Numerical Investigation of the (Mono-Hybrid) Nanofluid Thermophysical Properties for Concentrated Solar Power Plant

Abstract

Nanofluids became an essential solution for the improvement of efficient heat transfer fluids. Thus, it’s necessary to optimize their propreties. This paper investigates the effect of the temperature and the volume fraction on the thermo-physical properties of different nanofluids (Mono and hybrid) such as: Density, thermal conductivity, dynamic viscosity, kinematic viscosity, heat capacity and enthalpy in various nanoparticule concentrations and operating temperature. Two nanoparticles Al2O3, CuO were added to three different conventional base fluids namely: Therminol VP-1; Sylthrem 800; Dowtherm A, with several volume fractions, and various temperatures (200–400 °C). A numerical model was developed using MATLAB software, to evaluate the behavior of each thermo-physical property of the nanofluid that can be used as a working fluid in CSP applications and compared with their conventional fluids. The results show an improvement in thermo-physical properties compared to pure fluids for an optimal value of 4% for Al2O3. Also, the increase in temperature plays an important role in the decrease in viscosity, and their influence on other properties has also been noticed while the addition of nanoparticles to the pure fluid allow to increase the thermal conductivity by 13%. Finally, the (Al2O3 + CuO/Dowtherm A) hybrid nanofluid sems to be attractive to use in CSP applications.