Efficiency Analysis of TiO2/Water Nanofluid in Trough Solar Collector

Abstract

The increasing demand for energy nowadays has led a number of researchers to give attention for solar energy topic. In this research, the performance of a parabolic trough solar collector has been studied theoretically and experimentally. The study used water and TiO2/water nanofluid as working fluid with three values of volumetric flow rate (0.15-0.35-0.25) l/min. The experimental study was performed at Kirkuk city during March, April and May 2018. It was shown that the outlet temperature of the fluid, heat gain, experimental and theoretical efficiency, thermal losses of the solar collector were increased as the solar intensity increased but decreased as the volumetric flow rate increased. It was indicated that the experimental efficiency was less than the theoretical efficiency by 10%. The using of 2% of TiO2/water nanofluid increased the solar collector efficiency by 9% at the maximum value of volumetric flow rate.