Thermal Performance Analysis of

Ni-Water Nanofluid Based Solar

Water Heater

M.Tech. Thesis

By
SAGAR MEHTA

Department of Mechanical Engineering

National Institute of Technology Hamirpur
Himachal Pradesh, India-177005
May-June 2019
THERMAL PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF
NI-WATER NANOFLUID BASED SOLAR
WATER HEATER

A Thesis

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

Masters of Technology

In

Thermal Engineering (CFD & Heat Transfer)

By

SAGAR MEHTA

(Registration No. 17M302)

Under the guidance of

Dr. Prashant Dhiman

Department of Mechanical Engineering

National Institute of Technology Hamirpur
Himachal Pradesh, India-177005
May-June 2019
 राष्ट्रीय प्रौद्योगिकी संस्थान हमीरपुर (गहमाचल प्रदेश)
National Institute of Technology Hamirpur (H.P.)
(An Institute of National Importance)

CERTIFICATE
I hereby certify that the work which is being presented in the thesis entitled “Thermal
Performance Analysis of Ni-Water Nanofluid Based Solar Water Heater” in
partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of degree of Master of
Technology and submitted in Department of Mechanical Engineering of National
Institute of Technology, Hamirpur (H.P.), is an authentic record of my own work
carried out under the supervision of Dr. Prashant Dhiman, Associate Professor,
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur
(H.P.).
The matter presented in this thesis has not been submitted by me anywhere for
the award of any other degree of this or any other institute.

(Sagar Mehta)
Roll No. 17M302
This is to certify that the above statement made by the candidate is correct to
the best of our knowledge.

Date: (Dr. Prashant Dhiman)

Supervisor

The M.Tech. Viva-Voce examination of Sagar Mehta (17M302), has been

held on_______________

Signature of Supervisor Signature of External Examiner

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to begin by thanking my supervisor Dr. Prashant Dhiman for his
guidance, supervision and support that provided me the trust and tools to create and
evolve throughout this project as academic. His valuable inputs and suggestions
helped me lot and kept me motivated throughout the duration of this course. He has
been a real mentor for me that provides his advices unconditionally.

I am also grateful to Prof. Sunand Kumar, Head Mechanical Engineering department,

NIT Hamirpur for assuring availability of required tools and facilities for the research.

I also express my thanks to other Research Scholars who are working in Mechanical
Engineering department, NIT Hamirpur for their advices and support from the
commencement of my course of study.

I am also very much blissful to all the other staff members of the department, my
classmates and friends for the unconditional support and abet. Finally I want to thank
my loving family, specially my sister Ms Anjali and my girlfriend Ms Sonali who
always believed in me and kept me calm and motivated all time.

i
 ABSTRACT

Solar energy is one of the types of renewable source of energy which is cleaner in
application and has very less impact on environment. This energy coming from sun
has various applications and one of them is for solar water heaters. Various types of
solar collectors are used for different applications such as space heating, water heating
and cooling etc. However because of thermal losses and absorption characteristics of
fluid, the efficiency of collectors is limited. Since last many years instead of using
conventional fluids various other fluids which are basically the same as conventional
fluids but contains certain amount of suspension of metal or non-metal particles are
being used in solar collectors. These fluids with suspension of nano sizes particles are
well known as nanofluids. Various experimental and numerical studies have shown
that by suspension of these nano particles, thermal properties of base fluid are
enhanced significantly such as higher thermal conductivities than those of
conventional fluids; hence nanofluids are more suitable for heat transfer enhancement
applications.

This work presents the theoretical investigation of heat transfer enhancement of

collector which uses water-nickel based nanofluid as working fluid for water heating
applications. Different volume concentrations of nano particles changes in heat
transfer and collector efficiency. A numerical model for solar water heater having flat
plate collector has been developed on Ansys-Fluent and used to analyze the effect of
mass flow rate, volume concentration of nano particles, particle size, Reynolds
number etc. on its thermal performance such as collector efficiency.

Reasonable accord is achieved between the simulated results of present study and
results obtained by experiments for the collector using nanofluids charted in literature.
The maximum outlet temperature of fluid for FPCs is achieved 57°C, 60°C and 64°C
for NPC of 0.1%, 0.2% and 0.5% respectively for fixed amount of incident solar
radiation flux. Further increasing NPC above 1% has not increased heat transfer
significantly. Maximum thermal efficiency of 60.2% is achieved at mass flow rate of
2.3 ltr/minute which is higher than when only conventional fluid water is used in
collector.

ii
 Table of Contents

Page No.
Certificate
Acknowledgement i
Abstract ii
Table of Contents iii
List of Figures ν
List of Tables νi
List of abbreviation νii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Solar Water Heating Systems 2
1.2 Working Principle 3
1.2.1 Solar Water Heating Systems Based on Flat Plate Collector 3
1.2.1.1 Thermosiphon System 4
1.2.2 Solar Water Heating Systems Based on Evacuated Tube 5
Collector Base
1.3 Material of Construction of Solar Water Heaters 7
1.4 Selection of competent SWH system 7
1.5 Organisation of Report 8

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 9

2.1 Nanofluid history 9
2.2 Literature survey 10
2.3 Thermophysical Properties of Nanofluids 15
2.3.1 Thermal Conductivity Models 15
2.3.1.1 Static Models 16
2.3.1.2 Dynamic Models 16
2.3.2 Heat capacity of nanofluid 18
2.3.3 Density of Nanofluid 19
2.3.4 Viscosity of Nanofluid 19
2.3.5 Effect of Nanoparticle size on Thermophysical properties of NF 20

iii
2.4 Research Gap 20
2.5 Objectives of Present Study 21

CHAPTER 3: MODELLING AND ANALYSIS 22

3.1 Computational Analysis 22
3.1.1 FVM modelling in Ansys Fluent CFD tool 23
3.1.2 Physical Model 23
3.1.3 Assumptions 23
3.1.4 Governing equations and simulation strategy 24
3.2 Modelling for Nanofluid Thermophysical Properties 25
3.3 Materials Properties 26
3.4 Geometry and Mesh Configuration 27
3.4.1 Meshing 27
3.4.2 Specification of Design Conditions for the Solar Collector 29
3.5 Boundary Conditions 30
3.6 Simulation Methodology Ansys Fluent/ Flow diagram 30
3.7 Grid independence test 31

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 32

4.1 Thermophysical property variation with nanoparticle 32
concentration
4.1.1 Density and specific heat variation with nanoparticle 32
concentration
4.1.2 Thermal Conductivity Enhancement with addition of 33
nanoparticle concentration
4.1.3 Viscosity Variation of Nanofluid with Nanoparticle 34
Concentration

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE SCOPE OF STUDY 40

5.1 Conclusions 40
5.2 Future Scope 41

REFERENCES 42

iv
Appendix-І 47
List of Figures

Figure No. Title of Figure Page No.

1.1 Schematic diagram of solar flat plate collector 3
1.2 Thermosiphon system of solar water heating diagram 5

1.3 Evacuated tube solar collector systems 6

1.4 Evacuated tube collector schematic view 6

3.1 Flat plate collector geometry 27
3.2 Meshing of the Geometry 28
3.3 Ansys simulation flow diagram 30
3.4 Grid independence study Temperature rise of Nanofluid v/s 31
No. of mesh elements
4.1 Specific heat and density variation of nanofluid with NPC 32
4.2 Thermal Conductivity Enhancement with concentration of 33
nanoparticles
4.3 Viscosity Variation of Nanofluid with concentration of 34
Nanoparticles
4.4 Solar radiation intensity variations in a day 35
4.5 Collector efficiency variations with incident solar radiation 35
4.6 Collector Efficiency variations with mass flow rate 36
4.7 Temperature rise of Nanofluid with Solar Radiation in a 37
day
4.8 Temperature rise of Nanofluid with Mass Flow rate 37

4.9 Nanofluid outlet temperature variations with Reynolds 38

Number
4.10 Pressure drop nanofluid flow variations with Reynolds 38
number
4.11 Outlet temperature variations of different nanofluids with 39
nanoparticle concentration

v
 List of Tables

Table No. Title of Table Page No.

3.1 Thermophysical properties of base fluid (water) and 26
Nanoparticle (nickel)

3.2 Thermophysical properties of Nanofluid for varying 26

volume concentrations
3.3 Specification of Design Conditions for the Solar Collector 29
3.4 Grid independence study Temperature rise of Nanofluid v/s 31
No. of mesh elements

vi
 List of Abbreviations

NPC Nanoparticles concentration

FPC Flat plate collector
ETC Evacuated tube collector system
PV Photovoltaic
SWH Solar water heaters
PCM Phase Change Materials
MNRE Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
CFD Computational Fluid Dynamics
FVM Finite Volume Method
FEM Finite Element Method
E-L Eulerian-Lagrangian
NP Nanoparticles
Specific heat(J/Kg-K)
d Diameter of tube
k Thermal Conductivity( W/m-k)
l Length of tube
h Heat transfer coefficient(W/ -k)
Re Reynolds Number
T Temperature in Kelvin
q” Heat flux(W/ )
Nanofluid Thermal Conductivity( W/m-k)
Base fluid Thermal Conductivity( W/m-k)

Subscripts
nf “Nanofluid”
bf “Base fluid”
% Volume fraction of Nanoparticles

vii
Chapter 1
Introduction
Energy demand is accelerating day by day and it is anticipated to grow more in future
due to ongoing developmental projects in order to satisfy the needs of increasing
population. However reserves of fossil fuels and oils are depleting. Now climate
change and global environmental pollution have become serious problems for
upcoming future generation. Lack or decrease of resources has caused oil price hike.
Renewable energy is befitting more important in today’s world because of its
sustainability, safer and clean use. Therefore countries all around the world putting
large efforts in using solar thermal energy, one of the type of renewable energy as
solution to substitute oil as a source of energy.

Energy consumption in India is also amplifying at high rate. At present India is one of
the largest energy consumers in the world attributing for 4.4% of the overall energy
consuming capacity of world. Fast increasing GDP growth in country has been one of
the causes of an uncontrollable burden of country’s energy resources. For Ensuring
Energy security, due to our dependency on coal and crude oil, economic cost of
importing these products is matter of worry for India’s power sector. Hence there is
requirement that we need to diversify the sustainability of resources, increase research
and innovation to extract our domestic resources in viable manner and efficient supply
to customer. Hence the expansion of alternative energy sources has become widely
critical issue. Solar energy is considered to be one of the most propitious alternatives.

Currently there are two main types to employing solar energy: photovoltaic (PV)
which is used to produce electricity directly from sunlight and second one is solar
thermal energy which is employed for purpose of heating, drying and also for electric
power production. Concentrating sunlight as a heat energy in order to generate
electricity is best alternative to replacement of burning fuel used in thermal power
plants. A large chunk of energy utility is in form of low grade heat with temperature
less than the boiling point of water which is 100°C. Water heaters are important

1
appliances in many households now a day. It is evaluated that installing systems for
water heating at a home can alone cut energy consumption by as much as 30 to 40%.
In fact, most of the daily energy consumption around 20 to 25% is used just for
heating water for laundry, cleaning, cooking, shower or washing. A heating system
can also be utilised as heating a pool, radiant floor system and other applications that
require hot water for their application. The operation of heating water in such way
using solar energy will limit the carbon emissions by decreasing the use of fossil fuels,
thereby creating cleaner energy and thus it helps to reduce carbon footprints.

India is having solar energy in very large amount still 80 to 85% of people living in
urban area in western India consume electricity to heat water. This accounts for 20 to
25% energy utilisation, which results in large economic saddle to families and radiate
large amount of C . Kind of country in which more than 300 days are sunny shows
tremendous amount of waste of resources.

The world market for solar water heater has developed more rapidly in last decade. As
a result there has been competition and innovation creating large scale developments
and improved quality of products.

1.1 Solar Water Heating Systems

Solar thermal equipment collects and transfers the heat energy from solar radiation
incident on it which can be utilised for heating water in different temperature ranges.

Solar water heating system has mainly four components.

i. Solar collector system

ii. Insulated storage tank for hot water
iii. Cold water storage tank
iv. Pipelines and other accessories

For smaller systems whose capacity is 100 to 1000 litres per day, the hot water is
transported due to natural circulation but for high capacity systems above 1000 litres
per day, pump is used for circulation of water.

Based upon daily consumption suitable arrangement is applied for water heating
purposes.

2
1.2 Working Principle
Solar water heater consists of collector which receives solar energy on absorber panel.
Water gaining heat from incident solar radiation gets heated up and hot water having
lower density move upward due to natural convection currents and cold water with
high density is moving down due to gravity. Recirculation of same water in collector
through absorber plate raises the temperature of water. Numbers of collectors are
placed in different arrangement in order to get higher quantity and high outlet
temperature of water.

Based on variety of collectors SWH is of two types:

1.2.1 Solar Water Heating Systems Based on Flat Plate Collector

The radiation coming from sun is absorbed by flat plat collector which is made up of
an insulated outside metal box which has covering of glass sheet attached on the top
of it. Inside the collector there is black metallic plate called absorber which has
passage for flowing of fluid. The passages are in form of channels or pipes/tubes of
highly thermal conductive material such as copper. The absorber after receiving heat
from glass sheet then in turn heats up water flowing inside the tubes. There are many
BIS approved manufactures in market.

Figure 1.1 Schematic diagram of solar flat plate collector

3
FPCs have been made in multiple numbers of designs by using different materials.
These are widely used to provide heat to number of fluids such as water, air and
antifreeze substances in water etc. The main purpose is to absorb maximum amount of
solar radiation at minimum cost. The collectors used for water heating systems should
have long life Inspite of challenges of corrosion, alkalinity, freezing of working fluid,
deposition of dust, thermal expansion and other cause.

An effective solar collector must absorb incident solar radiation and then transfer heat
from solar radiation to the fluid with minimal losses. Absorbers used in system have
two different layers of varying optical properties. Coating of dielectric which is
having high solar Absorptivity and transmissivity is done on top of the layer.

For heating of working fluid, passages are provided as an integral part of absorber
plate or directly attached to the absorber plate. The challenge is to select effective
material for absorber and tube in such a way that there is very good thermal bond
between these two that will offer low resistance to heat transfer. Hence materials
which are used generally for absorber plate are copper, aluminium and stainless steel.
Thermal cements, clamps, clips and twisted wire are low cost bonding materials.
Minimisation of heat transfer losses from the absorber plate can be achieved by
specific surface in order to cut radiative heat losses or minimising convective heat
transfer losses and for this, honeycomb material is place between absorber and
glazing.

FPCs are most widely used collectors and generally used for low temperature
applications up to 100°C. With the application of selective coatings, maximum
temperature of FPCs can be achieved up to 200°C but efficiency of low temperature
collectors are comparatively higher.

Thermosiphon System

This system is based on hot water rising due to density differences of fluid, this
phenomena is known as natural convection in which water is circulated between tank
and collector. In this arrangement tank is placed above the collector. Water in
collector gains heat from incident solar radiation and gets heated, it becomes lighter
and rises above naturally in tank.

4
The transfer of fluid between tank and FPC is due to gravity. Rather than using pump,
difference in pressure between hot fluid and cold fluid is causing factor for fluid flow
in system.

Figure 1.2 Thermosiphon solar water heating system

1.2.2 Solar Water Heating Systems Based on Evacuated Tube

Collector Base

When weather is warm and sunny then FPCs are most capable for lower temperature
applications but during cold, foggy or cloudy season the ETCs are more suitable
selection for use. ETCs can be operated at higher temperatures than Flat Plate
Collector at any place. The efficiency and performance is higher of ETC at lower
incidence angle.

Efficiency of ETCs can be raised using Phase Change Materials (PCM). Since there is
no possibility of phase change of materials below phase change temperatures thus
evaporation and freezing is avoided in heat pipe. The temperature limiting capability
is governed by system itself makes unique property of ETCs.

ETCs consist of twin layers of borosilicate glass tubes which are evacuated for
ensuring material insulation. The outer wall of inside tube is coated with specific
absorbing material. This material absorbs incoming solar radiation and transfers the

5
maximum amount of heat to water which is flowing inside the tubes. There are many
MNRE approved ETC solar water heater suppliers across the country.

The recent type of collectors are developed is compound integrated collector of shape
of parabolic in which the reflective material is used at bottom end of a glass tube. In
recent design of ETCs two glass tubes are placed concentric to each other used and
space in between them is evacuated. The upper hand of this design is that whole
assembly is made up of glass and it is not mandatory to access glass covering for
extracting the radiative heat from a tube itself thus losses are minimised and it is
cheaper than single covering glass arrangement.

Figure 1.3 Evacuated tube solar collector systems

Figure 1.4 Evacuated tube type collector schematic view

6
Depending upon temperature operating range solar collectors is classified into three
types:

i. Low temperature collector (T<100°C) - Flat plate collector

ii. Medium Temperature Collectors (T-400°C) - Parabolic trough and Fresnel
collectors
iii. High Temperature Collector (T>400°C) - Dish collector and power tower

1.3 Material of Construction of Solar Water Heaters

The Absorber: It is made of variety of materials. Most common among all of them is
copper while sometimes mild steel and stainless steel is also used. Absorber material
should have good Absorptivity and corrosion resistance. Sandwich type absorbers are
widely used and formed by pressing two sheets.

Absorber coatings: Black paints are most widely used for this purpose. Selective
surfaces have high Absorptivity more than 0.9 are preferred.

Collector Cover: Most commonly transparent cover material used is common glass.

Collector Insulation: To prevent heat losses from collector surfaces such as bottom
and sides, insulation is provided by materials such as glass wool, mineral wool or
polyurethane.

Collector Frame: It provides stiffness to whole assembly and holds transparent cover,
absorber and insulation. Commonly used materials are steel and aluminium.

Headers and manifolds: It provides discharge and intake of fluid. These are made up
of copper or stainless steel.

1.4 Selection of Competent SWH System

i. Flat plate collectors have more life as compared to ETC because they are made
up of metallic assembly but ETCs are made from glass hence delicate in
nature.
ii. ETCs are best suited in colder conditions and prevent freezing problems and
these are 10% to 15% cheaper than FPCs. FPCs can also be used in colder
conditions but anti freezing solutions must be added to fluid thus increases cost

7
 of FPCs. Hence solar water heater used for particular application must use type
of collector system accordingly.
iii. Effectiveness of system can be improved via altering some design parameters.
Depending upon consumption per day, location, climatic conditions capacity is
calculated and appropriate SWH system is used.

1.5 Organisation of Report

Chapter 1 contains the introduction of solar water heaters, their working principle, and
types of collectors systems for SWH, material of construction and nanofluids
application in solar water heating system.

Chapter 2 is mainly focused to comprehensive literature survey on the topic namely

Thermal performance analysis of nickel water based FPC system used for water
heating purposes. The literature survey also includes detailed study of nanofluid
properties obtained by various experimental and theoretical models and
Computational fluid dynamic analysis of collectors system using nanofluid for water
heating system.

Chapter 3 includes modelling of flat plate collector system used for solar water
heating purposes using Ansys Fluent CFD software. It contains geometry and meshing
of collector system and basic governing equations of momentum, mass and energy for
computational work.

Chapter 4 represents the variations of mass flow rate, nanoparticle concentration, solar
radiation intensity and pressure loss, Reynolds number with constant and variable heat
flux in a day on collector efficiency and heat transfer enhancement and temperature
rise of nanofluid. It also includes grid independence test which give idea about
optimum grid size for better computational analysis and optimum time required for
calculation.

Chapter 5 contains the results obtained from the analysis, discussions on results and
future scope of the study.

8
Chapter 2

Literature Review

2.1 Nanofluid History

First time the nanofluid concept was given by Researchers of Argonne National
Laboratory in 1995 and they referred these fluids to new class of heat transfer
mediums obtained by mixing nano sized metallic as well as non-metallic in base fluids
such as water, ethyl glycol etc. Various studies and researches have been done while
using nanofluids as a heat transporting fluids and it has been concluded that nanofluid
thermal conductivity is higher than normal conventional fluids thus in turn they have
high possibility for efficient heat transfer. Since the size of particles is small such as
10-30 nm they cause very less wear but enhances heat rate significantly. Many efforts
are still going on in various applications of nanofluids in industries like
microelectronic, nuclear, automobile, aerospace and renewable energy etc in order to
increase the system efficiency.

Nanofluids have many advantages while using it in many areas where heat transfer
improvement is primary objective. In Recent decade, numerous researches claimed
these fluids to be next generation fluids because of their improved thermal properties
for high transfer of heat. There are following reasons that contribute to heat transfer
enhancement while using nanofluids over conventional fluids.

i. Nano particles added into base fluids hence larger effective surface area of NP
for heat transfer, thus amount of heat transported is improved for giver space
occupied by equipment.
ii. Addition of Nano particles causes reduction in heat capacity of fluid because
of improved thermal conductivity of fluid.
iii. NPs in the base fluid cause turbulence while in action improves heat transfer
rate.

9
 iv. Brownian motion of NPs also contributes to heat transfer enhancement.
v. The conductivity of Nano fluid is increased and it varies with Nano particles
concentration.

The above mentioned potentials regards to nanofluid have created inquisitiveness in

the research in this field. Hence Application of nanofluids in the areas like
automobile, solar energy based equipments, aerospace, bio-medical, electronic
industry etc. has been increased along with technological advancements.

2.2 Literature Survey

Numerous researches have been done for calculating thermal performance of
Nanofluids in solar water heater through experiential and numerical methods by
scholars. Many research papers have been published regarding their work.
Researchers applied many preparation methods to make nanofluids, to study their
characteristics and gave models to predict thermophysical properties of nanofluids.

Liu and Jordan et al. [1] stated that while designing the flat plate collector it is very
important to consider long term performance of the collectors over the instantaneous
rate of energy collection. A method was employed to find out long term performance
of collectors at various tilt angles and at locations. This is the simplified way of
calculating the performance of flat plate collector without undergoing deep analysis.
Two most important parameters were used for these methods are average clearness
index and difference between the ambient air temperature and inlet temperature of
water inside flat plate collector.

Xie et al. [2] did experimental work to find maximum conductivity improvement for
optimum size of NPs mixed in base fluid and observed that adding Cu nano particles
in base fluid water played a dominating role in improvement of conductivity of water.
It was also concluded that with volume concentration of 0.5% of graphene nanofluid
conductivity increased by 7%-8%.

Viskanta and Siebers et al. [3] observed that performance of FPCs varies with change
in flow rate and concluded that flat plat collector operating for constant outlet
temperature are more economical than others. The efficiency of proposed collector
having constant outlet temperature is higher for same amount of radiation falling on it

10
but at the same time cost of maintaining the constant temperature increases which can
be compromised with the advantages that it have.

Cooper et al. [4] experimentally concluded the variation of heat loss with different
inclination angle of flat plate collectors. Heat loss from top surface is generally due to
wind speed, plate inclination, ambient air temperature, plate Absorptivity and
transmissivity. In his results he showed that if flat plate collectors are installed at an
inclination angle below 55° the plate and absorption temperature variation is very less
and not affected as such by heat transfer loss coefficient.

Chiou et al. [5] in his work represented the effect of non-uniform flow distribution on
the performance of flat plate collectors. Numerical analysis revealed that due to
deviating flow distribution efficiency of the system hampered by around 20% or more
than 20% in some other cases.

Lightstone and Hollands et al. [6] in their work published that low flow rate systems
have delivered around 18%-25% higher temperature rise than that of high flow rate
systems. They also concluded that low flow rate systems are more economical as well
as more effective and 34% improvement in performance is achieved with low flow
rate collector systems. In addition low flow rate collector has advantages of handling
and cleaning easily and allows substantial savings in overall cost.

Enibe et al. [7] designed and fabricated the solar heating system and performed
experiments on it then analysed based on its performance. The whole system was
made up of a glazed plate collector using phase change material (PCM). In his
experimental study data for number of parameters was collected and varied in between
the range of 20°C-55°C. The efficiency of the system was found to reach up to 56%
for maximum incident solar radiation.

Choi et al. [8] , Masuda et al. [9] and Lee et al. [10] in their work shown that solid
particles of metals and non-metals can be broken into such small size that they can be
suspended in fluids more effectively. Hence idea of nano particle suspension came up
with more advancement. Nano particle suspension in base fluid is called nano fluids
which can be used for various applications. Nano particles of various materials such as
metallic oxides ( , ), Ceramics, metals (Al, Cu, Ti, Si, Mg etc) has
been used to make nanofluid.

11
Wang et al. [11] in his study found properties of Nano fluids thermal conductivity and
flow resistance such as viscosity. In the study it was represented that conductivity and
resistance to flow of nanofluid increased on adding NPC. Smaller sized particles had
shown more heat transfer enhancement than larger sized particles. It was observed that
nanoparticle concentration, particle size and shape, operating temperature, stability of
NPs in base fluid altogether have countable effect on thermal properties of nanofluid
as well heat transfer enhancement. In his study he compared calculated properties of
nanofluids with his experimental results and also shown the effect of change in
temperature on nanoparticles stability in base fluid.

Lee et al. [12] gave method to calculate thermophysical properties of and CuO
particles mixed in ethylene glycol and water. The conductivity of nano fluid was
calculated by experimental work and concluded that conductivity of nanofluids is
more than base fluids but observed that specific heat of nanofluid is reduced.

Choi and Eastman et al. [13] in their work shown that and CuO based nano
fluids increased conductive mode of heat transfer by 22% for volume concentration of
2.5% and particle size of 30 nm.

Xuan and Li et al.[14] in their study shown that particles of size smaller than 10 nm
have higher stability in base fluid than particles greater than 10 nm size. They also
concluded that adding in small quantity of laurite salt in base fluid had increased
dispersion capability of NPs in the base fluid and enhanced conductivity.

Das et al. [15] concluded in his study that there is enhancement of effective
conductivity of CuO nanofluid for range of temperature variation from 15°C to 54°C.
The effective conductivity of Ethylene glycol water mixture based nanofluids was
calculated for varying temperature range with change in volume fractions of NPs in
base fluid.

Masuda et al. [16] reported from his work that thermal conductivities of ,
nanoparticles suspended in water based nanofluid is 31% and 11% higher for NPC
4.2% respectively than that of base fluid.

Anoop et al. [17] prepared water based nanofluid in which particle size of
nanoparticles was 40 nm- 90nm. The results obtained shown heat transfer
enhancement for smaller size particle was higher and stability in base fluid was also

12
better. In his work he emphasized on nanoparticles size variation effect on thermal
properties of nanofluid.

Murshed et al. [18] reported the mixing of spherical and cylindrical nanoparticles of
suspended in water has obtained conductivity improvement of 30% and 32% for
volume concentration of 3% and 3.6% respectively.

Zhou and Gao et al. [19] reported theory of differential medium to calculate effective
conductivity of nanofluid. They from their work concluded that when nanoparticles
shape is going away from spherical shape then thermal conductivities of nanofluid is
increased but stability of NPs in fluid becomes an issue.

Boungiorno et al. [20] did exercise to measure thermal conductivity of nanofluid by

matching samples from around thirty organisations worldwide using experimental
methods such as optical, hot wire and steady state analysis. He considered that
nanofluid has both the aqueous and non aqueous solutions of metal oxide
nanoparticles and different shape of nanoparticles suspended in base fluid for varying
NPC. He collected the data for all nano fluids and found that results were varying
within the range of 5%-15% deviation. Thermal conductivities of nano fluids
increased in proportion to nanoparticles concentration. In his work he observed that
results from his experimental work were consistent with the results obtained by
Maxwell’s effective medium theory. He did not consider the effect of temperature and
used low NPC for his study.

Zhu et al. [21] predicted the variation of PH values on the conductivities of

water based nanofluid. He observed that the properties of nanofluid were very much
sensitive to PH of the base fluid hence he added some chemical dispersant to maintain
the PH level of nanofluid in considerable limits. Addition of chemical dispersant
improved the conductivity of nanofluid by 10%-12% for 0.25% NPC.

Sundar et al. [22] concluded that the conductivity of nanofluids is function of

nanoparticles volume fraction and temperature. Results obtained from experiments
shown that conductivity of water based nanofluid is increased by 30%-35% for
nanoparticles concentration up to 2% at 55°C temperature of base fluid.

Wen et al. [23] in his study predicted the conductivity for water based
nanofluids. He added stabilizers in base fluid and concluded that variation in thermo

13
physical properties of nano fluids is low as compared to when stabilizers were not
added. In his experimental work he also concluded that adding nanoparticles above
certain limit in base fluid caused separated phase after few hours of operation. For
water based nanofluids nanoparticles were completely separated for 2.3%
nanoparticles concentration.

Das and Vajjha et al. [24] reported in his experimental work and found thermal
conductivities of , CuO based Nano fluid in which is base fluid is the
combination of water and ethylene glycol. He used 3 to-6% volumetric concentration
with range of temperature varies from 300 K-355 K for nanofluids and observed that
the conductivity of such nanofluids is increased by 20 to24%.

Otanicar et al. [25] published his work on direct absorption solar FPCs using
nanofluids. The effective conductivity of nanofluid is increased by 20 to 25% for
nanoparticles concentration of 0.5 to 2%. Efficiency of flat plate collector is improved
up to 10% for given solar radiation.

Ghoneim et al. [26] reported the effect of forced and natural convective mode of heat
transfer losses on solar flat plate collector efficiency. Air at the bottom and top of flat
plate collector offers resistance to heat transfer hence reduces collector efficiency.
Calculation of bottom and top heat transfer loss coefficient done for both forced and
natural convection and it was found that for optimum thickness of 3 mm layer of air
offers less resistance to heat transfer flow and loss coefficients are optimized.

Sughanti et al. [27] in his study, experimentally found heat transfer enhancement for
ZnO particles suspended in water. Results from his work showed that for temperature
below 38°C there is no direct interaction between particles, viscosity of nano fluid is
increased by 7%-8%. Efficiency of system using nanofluid particle concentration up
to 2.7% found to be maximum and above it efficiency at the cost of pumping power
and flow resistance is compromised.

Goudarzi et al. [28] reported through his experimental work that efficiency of FPCs is
increased for CuO nanoparticles suspended in water because of random fluctuating
motion of NPs in base fluid. The random fluctuating motion of NPs is also known as
Brownian motion.

14
Yousefi et al. [29] analysed the performance of solar direct absorption system using
water based nanofluid and concluded that efficiency of flat plate collectors is
increased because of increment in concentration of NPs in the base fluid. As size of
nanoparticles increases the rate of heat transfer is reduced. The effective conductivity
of nanofluid is raised up to 4%-9% for 0.2%-0.4% volume fraction of nanoparticles.

Reddy and Rao et al. [30] evaluated the thermal conductivities of three kinds of
nanofluids using different combinations of water, ethylene glycol and Ti .

a) First nanoparticles suspended in water

b) Second Nanoparticles mixed in combination of water and ethylene
c) Third Nanoparticles mixed in ethylene glycol.

Maximum improvement in conductivity is obtained for water-Ti nanofluid.

Nanofluid in which base fluid is the mixture of water and ethylene glycol added in
60%-40% ratio showed that effective conductivity is increased sharply for
nanoparticles concentration of 0.2%-1.5% and above this NPC conductivity
improvement is not significant. NPs in ethylene glycol showed least improvement in
conductivity among three combinations. Stability of NPs in water is noticed to be
highest.

2.2 Thermophysical Properties of Nanofluids

2.2.1 Thermal Conductivity Models

As Thermal conductivity of nano fluids is higher than base fluid, various

mathematical models were given by researchers to find out effective conductivities of
nano fluids. Many researchers in their work shown that there is abnormal rise in
effective thermal conductivities of nano fluids but at the same time some also have
reported normal increment in thermal conductivity by average effective theory.
Results obtained by some of the models were close to the results obtained by
experimental work but still there need to be more research work regarding this to
understand exactly the abnormal increment in thermal conductivity of nano fluids.
Available models can be categorised in two ways of static and dynamic.

15
2.2.1.1 Static Models

These models include shape, size, nanoparticle concentration and their stability by
presuming diffusive mode of the heat transfer in both of the phases of solid NPs and
liquid base fluids.

2.2.1.2 Dynamic Models

In static model mobility of nanoparticles is not considerable factor for calculation of

effective thermal properties of nanofluid but in dynamic models nanoparticle
movement is taken into consideration. It is concluded that additional improvement in
effective conductivity of nanofluid is contributed by random motion of nanoparticles.

Here some famous models postulated by researchers to calculate effective

conductivity of nanofluid explained below.

Maxwell et al. [31] Model was the very first model to calculate the conductivities of
nano fluids. He considered dispersion of small sized spherical shape particles while
discarding interactions of nanoparticles. Considering whole those spherical particles
having thermal conductivity and suspended in base fluid of conductivity with
NPs concentration of % the effective conductivity of nanofluids is calculated by
Maxwell’s equation as follows:

( )
(2.1)
( )

Bruggemen et al. [32] reported a model to estimate conductivity of Nano fluids

considering wide concentration range for homogenous mixture of nanoparticles of
spherical shape to study random motion and distribution of Nanoparticles mixed in
base fluids. Results obtained from this model are closer to Maxwell’s model for low
concentration of nanoparticles up to 1.5% but for higher concentration of
nanoparticles both the models mentioned above shows different results. For higher
concentration of nanoparticles Bruggemen model shows more consistency with
experimental results.

Bruggemen postulated his model to calculate effective conductivity of nanofluids is as

follows

16
 [( ) ( ) ] √ (2.2)

[( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )] (2.3)

This method considered effective thermal conductivity including statistic part and
Brownian motions and made assumption of homogenous binary mixture and
interaction among random distribution of particles.

After the Maxwell and Bruggemen gave models to calculate the effective conductivity
of nanofluids, Hamilton and Crosser et al. [33] gave model to calculate the
conductivity of nanofluids. They modified the Maxwell equation with introduction of
shape parameter. They also modified the model in such a way that effect of many
parameters such a nanoparticle shape and combination of discontinues and continuous
phase can be incorporated in equation. This model was more consistent with the
results derived from experiments for low and high volume concentrations of
nanoparticles in nanofluid.

Effective conductivity calculated by Hamilton and Crosser model from the equation
below

( ) ( ) ( )
(2.4)
( ) ( )

Where

In which, n is the shape factor for size of NPs and is the sphericity defined as ratio
of the surface area of a sphere (for same volume of NP) to the particle. The sphericity
for the sphere and cylinder shapes of NPs is 1 and 0.5 respectively.

Yu and Choi et al. [34] gave their model to calculate thermal conductivity of
nanofluids including that molecules of base fluid interacting with solid nanoparticles
have layer type structure. This layer is very thin but affects the effective thermal
conductivity.

[ ( ) ( ) ( )]
(2.5)
( ) ( ) ( )

17
Where is ratio of the conductivity of layer to the conductivity of Nano particle and
is the ratio of layer thickness to the radius of particle. The effective conductivity of
Nanofluid is calculated by

( )( )
(2.6)
( )( )

2.2.2 Specific Heat Capacity of Nanofluid

It is the amount of energy required to hike temperature of object by single unit. Heat
capacity of nanofluid is considered in energy equation hence it is very important to
calculate it correctly in order to have exact analysis of thermal performance of
nanofluid

Pak and Cho et al. [35] gave equation after their study to calculate specific heat of
nanofluid which is

( ) (2.7)

Xuan and Roetzl et al. [36] considering thermal equilibrium between two phases also
gave equation to calculate heat capacity of nanofluid is

( ) ( ) ( )( ) (2.8)

These two models show good consistency with experimental results.

Following observations are made by the researchers concluding their investigations on

calculating the specific heat of nanofluids are

i. The specific heat of nanofluid is lesser than that of base fluids because of
higher conductivity of NPs as compare to fluids.
ii. With increase in NPC the specific heat of nanofluid is reduced.
iii. Specific heat of nanofluid does vary insignificantly with the variation of
temperature.
iv. Nanoparticle size variation for given concentration of NPs also attributes to
change in specific heat by very small value because of very high heat capacity
of fluid.

18
2.2.3 Density of Nanofluid

It is defined as mass per unit volume and the thermo physical properties of fluid
placed in energy and momentum equations. Heat transfer applications where free
convection is in picture there is very important role of buoyancy force and density
difference of fluid on performance of system. Increase in density difference of
nanofluid causes increase in natural convection phenomena hence affecting the heat
transfer performance. Density of nanofluid is function of temperature.

Density of solid particles added in the fluid is more than that of fluid. So when volume
fraction of NPs in base fluid is higher then density of nanofluid is also higher.
Nanofluid density can be calculated by mixture theory is given by

( ) (2.9)

Based on available literature following observations can be made about nanofluid

density variation are

i. Density of nanofluid is more than base fluid.

ii. With increasing concentration of NPs, density of nanofluid rises due to high
density of NPs.
iii. Nanofluid density decreases with increment of temperature because of base
fluid molecules have lower intermolecular forces in between them and overall
density variation of nanofluid mainly depends upon the property of base fluid.

2.2.4 Viscosity of Nanofluid

From Earliest studies for calculating the viscosity of nanofluid it has been observed
that all the theoretical equations that are available to calculate the viscosity are derived
from Einstein’s research paper based on the acceptance that diluted linear viscous
fluid contains spherical particles of nanoparticles. Applying hydrodynamic equations
of phenomenon, the viscosity of spherical particle–containing nanofluid was
calculated for the first time by Einstein et al. [37]. The equation is represented in
relation to the particle movements in the surrounding fluid is given by

( ) (2.10)

19
After this, the extended Einstein equation for medium concentration was proposed by
Brinkman et al. [38] in his study is

(2.11)
( )

Batchelor et al. [39] in his work included the effect of the Brownian random motion
on the bulk motion of spherical particle–contained suspension in nanofluid and
proposed the following equation:

( ) (2.12)

2.2.5 Effect of Nanoparticle Size on Thermophysical Properties of

Nanofluid

Xie et al. [40] in his work prepared the SiC based nanofluid taking particle size of 25-
400nm for determining the effect of particle size on effective conductivity of
nanofluid.

Kim et al. [41] in his study represented the change in thermal conductivity of Al, Zn
and Ti based nanofluid using water and ethylene glycol as base fluids at volume
concentration of NPs up to 3%. He showed in his work that maximum effective
conductivity of nanofluids is achieved by adding 25-60nm sized particles in base
fluid.

Teng et al. [42] in his publication represented the effect of particle size, NPC and
temperature on conductivity of water based nanofluid.

Wang et al. [43] in his research concluded that specific heat capacity of nanofluid is
lowered at constant volume concentration of nanoparticles by using very small size
particles.

From various researches it can be said that the conductivity rises and specific heat
reduces with decrease in size of nanoparticles mixed in base fluid.

2.3 Research Gap

After studying, analysing and doing extensive review on previously published work
discussed above in literature review following observations can be made are that there

20
are various published works on different nanofluids used for multiple applications but
there arises need to do lot more research in the area of application of nanofluid in solar
water heaters. Nanofluids in SWH do the job of the heat transfer enhancement in
system due to improved thermo physical properties of nanofluids.

Till now various research papers are published for different kind of nanofluids using
Si, Ti, Cu, Mg, Al, Zn and as nanoparticles with base fluid water for
application in solar water heating but there is very less information available in
literature regarding Ni-water based nanofluid application. The Ni-water based
nanofluid application in solar water heater using flat/evacuated collector system has
not been explored yet hence this study attempts to analyze the effective performance
of SWH using FPCs for Ni-water based nanofluid.

2.4 Objectives of Present Study

Nanoparticles suspension in the working fluid has wide application in the area of heat
transfer improvement. Nanofluids are used in various industrial applications.
Literature reveals extensive research on solar water heater but limited work has been
reported on the performance of SWH using Ni-water as nanofluid.

The motive of this work is to

i. Analyze the thermal performance and heat transfer improvement of Ni-water

based nanofluid numerically for flat plat collector geometry to serve the
purpose of water heating with the help of CFD tool using ANSYS FLUENT
software.
ii. To study effect of variation of NPC in base fluid on thermo-physical properties
of nanofluids, collector efficiency and enhancement in heat transfer.

21
Chapter 3

Modelling and Analysis

Understanding the behaviour of flow, particle behaviour near the vicinity of wall of
tube, particle motion is vital for future application of nanofluid as potential heat
transfer medium. One way to study this entire phenomenon is experimental study and
other way is numerical simulation without undergoing any kind of experiment.
Computation simulation is one of the powerful techniques to predict output of a
system without any experiment with the help of available modelling software.

Computer simulation includes formation of model i.e. creating geometry, generating

mesh, applying boundary conditions and then gets the simulation results. Governing
equations such as conservation of mass, momentum and energy are solved
numerically for each and every node points in generated mesh. Finally validation of
output results is carried out by comparing with experimental/analytical results.

3.1 Computational Analysis

The purpose is this research is to find out thermal performance of FPCs using Ni-
water nanofluid for water heating applications. In order to do this investigation for
different volume concentration of nanoparticles CFD tool Ansys Fluent is used. The
simulation process in the software includes three steps as follows

(i) Pre-Processing- Development of geometry and generation of mesh

(ii) Analysis- Defining Boundary Conditions

(iii) Post- Processing- Analysis of obtained results

Ansys 19.2 finite element program is used for analysing the thermal performance of
system. The equations of flow are solved using Ansys Fluid flow FLUENT tool.
Fluent is integrated post processing tool for CFD analysis.

22
3.1.1 FVM Modelling in Ansys Fluent CFD tool

When user goes for the CFD simulation, it simply means that fluid dynamics
simulation by finite volume method. It is important to note that one can solve CFD
simulations using Finite Element method but FVM is more common. Almost all
popular commercial software tools such as Fluent use FVM as their solving
procedure.

FVM method is useful to solve algebraic form of partial differential equations for
simulation. FVM considers small tiny region of volume and this region is called as
mesh/node. The governing equations of flow are applied and solved numerically at
each node defined in ANSYS mesh. In the present research the Ansys Fluent uses
nanofluid of different NPCs flowing through flat plate collector inside the tubes,
hence governing equations are now used for nanofluid.

3.1.2 Physical Model

In this research study model of viscous laminar flow is employed in order to do

analysis because for the fluid flow Reynolds number being less than 2000 but if fluid
velocity is increased and Reynolds number is greater than 2000 than k-€ model is used
for simulation in Ansys Fluent for analysis.

In present study Eulerian-Lagrangian method is employed for simulation. The E-L

method is applied to trace the flow behaviour of each individual stream of
nanoparticles. In modelling interaction of solid nanoparticles and fluid is taken into
consideration and this is incorporated by using two way coupling in simulation itself
which counts the effect of particle motion on drag. Solid phase exchange the mass and
momentum with the liquid phase and dispersion is also taken into account by
stochastic model.

3.1.3 Assumptions

For analyzing the performance of FPC system using Ni-water nanofluid with the help
CFD tool Ansys Fluent, following assumptions are made

i. Flow is 2-D pipe flow and steady.

23
 ii. The random motion of nanoparticles is considered to be incompressible in
their liquidus state along with base fluid.
iii. Flow is assumed to be laminar, Newtonian.
iv. Thermal and physical properties of nanofluid such as density, thermal
conductivity, viscosity, specific heat etc vary in piecewise linear manner.
v. Viscous heat generation is neglected.
vi. Volume expansion of material is also neglected.
vii. Internal heat generation source is absent.

3.1.4 Governing Equations and Simulation Strategy

The CFD commercial tool Ansys Fluent is employed to perform the simulations. The
simulation is based on Finite Volume method for solving governing differential
equations with solver coupled with it. For discretization of governing differential
equations is done by second order upwind scheme.

The fundamental equations of mass, momentum and energy conservation are solved in
order to find the parameters like temperature, density, viscosity and flow behaviour of
fluid hence simulation is done in CFD modelling. The governing equations are as
follows:

Continuity Equation

(3.1)

For Steady flow

=0

(3.2)

Momentum Equation

∫ =∑ (3.3)

24
X-momentum equation

( ) ( ) (3.4)

Energy Equation

ρ ( ) ( ) (3.5)

3.2 Modelling for Nanofluid Thermophysical properties

Right now to calculate thermal conductivity of nanofluid numerous theoretical models

are available but none of the model is unique. Based on some experimental work there
are many semi empirical relations are developed for predication of apparent thermal
conductivity. Results obtained from these relations give closer approximation to
results obtained by experimental study.

The rise in effective conductivity of nanofluid is due to various factors such as NPC,
size and shape of NPs, properties of fluid, effective surface area, Brownian random
motion NPs and temperature etc.

There are two famous models to calculate the conductivity of nanofluids. First one is
Maxwell’s model which gives good results at low concentration and second one is
Hamilton and Crosser model which shows closer approximation with experimental
results at low and high volume concentration of particles.

Maxwell’s Model

( )
(3.6)
( )

By Hamilton and crosser Model

( ) ( ) ( )
(3.7)
( ) ( )

From literature study mentioned above

Specific heat of nanofluids is given by

25
( ) ( ) ( )( ) (3.8)

Dynamic viscosity of nanofluid is calculated by

( ) (3.9)

Density of nanofluid is given by

( ) (3.10)

3.3 Materials Properties

Table No. 3.1 Thermophysical properties of base fluid (water) and Nanoparticle
(Nickel) [44]

Thermal Specific Viscosity

Density
Phase/Nanoparticles Conductivity heat Pa-Sec
kg/
W/m-k J/kg-K At

Water at 0.608 4182 997.1 0.0008905

Nickel 90.9 445 8908 -

Table No. 3.2 Calculated Thermophysical properties of Nanofluid (Ni-Water) for

different volume fraction of NPs

Nanofluid
Thermal
(Nanoparticle Specific heat Density
Conductivity
concentration J/kg-K kg/
W/m-k
volume %)
0.1 0.6097 4148.5 1005.6

0.2 0.6101 4116.4 1011.7

0.5 0.6169 4021.6 1036.4
1.0 0.6199 3872.9 1076.8
1.25 0.6243 3082.05 1095.7
1.5 0.6389 3734.2 1115.8
2.0 0.6481 3605.7 1155.6

26
3.4 Geometry and Mesh Configuration
First of all 3D model of solar flat plate collector is made in Ansys workbench software
version 19.2 using design modular geometry and Ansys tool.

Figure 3.1Flat plate collector geometry

3.4.1 Meshing

Unstructured quadrilateral/triangle shape mesh is processed using Ansys fluent

meshing tool. One of the main objectives of simulation is to find out flow behaviour
of nanoparticles near the tube wall. Hence fine meshing is done near the wall and
coarse meshing is done near the centreline area. However during computation it was

27
kept in mind that meshing is not very fine such that computational efforts required
will be optimum.

Figure 3.2 Meshing of the Geometry

28
Table No. 3.3 Specification of Design Conditions for the Solar Collector [45]

Collector area/ Absorber area 1 m2=10000cm2

Rectangular shape 50cm 200cm

Cover (flat glass) 6 mm

Absorber plate thickness(copper) 3 mm

Transmissivity of the cover 0.85 – 0.9

Absorptivity of Absorber plate 0.90-0.95

Emissivity of Absorber plate (Etched copper) 0.92

Number of tubes 6

Tube Diameter outside 6 cm

Tube thickness 3 mm

Tube inside diameter 5.4 cm

Thickness of the back insulation 2 cm

Thickness of the side insulation 1.5 cm

Thermal conductivity of insulating material (glass- 0.04 W/m-K

wool)
Thermal conductivity of copper 385 W/m-K

Clearance between tubes 2 cm

Clearance between tube and side walls 2 cm

Depth of assembly excluding insulation 10 cm

Inclination of collector from UNDP and MNRE 30 -35 from horizontal

date handbook

Solar water heater capacity 60-70 Litres per day

Expected minimum temperature of heated water 60-70oC

29
3.5 Boundary Conditions
In this Ansys simulation flow rate with different inlet temperature was introduced and
at outlet, pressure condition is carried by software. One of the boundary condition is
velocity at inlet. Nanofluid is working fluid flowing in collector tubes and during the
flow of working fluid, at wall no slip condition is applied.

Flat plate collector bottom and side walls considered to be insulated by suitable
material such as glass wool. At the top of FPC solar radiation flux is applied to find
out variations of thermal performance of system. Based upon longitude and latitude
position, amount of heat flux is applied at top of the FPC which consists of transparent
glass cover with absorber plate. Convergence order of is used for all the
variables for getting the accuracy of results. Different contours are obtained after
optimum number of iterations.

3.6 Simulation Methodology Ansys Fluent/ Flow diagram

Geometry Model

Material

Meshing Cell zone

condition
Boundary
condition
Solution setup
Solution Method

Solution Control
Solution

Monitors

Results Solution Initialization

Figure 3.3 Ansys simulation flow diagram

30
3.7 Grid Independence Test
To get the final stable solution for optimum computation effort, grid independence test
study is conducted in order to find optimum number of elements/nodes required. In
the present research work temperature of water at outlet of flat plate collector is
calculated for different number of meshed elements of geometry.

The point where even after refining the mesh results remain almost same, at that point
the solution is said be stabilised or converged. The number of mesh element at that
point is the optimum number of mesh element for our study optimising the
computational effort.

Table No. 3.4 Grid independence study-Temperature rise of Nanofluid v/s No. of
mesh Elements at fixed NPC of 0.5%

Number of elements Temperature rise of Nanofluid

15000 29.6
25000 29.1
50000 28.7
750000 28.46
100000 28.39
125000 27.9
150000 27.87
175000 27.865
200000 27.869
30
Temperature rise of

29
Nanofluid

28

27

26
0 50000 100000 150000 200000
No of Mesh Elements

Figure 3.4 Grid independence study Temperature rise of Nanofluid V/s No. of
mesh Elements

31
Chapter 4
Results and Discussion
4.1 Thermophysical property variation with nanoparticle
concentration
4.1.1 Density and specific heat variation with nanoparticle
concentration

1600
4400 Specific Heat of Nanofluid
Density of Nanofluid 1500
Specific Heat of Nanofluid, J/kg-K

4200

Density of Nanofluid, kg/m3

4000 1400

3800 1300
3600
1200
3400
1100
3200

3000 1000

2800 900
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04

Nanoparticle concentration/ volume fraction

Figure 4.1 Specific heat and density variation of nanofluid with NPC

Specific heat and density of nanofluid vary with nanoparticle concentration in

nanofluid. As specific heat increases the temperature change of working fluid
decreases and collector efficiency also decreases. In nanofluid it has been observed
from study that increment in nanoparticle concentration causes lowering of specific
heat of nanofluid due to high conductivity of NPs.

The figure 4.1 shows the change in specific heat and density of nanofluid (Ni-water)
with volume concentration of NPs at temperature 25°C-28°C and nanoparticle

32
diameter 25nm-30nm. Specific heat initially decreases sharply for nanoparticle
concentration up to 0.1%-2% and after that it reduces slowly. Density of nanofluid
increases due to high density of nanoparticles.

4.1.2 Thermal Conductivity Enhancement with addition of

nanoparticle concentration

12
% Enhancement in thermal conductivity of base fluid

11 Present Study
10 Bruggeman Model et al. [32]
Yu and Choi et al. [34]
9

0
0 0.003 0.006 0.009 0.012 0.015 0.018 0.021 0.024 0.027 0.03
Concentration/Volume fraction

Figure 4.2 Thermal Conductivity Enhancement with nanoparticle concentration

Thermal conductivity of nanofluid is a very important parameter which affects the

heat transfer rate from nanofluid. NPs addition in fluid results higher effective
conductivity of nanofluid because of high conductivity of NPs.

Figure 4.2 shows comparison of different model to calculate thermal conductivity but
from extensive study of literature is has been observed that Hamilton and Crosser
model is most commonly used to calculate effective conductivity of nanofluid because
it has shown closer approximation to experimental results and this included the effect
of continuous and discontinuous phases of NPs as well as shape of NPs on

33
conductivity of nanofluid. Hence For present study to calculate conductivity of
nanofluid Hamilton and crosser is used.

Present work shows for Ni-water nanofluid that as the NPC increases, the conductivity
of nanofluid also rises at temperature 25°C-28°C for nanoparticle size of 25nm-30nm.
Thermal conductivity increases significantly up to nanoparticle concentration of 0.1%-
2% and above 2% NPC increment is not that significant.

4.1.3 Viscosity Variation of Nanofluid with Nanoparticle

Concentration

10

Einstein Model et al. [37]

Brinkman et al. [38]
8
% Increament in viscosity

Present Study

0
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03
Concentration/Volume fraction NPC in %

Figure 4.3 Viscosity Variation of Nanofluid with Nanoparticle Concentration

In present work for Ni-water based nanofluid to find out viscosity of nanofluid
Batchelor model is used which includes the effect of the Brownian random motion on
the bulk motion of NPs in nanofluid and it has been observed that addition of
Nanoparticle concentration causes increment in viscosity of nanofluid. The viscosity
increment is sharp up to NPC of 0.1 to 2.5% for fixed size of nanoparticles at
temperature of 25 -28 . The Batchelor model [39] is widely used for calculation of
viscosity of nanofluid. From conclusive study of available literature it is evident that
this method is giving results closer to experimental results rather than other models.

34
Solar Radiation Intensity Variation in a Day

Radiation coming from sun varies at different places depending upon longitude and
latitude. In a day also solar radiation intensity varies from morning to evening. During
noon large amount of solar heat flux is received hence most of the solar equipments
store excess energy during this time.

1000

800
Solar Radiation, W/m2

600

400

200

0
7.00 8.00 9.00 10.00 11.00 12.00 13.00 14.00 15.00 16.00 17.00

Time of day (Hour)

Figure 4.4 Solar radiation intensity variations in a day [47]

0.65
Water
Ni-Water Nanofluid at NPC 0.3%
0.60 Ni-Water Nanofluid at NPC 1.3%
Collector Efficiency

Ni-Water Nanofluid at NPC 0.1%

0.55

0.50

0.45

0.40
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
Solar Radiation, W/m2

Figure 4.5 Collector efficiency variations with incident solar radiation

35
From figure 4.5 it can be concluded that the efficiency of solar FPCs increase as solar
radiation intensity increases. In this study it has been observed that adding NPC
increased the efficiency of system and efficiency also increased with more amount of
solar heat flux falling on flat plate collector.

At different NPC of 0.3%, 0.1% and 1.3% of Ni-water nanofluid collector efficiency
is calculated and compared with working fluid water. It has been found that
Nanoparticle addition gives rise in overall efficiency.

Effect of NPC, mass flow rate, time in a day (amount of solar heat flux in a day),
Reynolds number on collector efficiency, outlet temperature of nanofluid, pressure
drop and temperature rise for nanofluid has been calculated from present study and
variation of different parameters is shown in graphs.

0.63

0.59

0.55
Collector Efficiency

0.51

0.47
Ni-Water Nanofluid at NPC 0.1%
0.43 Water
Ni-Water Nanofluid at NPC 0.3%
0.39
Ni-Water Nanofluid at NPC 1.3%

0.35
0.2 0.5 0.8 1.1 1.4 1.7 2 2.3 2.6 2.9

Mass Flow Rate, Ltr/min

Figure 4.6 Collector Efficiency variations with mass flow rate

36
 30

Temperature rise of Nanofluid (°C)

25

20

15

10
Water
Ni-Water Nanofluid at NPC 0.1%
5 Ni-Water Nanofluid at NPC 0.3%
Ni-Water Nanofluid at NPC 1.3%
0
7.00 9.00 11.00 13.00 15.00 17.00
Time (Hours)

Figure 4.7 Temperature rise of Nanofluid with Solar Radiation in a day

29 Water
Temperature rise of Nanofluid, °C

Ni-Water Nanofluid at NPC 0.1%

26 Ni-Water Nanofluid at NPC 0.3%
Ni-Water Nanofluid at NPC 1.3 %
23

20

17

14

11

8
0.2 0.5 0.8 1.1 1.4 1.7 2 2.3 2.6 2.9
Mass flow rate, Ltr/min

Figure 4.8 Temperature rise of Nanofluid with Mass Flow rate

37
 340
Ni-Water Nanofluid at NPC 1.25%
Ni-Water Nanofluid at NPC 0.3%
335
Ni-Water Nanofluid at NPC 1.25%
Outlet Temperature, K
Water
330

325

320

315

310

305
0 200 400 600 800 1000
Reynolds Number

Figure 4.9 Nanofluid outlet temperature variations with Reynolds Number

160
Water
140 Ni-Water Nanofluid at NPC 0.2%
Ni-Water Nanofluid at NPC 0.5%
120
Ni-Water Nanofluid at NPC 1.2%
Pressure drop, Pascal

100

80

60

40

20

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000
Reynolds Number

Figure 4.10 Nanofluid’s Pressure drop variations with Reynolds number

38
 325

320

315
Outlet Temperauture, K

310

305

300
Cu-Water Nanofluid
295 Cuo-Water Nanofluid
Ni-Water Nanofluid
290 Aluminium Oxide-Water Nanofluid

285
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2
Nanoparticle Concentration volume fraction %

Figure 4.11 Outlet temperature variations of different nanofluids with

Nanoparticle concentration

Figure 4.11 shows the variation of outlet temperature of nanofluid flowing inside
collector with nanoparticle concentration for different type of nanofluids at constant
heat flux of 500 W/ and nanoparticle size of 25nm. It has been observed that Ni-
water nanofluid has higher outlet temperature than Cuo-Water and -water
Nanofluid but lesser outlet temperature than Cu-water nanofluid.

For present study it can be seen that highest outlet temperature 317.4 K of Ni-water
nanofluid is achieved at 2% nanoparticle concentration. If only water is used without
mixing NPs the temperature rise of water found to be 311.8 K. It can be concluded
that Ni-water nanofluid gives better performance than other metal oxide-water
nanofluids.

Comparing the temperature rise for Cu-water, Cuo-water, -water and Ni-Water
nanofluids, it is concluded that temperature rise of water is higher for Cu particles
mixing over other NPs mixing.

39
Chapter 5

Conclusions and Future Scope of Study

5.1 Conclusions
The present study emphasizes on advantages of using nanofluids in solar water
heating applications. In this work effects of nanoparticle concentration, mass flow
rate, particle size, incident solar radiation, density, specific heat, thermal conductivity,
stability of nanifluids on heat transfer enhancement and efficiency of flat plate
collectors are extensively studied. In this research work Ni-water based nanofluid is
primary focus which when used in flat plate collectors increases outlet temperature
and collector efficiency.

Is has been observed that increasing nanoparticle concentration, flow rate and
thermophysical property density have enhanced the collector efficiency for water
heating application. Collector efficiency is increased by 12 to 20% for nanoparticle
concentration of 0.2 to1.3%, respectively. With increase in NPC Reynolds number
also increases, in turn there is heat transfer enhancement. NPC increment causes
higher pressure drop of nanofluid, energy losses occurred.

One of the drawbacks is that there may be clustering of nanoparticles which increases
viscosity of nanofluids provides resistance to the flow inside collector tubes. Due to
this there is increment in drop in pressure and power required to pump the fluid. Even
though drop in pressure and power required to pump the fluid increased but this can
be compensated by increment in collector efficiency significantly.

Solar collector operated by nanofluid has higher efficiency. The higher efficiency of
collectors allow designer to make collector compact that will reduce the energy and
cost of material.

CFD model analysis also includes tracking the motion of nanoparticles and molecules
of base fluid. Simulation results show that particles go away from the wall of collector
tube for laminar flow.

From the present study following important conclusions are made.

40
 i. Increment in NPC causes rise in density but fall in specific heat.
ii. Thermal conductivity of nanofluid Ni-water is increased by 15to20% for NPC
of 0.2to2.5% respectively for constant nanoparticle size.
iii. Viscosity of Ni-water nanofluid is increased by 1%-8% for NPC of 0.2%-2%.
iv. Collector efficiency of FPC system is improved by 16%-23% for NPC of
0.1%-2.3%.
v. As NPC is increased pressure drop increased thereby increased pumping
power.
vi. Reynolds number is increased for increment in NPC, causes improvement in
heat transfer from nanofluid

5.2 Future Scope

After this study is can be said that there are many aspects of research in nanofluids
applications, these need to be explored hence more experimental and analytical work
is to be done for effective utilisation of Nanofluids. In this research Ni-water
nanofluid thermal performance in solar FPCs is extensively studied but the area where
this research faced challenges was to find out thermophysical properties of nanofluids.

There are number of experimental and analytical published literary works available
but all those methods mentioned in them to find thermo physical properties of
nanofluid have some limitations, Hence more research work need to be done in this
regard.

Research need to be done for mixture of various nanoparticles in combination with

base fluids other than water. Since solar radiation intensity varies throughout the day
there is need of research work for better understanding of transient heat flux.

41
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46
Appendix- I
A.1 Sample Calculation for Thermophysical Properties of Nanofluid

A.1.1 By Hamilton and crosser Model Thermal Conductivity of nanofluid is given by

( ) ( ) ( )
( ) ( )

Where

is the sphericity for the sphere is 1

n is the shape factor for spherical particles is 3

Nanofluid (Nanoparticle concentration volume %) - ø=0.2

( ) ( ) ( )
( ) ( )

= 0.6101 W/m-k

A.1.2 Pak and Cho gave equation to calculate specific heat of

( )

( )

A.1.3 Nanofluid density by mixture theory is given by

( )

( )

A.1.4 Dynamic viscosity of nanofluid is calculated by

( )

( )

= 0.0015678 Pa-Sec

47
A2 Temperature contours

A2.1 Temperature contour of Absorber plate of FPC for Ni-water Nanofluid at

NPC 0.5 %

A2.2 Temperature contour of inside wall of bottom insulation of FPC for Ni-
water Nanofluid at NPC 0.5 %

48
A2.3 Temperature contour of inside wall of Tubes along the flow inside FPC for
Ni-water Nanofluid at NPC 0.5 %

49
A2.4 Temperature contour at outlet of collector tubes for Ni-water Nanofluid at
NPC 0.5 %

50
A2.5 Temperature contour for Ni-water Nanofluid at NPC 1.2 %

A2.6 Temperature contour for Ni-water Nanofluid at NPC 1.5 %

51
A2.7 Temperature contour for Ni-water Nanofluid at NPC 2.5 %

A2.8 Temperature contour for Cu-water Nanofluid at NPC 2.5 %

52