Application of nanofluids in solar cooling system: Dynamic simulation by means of TRNSYS software

Convective heat transfer can be enhanced passively by using fluids with high value of the thermal conductivity. An innovative method of enhancement of thermal conductivity of base fluids is to insert nanoparticles. In recent years, nanofluids and their possible applications have been extensively studied. In this study, simulation based on a performance analysis of a solar cooling system is carried out by means of TRNSYS. First the analysis determines the peak energy demand for a building located in Naples. Beside, for the same configuration of solar system both pure water and Al2O3/water based nanofluids are considered as working fluids. Different values of volume nanoparticles concentrations, equal to 3%, and 6%, are investigated. The configuration is fully modelled in TRNSYS and dynamic simulations are run for the entire year. Various performance factors such as useful energy gain from collector, solar fraction, primary energy savings and pumping consumption are evaluated. Simulations results demonstrate that for the whole summer season, using nanofluids as working fluid, always higher primary energy savings results. Besides, solar fraction, difference between nanofluids with nanoparticles concentration of 3% and 6% is estimated to be marginal. In terms of PEC and primary energy savings, nanofluids with nanoparticles concentration of 6% has presented higher values.