Thermodynamic performance analysis is carried out on a flat plate solar thermal collector utilizing single and hybrid nanofluids. Fe2O4/water, Zn-Fe2O4/water hybrid nanofluids, and water are used as heat transfer fluids, and their performance is compared based on the energy and exergy transfer rate. The thermo-physical properties are evaluated by regression polynomial model for all the working fluids. Developed codes in MATLAB are created to solve the collector's thermal model iteratively, energy, and exergetic performance. The system is then subjected to parametric investigation and optimization for variations in fluid flow rate, temperatures, and concentrations of nanoparticles. The findings show that utilizing Zn-Fe2O4/water hybrid nanofluids with a particle concentration of 0.5% enhanced the solar collector's thermal performance by 6.6% while using Fe2O4/water nanofluids raised the collector's thermal performance by 7.83% when compared to water as the working fluid. The maximum energy efficiency of 80.1% is attained at the mass flow rate of 0.1 kg/s. The hybrid nanofluids have also given a maximum exergetic efficiency of 5.36% and an enhancement of 8.24% compared to Fe2O4/water nanofluids. It evidences that the hybrid nanofluids would become a better thermal alternative for water as well as single nanofluids.
Keywords: Exergy; Hybrid nanofluid; Solar collector; Thermal performance; Zinc-ferrite/water.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.