall
surface. The resistance associated with the conduction process through the pipe wall is



The thermal resistance associated with the condensing process is given by


Thermal analysis of a single heat pipe absorber:

The useful energy gained by a single heat pipe, is the difference between solar energy
absorbed and the heat loss to the ambient over the length of the absorber. The rate of useful
energy collected may be modeled according to the well known Hottel Willer equation:
[20]



The useful energy extracted in the form of heat by fluid flowing in the heat exchanger can
also be expressed as


So that



In the condenser section of a single heat pipe heat exchanger, cold fluid is in cross flow with
vapour flow inside the heat pipe. However, since the vapour inside a heat pipe is almost at
constant temperature, its specific heat, Cp, and capacity rate, CL, will by definition be equal
to infinity and as a result Cc=CL 0. Therefore, the effectiveness-NTU equation for this
condition will be as follows



The condenser water temperature at the outlet of a single heat pipe is


For a collector with n heat pipes, as shown in Fig. 5, the water flows from the condenser of
one heat pipe to another. The outlet water temperature of the first condenser becomes the
inlet water temperature of the second condenser. For a collector with n heat pipes the final
temperature can be calculated from
[21]


Thermal analysis of heat pipe array:

The final water outlet temperature for an array of n heat pipes may also be obtained by a
different approach, without going through each condenser and continuing the thermal
analysis. By this method, for overall effectiveness of n condenser, one fluid is in series and
the other fluid is in cross flow. Referring to fluid in series, the overall effectiveness E can be
written as


Assuming equal effectiveness for all condensers

The water outlet and heat pipe temperature of the collector array are

Theoretical efficiency is given by








[22]

Nomenclature:


5. PREPARATION OF CARBON BLACK NANOFLUID:
To obtain stable nanofluids, the carbon powder was pretreated: 7.5 g of carbon powder and
200 ml H2O2 (30%) were mixed into a flask and boiled under magnetic stirring for 4 h. Then
additional 200 ml H2O2 were added and the solution was further stirred and boiled for
another 4 hours and finally it was diluted with distilled water to 300 ml. Hydrogen peroxide
reacts on the carbon surface, and undergoes decomposition to oxygen and water. The reaction
of oxygen with carbon surfaces has two main effects: activation of molecular oxygen on the
surface and stabilization of activated species by formation of covalent bonds with carbon
atoms. The oxidation of carbon significantly alters its physicochemical properties, such as
wettability, sticking and surface adsorption, which contributes to the producing of stable
nanofluids.







[23]

6. EXPERIMENTAL RESULT:
THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY OF CARBON NANOFLUID:
Sample 1 at concentration of 25g/ dm
3
:
Temperature in Kelvin Thermal conductivity in S/cm
303 677
313 860
323 1036
333 1220
343 1447


Graph 1

[24]

Sample 2 at concentration 10g/dm
3
:

Temperature in Kelvin Thermal conductivity in S/cm
302 45
313 63.2
323 80
333 93
343 109


Graph 2

[25]

Sample 3 at concentration 2g/dm
3
:
Temperature in Kelvin Thermal conductivity in S/cm
302 11.7
313 16.7
323 20.7
333 25.1
343 30.9


Graph 3

[26]

Sample 4 at concentration 0.1g/dm
3
:
Temperature in Kelvin Thermal conductivity in S/cm
302 9.1
313 12.1
323 14.5
333 17.2
343 20.6

Graph 4
[27]

7. DISCUSSION ON RESULT:
It can be seen that the temperature of the nanofluids increase more quickly than water.
The addition of carbon particles logically improves the solar thermal energy
absorption properties.
Thermal conductivity of carbon nanofluid is found to be more than water. Thus it is
more efficient for solar collector.
Thermal conductivity of carbon nanofluid at 4 different temperatures were taken for
different concentration values and shown in graphs (Graph1 Graph 4). Thermal
conductivity of carbon nanofluid increases linearly with temperature keeping
concentration constant.
Thermal conductivity of carbon nanofluid increase with increasing concentration
keeping temperature constant.

8. CONCLUSION:
In the present work, an experimental investigation of the thermal performance of heat pipe
solar collector together with a simple theoretical analysis have been developed and carbon
black nanofluid is prepared to study its thermal conductivity.
The results of the investigation may be summarized as follows:
The pretreatment of carbon nanoparticles with hydrogen peroxide (by heating and
magnetic stirring) results in surface activation and improvement of their physical and
chemical properties, in terms of adsorption and wettability. Stable nanofluids can be
obtained by dispersion of these pretreated particles in water. The temperature increase
enhance-ment of carbon black nanofluids is higher than that of TiO2/water,
SiO2/water, and ZrC/water nanofluids. This proves once more that these fluids are a
good medium for the absorption of solar energy. These nanofluids are suitable for use
at temperatures up to 90oC at atmospheric pressure.
The results obtained from the developed theoretical model suggest an optimum heated
length-cooled length ratio to absorb more heat and increase the overall amount of
useful heat.
Finally, the model is capable to predict some performance characteristics of the solar
system, such as heat pipe temperature,water outlet temperature, efficiency, and useful
absorbed heat.







[28]

9. REFERENCE:
http://nopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/5163/1/JSIR%2064(9)%20698-701.pdf
http://scholarsresearchlibrary.com/aasr-vol4-iss6/AASR-2012-4-6-2582-2590.pdf
http://rcme.engr.tu.ac.th/TSME-ICoME%20Web/full_paper_file/ETM/ETM10%20848-1415-
1-RV.pdf
http://www.rmcet.com/lib/E-
Journals/Experimental%20Thermal%20and%20Fluid%20Science/Vol.32%20No.08%20Sep20
08/Theoretical%20and%20experimental%20investigation%20of%20heat%20pipe%20solar%
20collector.pdf

http://www.isfh.de/institut_solarforschung/files/jack_eval_methodes_4_heat_pipes_ises_s
wc_11.pdf
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-04/aiop-nis040411.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_thermal_collector
http://www.academia.edu/5320282/Flat_Plat_Solar_Collector_Using_Nanofluids












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