Performance analysis of nanofluid on concentrating and non-concentrating collector’s array

Solar energy can play a vital role in fulfilling the energy requirements of living species on earth along with balancing the ecosystem. Solar energy is the cleanest form of energy among all the renewable energy sources available on earth. But the discrete presence of solar energy is a big hurdle in proper harvesting of it. Optimization of solar energy is always a big challenge among researchers. This research uses optimum tilt angles of solar collectors suggested by other researchers. Thereafter, initially water and then nanofluid of different volumetric concentration are used to examine the performance of both concentrating and non-concentrating collectors. While examining the performance of flat plate collector and parabolic trough collector of given specification with selective absorber plate coating, performance of parabolic trough collector is found to be more convenient. At 3.0% volumetric concentration and mass flow rate of 0.0986 kg/s, maximum temperature gain is observed as 0.0495% in the month of December at time slot of 11:00–12:00 for a 5-module array of parabolic trough collectors. While in case of flat plate collectors’ array with mass flow rate of 0.0194 kg/s, maximum instantaneous thermal efficiency gain is observed as 0.3173% in the month of June at time slot 11:00–12:00.