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theses

The field of nanofluids has received interesting attention since the concept of dispersing nanoparticles into fluids was introduced in the late period of 20th century. The use of renewable solar energy has also come to the forefront of more and more people’s minds. This dissertation investigates heat transfer enhancement using nanofluid in a new energy-harvesting device: a prismatic louver for solar energy harvest and illumination. The louver transmits enough visible sunlight for natural lighting and collects mostultraviolet and infrared solar energy. To develop this new technology, the efficiency of collecting ultraviolet, infrared, and visible light, as well as the transmittance of visible light, was studied for a louver flowing with either water or water-based nanofluid. The conjugate thermal convectionand conduction were simulated by commercial software with the input of the obtained solar absorption distribution. Different nanofluid models and temperature-dependent thermophysical properties were taken into account. Examination of temperature rise and distribution under different arrangements of solar air mass models, nanoparticle sizes, and flow parameters was executed. Due to the dilute nature of the considered nanofluids, it was found that the nanofluid properties are not significantly affected by the various nanofluid models. The diameter of the nanoparticles and the Reynolds number of the flow have a significant effect on the amount of solar thermal energy collected and the extent to which it is effectively utilized.

http://dissertations.umi.com/gsnb.rutgers:12348

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

doi:10.7282/t3-w7jz-3a40

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