Nanofluid Thermal Management in Solar Collector Systems

Solar thermal collectors convert incident solar radiation into usable heat for applications ranging from domestic hot water to industrial process heating. Traditional working fluids such as water or glycol suffer from limited thermal conductivity and heat-transfer coefficients, which constrain overall system efficiency. The advent of nanofluids—colloidal suspensions of nanoparticles in a base fluid—has opened a pathway to enhance convective heat transfer and increase both energy and exergy efficiencies of solar collectors. By integrating nanoparticles of high thermal conductivity (for example, metal oxides or carbon-based materials) into flat plate, evacuated or concentrating collectors, researchers have demonstrated appreciable gains in thermal performance under controlled flow and irradiation conditions. Key influencing factors include nanoparticle material, size, shape and concentration; fluid stability and rheology; mass flow rate; solar irradiance; and system geometry. Practical deployment demands a careful balance between augmented heat transfer and penalties such as increased viscosity, pressure drop, pumping power and potential corrosion or fouling. As the global demand for sustainable and low-carbon energy intensifies, nanofluid-based thermal management offers a scalable strategy to boost the competitiveness and reliability of solar collector technologies across diverse climatic regions.

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Nanofluid Thermal Management in Solar Collector Systems publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in nanofluid thermal management in solar collector systems across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Nanofluid: a stable suspension of nanoparticles in a base fluid, engineered to enhance heat-transfer properties.

Hybrid nanofluid: a nanofluid containing two or more types of nanoparticles, designed to combine complementary thermal advantages.

Exergy efficiency: the ratio of useful work or heat output to the maximum potential work available in a thermodynamic process.

Thermal conductivity: a measure of a material’s ability to conduct heat through conduction.

References

1. Performance enhancement of flat plate solar collector using ZrO2-SiC/DW hybrid nanofluid: A comprehensive experimental study. Energy Conversion and Management X (2023).
2. A comprehensive analysis of nanofluids and their practical applications for flat plate solar collectors: Fundamentals, thermophysical properties, stability, and difficulties. Energy Reports (2022).
3. Energy and exergy analysis of a thermosiphon and forced-circulation flat-plate solar collector using MWCNT/Water nanofluid. Case Studies in Thermal Engineering (2019).