Numerical investigation of natural convection in an inclined wavy solar collector containing a nanofluid

• Main Authors: S Kadri, K Djermane, E Bourbaba, E Elmir, R Mehdaoui
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Multi-Science Publishing 2020-06-01
• Series: International Journal of Multiphysics
• Online Access: http://journal.multiphysics.org/index.php/IJM/article/view/540

The present paper gives a numerical study of natural convection heat transfer inside the inclined wavy solar collectors containing nanofluid in Bechar region. Bechar is located in the southwest of Algeria and belongs to the semi-arid zone. The solar deposit of this city corresponds to an angle of inclination of a=37°.The collector has a wavy absorber and cover. The inclined corrugated walls are maintained at constant temperature but different values. The vertical walls are assumed to be adiabatic. The nanofluid used is Al2O3-water. This problem consists in solving the system of equations containing: mass conservation, Navier Stokes and energy with adapted simplified hypotheses. Transport equations are solved numerically by finite element method. Governing parameters are taken as Rayleigh number (from 105 to 4´106), volume fraction (from 0 to 10%), amplitude of wavy cover (from 0 to 0.2) and wave of number (from 1.5 to 3.5). Results are presented by stream function and overage Nusselt numbers.