Comparative study between single nanofluids and hybrid nanofluids for the performance enhancement of flat plate solar collector's

Abstract

This work presents a comparative numerical study of the thermophysical performance of simple and hybrid nanofluids. The main objective is to evaluate the effect of adding nanoparticles on the improvement of heat transfer in a forced flow. Two types of nanofluids were considered: a simple nanofluid based on AL2O3 nanoparticles dispersed in water and a hybrid nanofluid composed of AL2O3 and Cu. We conducted a numerical simulation using the FLUENT code to model turbulent flow in a rectangular channel. The K-ε model was chosen for this task. The results obtained show that the use of nanofluids significantly improves thermal performance compared to the base fluid, while the hybrid nanofluid exhibits superior efficiency over the simple nanofluid due to its enhanced thermophysical properties. This study confirms the potential of hybrid nanofluids for thermal management and heat exchange applications.