PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT OF TWO PHASE THERMOSYPHON FLAT-PLATE SOLAR COLLECTORS BY USING SURFACTANT AND NANOFLUID

摘要

Performance of solar heat pipe collector mainly depends upon the fluid transport properties. This can be enhanced by adding additives in the working fluid. In present study three identical with same dimensions, set up of flat plate collectors using heat pipes were fabricated. The working fluids used in three set up are pure water, nanofluid and surfactant-water respectively. The nanoparticles used were CNT having diameter 10-12 nm & length 0.1-10 micrometer in proportion of 0.15% by volume in second set up and surfactant used was 2EH-2-ethyl-hexanol in 150 ppm proportion in third set up.  An extensive experimentation was carried with varying the parameters. It is observed that the effect of the surfactant on heat pipe collector is far better than other.