Experimental investigation of CuO nanofluid in the thermal characteristics of a flat plate solar collector

Application of nanofluid to increase the thermal efficiency of a traditional solar collector is getting tremendous attention among the scientific community. In this work, the effect of CuO-water nanofluid, as a working fluid on the efficiency of a flat plate solar collector (FPSC) was investigated experimentally. Volume fraction of nanoparticles was 0.1%, and the particles dimension was 40 nm. The mass flow rates of the nanofluid varied from 1 to 4 L/min. Thermal efficiencies of a FPSC using water and nanofluids as working fluids were matched and compared. The results show that, in comparison with water as the absorption medium using the nanofluids as working fluid increase the efficiency. The results revealed that nanofluids enhanced the energy efficiency up by 15.2%, 17.1%, and 55.1% for the flow rate of 1, 2, and 4 L/min, respectively. (c) 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 38: 260-267, 2019