International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 0882

Volume 5, Issue 11, November 2016

HEAT TRANSFER BEHAVIORS IN A PARABOLIC TROUGH SOLAR

COLLECTOR TUBE WITH COMPOUND TECHNIQUE
Amina Benabderrahmane1, Abdelylah Benazza2, Miloud Aminallah3, Samir Laouedj4.
Faculty of Technology, Djilali Lyabes university Sidi bel abbes Algeria
1
[email protected])
2
[email protected]
3
[email protected]
4
[email protected]

ABSTRACT
A three dimensional numerical investigation using
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been carried
out to examine the effect of the presence of baffles and
nanofluid inside a non-uniformly heated parabolic
through solar collector under turbulent flow. The results
show that the inclusion of baffles improves the heat
transfer characteristics with a pressure drop as penalty;
the baffles dimensions have an important effect on heat
transfer enhancement. The inserts have also a nonnegligible effect on the temperature distribution and heat
transfer fluid velocity. The remarkable improvement was
observed in the utilization of nanofluid as heat transfer
fluid, however the combination of the two methods offer
a better heat transfer performance.
Keywords Baffles, nanofluid, heat transfer
enhancement, Monte Carlo ray trace technique,
numerical study.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Solar energy technologies have a great potential such as

diversification of energy supply, reduction of
dependence on natural gas and energy fossils, offset
greenhouse gas emissionsetc. Parabolic through solar
collector is currently the most proven solar concentration
techniques. To enhance the heat transfer rate from solar
radiation to heat transfer fluid (HTF), one of the
effective techniques is to improve the convective heat
transfer inside the inner tube; for this reason many
researches are focused for enhancing heat transfer inside
PTC receiver using many passives techniques like
twisted-tapes, wire coils, swirl generators, ribs, fins,
baffles and others. Munoz et al. (2011) [1] used the
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools to analyze the
pressure losses, thermal losses, thermal mechanical
stress and thermal fatigue of the internal finned PTC.
They estimated that the performance of a 20MW solar
plant cooled by oil can improve about 2% if helically
fined receivers can be used. Seyed Ebrahim Ghasemi et

al. (2013) [2] studied numerically the performance of

parabolic solar collector with three segmental rings; they
declared that the use of three segmental rings in tubular
solar receiver enhances the Nusselt number and system
performance. By decreasing the inner diameter of three
segmental rings, the Nusselt number increases, but with
considering the pressure loss, thermal performance
decreases. Ghadirijafarbeiglo et al. (2014) [3]
numerically investigated the thermal performance of
PTCs equipped with a new perforated louvered twistedtape. The results showed that the new twisted-tape can
provide better thermal performance compared with
traditional twisted-tape especially for low Reynolds
number. Huang et al. (2015)[4] investigated numerically
heat transfer enhancement inside a PTC receiver using
helical fins, protrusions and dimples; their results
demonstrate that the receiver tube with dimples has
superior performance of heat transfer augmentation
compared with that with protrusions or helical fins.
Recently, a new class of fluids called nanofluid has been
developed and tested, this term was proposed by Choi in
(1995) [5] at Argonne National Laboratory; as a liquid
mixture with a small concentration of nanometer-sized
solid particles in suspension. The literature survey shows
that nanofluids significantly improve the heat transfer
capability of conventional heat transfer fluids such as oil
or water by suspending nanoparticles in these base
liquids. Many researchers have investigated the heat
transfer performance and flow characteristics of various
nanofluids with different nanoparticles and base fluid
materials. Pack et al. (1998) [6], Xuan et al. (2000) [7],
Qiang et al. (2002) [8], Yang et al. (2005) [9], Heris et
al. [10] (2007), Nguyena et al. (2007)[11], Velgapudi et
al. (2008) [12], Duangthongsuk et al. (2010) [13], Nasiri
et al. (2011) [14], Murgesan et al. (2012) [15], Darzi et
al. (2013) [16], Nield et al. (2014) [17], have
investigated the convective heat transfer of nanofluids,
they reported that the heat transfer enhancement depends
on several parameters such as: the size and shape of
nanoparticles, the volume fraction of particles suspended
and the thermo-physical properties of particles material.

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International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 0882
Volume 5, Issue 11, November 2016

The aim of this study is to improve heat transfer inside

parabolic through solar collector under turbulent flow
using two different passive techniques, the first affects
the absorber geometry by inserting baffles inside it, and
the second one is the utilization of 1%.vol of the
fullerenes nanoparticles suspended in Therminol VP-1;
the results of these studies are presented in the form of
Nusselt number and Darcy friction factor.

II.

Table 1. Receiver dimensions.

Receiver length L

200 cm

Absorber inner radius

3.2 cm

Absorber outer radius

3.5 cm

Glass cover inner radius

5.96 cm

Glass cover outer radius

6.25 cm

Coating absorbance

MODEL CONFIGURATION

Glass emissivity

In this work; we have considered a simplified model of

the parabolic trough receiver in which the effect of the
central rod and other supports is considered negligible.
A detailed schematic diagram of the receiver is
presented in Fig. 1, where the materiel used for the glass
cover and the absorber tube are borosilicate glass and
steel respectively, the annular space between both tubes
is considered as vacuum at very low pressure and
ambient temperature. The aim of this study is improving
heat transfer by inserting baffles in the tube-side of the
PTC. Fig.2 shows the model configuration used in this
work. The dimensions and the physical parameters of
the receiver are given in Table.1.

Fig. 1: schematic of PTC receiver

569

III.

95%
0.837

METHODOLOGY DESCRIPTION

1.

CFD modeling

A commercially available CFD code has been used to

investigate the numerical calculations. The K- [18]
turbulent model was used; the simple algorithm
pressure-velocity coupling was employed. Second order
scheme was used for energy and DO radiation model;
the first order scheme is adapted for the other equations.
2.

Heat transfer fluid properties

For the numerical simulation, the flow is considered as

hydrodynamically developed and thermally developing
flow. The heat transfer fluid used is a nanofluid contains
nanoparticules of fullerene C60 which are a non-metallic
particles composed entirely of carbon atoms
interconnected in pentagonal and hexagonal rings in the
shape of hollow sphere, ellipsoid or tube; the spherical
fullerenes are also called buckyballs and cylindrical ones
are called carbon nanotubes (CNT). This nanoparticules
are dispersed in a synthetic heat transfer fluid the
Therminol VP-1 which is a eutectic mixture of 73.5%
diphenyl oxide and 26.5% diphenyl, it is suitable for the
most process heating because of its operating
temperature range varies from -85 to 400C.
The thermo-physical properties formulae of therminol
VP-1 [19] are given as function of temperature in Table2
(Temperature is expressed in C).
The correlations [20, 21, 22, 23] used for calculate the
nanofluid properties are shown in Table. 3.
Table 2. Physical properties formulae of Therminol VP-1
0.90797T 0.00078116T 2 2.367 106T 3 1083.25
CP 0.002414T 5.9591 106 T 2 2.9879 108T 3 4.4172 1011T 4 1.498

8.19477 105T 1.92257 107 T 2 2.5034 1011T 3 7.2974 1015T 4 0.137743

Fig. 2: Model configuration with geometrical

parameters.

544.149

2.59578
T 114.43

exp

Table 3. Thermo-physical properties of nanofluid

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International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 0882
Volume 5, Issue 11, November 2016
nf 1 f p

Density (kg/m3)
Heat capacity (KJ/kg.K)

Thermal conductivity
(W/m.K)

nf f

Dynamic viscosity (Pa.s)

p nf

C
2 2
2
1 C p
p

nf

p p

where: vw is the wind speed (2m/s in this study) and dgo

is the glass cover outer diameter.

2.5

3.
Boundary conditions:
In this study, the outer absorbers wall receives a nonuniform heat flux obtained by using MCRT technique
[24], and taking the DNI of 1000 W/m2, the local
concentration ratio distribution results are illustrated in
Fig. 3.

IV.
1.

RESULTS AND INTERPRETATIONS

Validation of numerical data

For validate purposes, the numerical results of Nusselt

number and friction factor for smooth tube was
compared with those calculated by the empirical
correlations available in the literature.
Gnielinski [28] introduced a following correlation for
predicting Nusselt number inside tubes under turbulent
flow as function of Reynolds number, Prandtl number
and friction factor calculated by the Petukhovs [29]
correlation.
f
Re 1000 Pr
8
Nu
0.5
2
f
1 12.7 Pr 3 1
8

(4)

f 0.79 ln Re 1.64

(5)

Ditus-Boelter [30] proposed a simple correlation for

calculating Nusselt number depending only on Reynolds
number and Prandtl number.
Nu 0.023 Re0.8 Pr n

(6)

n=0.4 if the wall temperature is higher than the bulk

temperature (Tw>Tb), and n=0.3 in the opposite case.
Fig. 3: The local concentration ratio on a cross-section of the
absorber outer surface

For the outer glass envelope, a thermal boundary

condition that includes the convection and radiation heat
transfer is used. Sky temperature and sky emissivity can
be calculated using the following correlations [25], [26]:
1.5
Tsky 0.0552Tamb

sky 0.711 0.56

(1)
Tdp 273.15
100

Tdp 273.15
0.73

100

(2)

where the ambient temperature used in this simulation is

300K and Tdp is dew point temperature (K).

Blasius [31] recommended a correlation for the

calculation of friction factor inside smooth pipes under
turbulent flow as follow:
f 0.316 Re0.25 ;Re 2 104

(7)

f 0.184 Re0.2 ;Re 2 104

(8)

Fig.4 shows compatible results of the average Nusselt

number and friction factor, where the maximum
deviation is less than 8.5% and the minimum deviation is
approximately 0.2%.

The convection heat transfer coefficient used for the

boundary condition is defined by the experimental
correlation [27]:
0.42
hw 4vw0.58d go

(3)

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International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 0882
Volume 5, Issue 11, November 2016

Fig.5: Variation of Nusselt number for tube with and

without baffles.

Fig. 4: Validation of numerical results for a smooth absorber.

2.

Effect of baffles on heat transfer and fluid

flow characteristics

Fig. 5 shows the average Nusselt number evolution as

function of Reynolds number for the smooth and
enhanced tubes, the results demonstrate that the baffles
improves heat transfer greatly compared to the plain
tube, the increase on Nusselt number can reach 2 to 3
times when Reynolds number varies from 3229 to
32294. Fig.6 illustrates that the increase of Nusselt
number is also accompanied with increasing Darcy
friction factor; this is due to the presence of baffles
which play the role of obstacles that create a swirling
flow.
Fig.7 shows that with the inclusion of baffles, the HTF
temperature reduces and become almost uniform in the
large part of the cross-section, and on the other hand
fig.8 shows that the wall temperature decreases evenly
by inserting baffles. This reduction of temperature
gradient plays an important role in enhancing heat
transfer. The temperature contours for the baffles is
shown in fig.9, the highest temperature in the baffles
bottom is due to the non-uniform heat flux distribution.

Fig.6: Evolution of friction factor for tube with and

without baffles.

Fig.7: HTF Temperature distribution for smooth tube

(a) and baffled tube (b).

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International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 0882
Volume 5, Issue 11, November 2016

Fig.8: absorber temperature distribution on the middle

cross-section.

Fig. 10: HTF Velocity distributions on the middle

cross-section.
4. Effect of baffles dimensions
Numerical analysis was carried out for baffles
dimensions effects, fig.11 shows that the heat transfer
coefficient augments as baffles thickness e increases
because of more heat diffusion to the working fluid; we
studied also effect of distance between two consecutives
baffles w, Fig.12 illustrates that the heat transfer
coefficient increases with decreasing the distance
between baffles because of large heat transfer area.
5. Simultaneous effects of nanofluid and baffle on
heat transfer enhancement

Fig.9: Temperature contours of baffles

3. Velocity field analysis
As it is recommended, the HTF velocity distribution
inside a tube is maximal in the center and tends to zero
near the walls which is clearly obtained in the case of
our simulation and its illustrated in fig.10, simply in the
case of tube fitted with baffles the HTF velocity
augments and becomes almost uniform in the large area,
this velocity improvement is due to the reduction of flow
surface. Augmenting velocity leads to higher convective
heat transfer coefficient.

Fig.13 describes that the heat transfer augments with the

presence of 1% fullerenes nanoparticules in base fluid,
hence using nanofluid as HTF in the tube equipped with
baffles offer a better heat transfer where the Nusselt
number augments about 3.5 times compared to the plain
tube with base fluid.
Fig.14 predicts the effect of combining the two
mechanisms on pressure drop, the results demonstrates
that the Darcy friction factor increases by inserting
baffles which is due to the formation of vortices that
disturbed the boundary layer, and, thus, enhanced
mixing by extension heat transfer rate between the fluid
at the core and the heated surface can be achieved.
To evaluate the effect of baffles and nanofluid on heat
transfer enhancement, we used the thermal performance
criteria defined as the ratio of the dimensionless Nusselt

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International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 0882
Volume 5, Issue 11, November 2016

number and the dimensionless friction factor, given by

the following relation [32]:
PEC

Nu
Nu0
1/ 3

f

f0

(9)

where the subscript 0 refers to the solution of the smooth

tube.
Fig.15 exhibits the variation of PEC for enhanced tubes,
the PEC values vary from 2.8 to 3.4 for absorber fitted
with baffles and using naofluid as HTF, which indicates
that the augmentation of heat transfer can cover the
penalty of increased flow resistance so this is a sign of
good performance in heat transfer enhancement.

Fig.13 Effect of using baffles and nanofluid on heat

transfer characteristics

Fig.14: effect of baffles and nanofluid on pressure drop

Fig.11: Effect of distance between two consecutives baffles on heat
transfer.

Fig.15: Thermal performance of enhanced absorber

Fig.12: Effect of baffles thickness on Nusselt number.

V.

CONCLUSION

Numerical investigation of heat transfer and fluid flow

characteristics inside a parabolic through solar collector
receiver under turbulent regime is carried out by using
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International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 0882
Volume 5, Issue 11, November 2016

compound technique; the following conclusions can be

made:
High Nusselt number and friction factor are
obtained for tube fitted with baffles compared to
plain tube.
Insertion of baffles has non-negligible effects on
fluid flow characteristics.
Nusselt number increases with increasing baffles
thickness and decreasing the distance between
baffles.
The inclusion of fullerenes nanoparticles produced
an interesting increase of the heat transfer with
respect to that of the base liquid.
Utilization of nanofluid as HTF inside absorber
with baffles resulted higher thermal performance.

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