Abstract
Influences of a helical absorber tube on the thermal performances of a double-fluid parabolic trough solar collector (PTSC) occupied by non-Newtonian nanofluid are investigated numerically. The problem geometry includes a double-fluid parabolic trough solar receiver with high insulation and a non-circular adsorbent tube. The finite volume method, SIMPLE algorithm, and k-epsilon model were used for numerical solutions. The result showed that the double-fluid solar receiver was equipped with a helical absorber tube filled with nanofluid with a volume fraction of 4% and nanoparticles diameter of 50nm flowing in the absorber tube, and an annulus glass cover is introduced as the optimal model in this paper. For single-flow PTSC, the value of eta(max) nanofluid-and water-based PTSCs are 47.5% and 43.1%, respectively, at a flow velocity of Re=5000. In double-flow PTSC, the value of eta(max) at 1 and 4 vol.% is 56.5% and 58.2%, respectively, at the flow velocity of Re=5000. Finally, a deep learning method is employed to examine the parameters affecting the efficiency, including the concentration and diameter of nanoparticles and Re number. The results indicate the ANN has acceptable performance in prediction of the efficiency of the double-fluid parabolic trough solar collector occupied by non-Newtonian nanofluid.