Effect of electromagnetic field on the thermal efficiency of concentrated solar collector : experimental study

• Published in: The Iraqi journal for mechanical and materials engineering. Vol. 22; no. 1; pp. 42 - 51
• Main Authors: Ammuri, Karimah Ismail, Tuaymah, Firas M., Khalaf, Diya Abd al-Rahim
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Babylon, Iraq University of Babylon, College of Engineering 2022
• Subjects: الكفاءة الحرارية; المجالات الكهرومغناطيسية; مجمعات الطاقة الشمسية
• ISSN: 2076-1819; 2313-3783

In this work, the effect of electromagnetic field on thermal performance of concentrated parabolic trough solar collector is studied experimentally. a two-axis tracking parabolic trough collector formed of a reflector (mirror tapes matrix), of (2m *1m), and an absorber copper tube (receiver) is designed. water and water-based magnetic iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanofluid are used as heat transfer fluid in the collector. three volume concentrations (0.3%, 0.5%, and 0.9%) of nanoparticles are investigated under a magnetic flux of (3.2, 4.3, 6.2, and 7.9*103 gauss), which is installed at absorber inlet, middle, and exit. the three coils are connected to a dc-generator to control the electromagnetic field. the electromagnetic field effect on water flow in the absorber is found weak. a significant thermal improvement is figured when utilizing ferrofluid as a heat transfer fluid in the absorber. it is represented by higher temperature distributions in the absorber and higher solar collector efficiency compared with base fluid.