The effects of using aqueous nanofluids containing covalently functionalized graphene nanoplatelets with triethanolamine (TEA-GNPs) as novel working fluids on the thermal performance of a flat-plate solar collector (FPSC) have been investigated. Water-based nanofluids with weight concentrations of 0.025%, 0.05%, 0.075%, and 0.1% of TEA-GNPs with specific surface areas of 300, 500, and 750 m2/g were prepared. An experimental setup was designed and built and a simulation program using MATLAB was developed. Experimental tests were performed using inlet fluid temperatures of 30, 40, and 50 °C; flow rates of 0.6, 1.0, and 1.4 kg/min; and heat flux intensities of 600, 800, and 1000 W/m2. The FPSC’s efficiency increased as the flow rate and heat flux intensity increased, and decreased as inlet fluid temperature increased. When using nanofluids in the FPSC, the measured temperatures of absorber plate and tube wall decreased down to 3.35% and 3.51%, respectively, with the increase in weight concentration and specific surface area, while the efficiency increased up to 10.53% for 0.1- wt% TEA-GNPs nanofluid with specific surface area of 750 m2/g, in comparison with water. When using water as heat transfer fluid, very good agreement was obtained between the experimental and predicted values of absorber plate temperature, tube wall temperature, and collector’s efficiency with maximum differences of 3.02%, 3.19%, and 3.26%, respectively. While, when using nanofluids, higher differences were found, up to 4.74%, 4.7%, and 13.47% for TEA-GNPs nanofluid with specific surface area of 750 m2/g, respectively. Accordingly, the MATLAB code was capable of simulating the thermal performance of FPSCs utilizing nanofluids as their heat transfer fluids with acceptable accuracy. Values of performance index were all greater than 1, and increased as weight concentration increased up to 1.104 for 0.1- wt% TEA-GNPs nanofluid with specific surface area of 750 m2/g, implying higher positive effects on efficiency than negative effects on pressure drop. Accordingly, the investigated nanofluids can efficiently be used in FPSCs for enhanced energy efficiency, and the 0.1- wt% water-based TEA-GNPs nanofluid with specific surface area of 750 m2/g was comparatively the superior one.
This paper is based on the Sentinel-2 satellite data: the thermal, red, and NIR bands. The Babylon city was chosen in this study for different reasons: its location in the middle of Iraq and it represents the largest capitals of the Mesopotamia civilization in the word. The Land Surface Temperature (LST) was determined using a method that incorporates remote sensing, geographic information systems, and statistics. This process has made it possible to monitor the relationship between land usage and the land surface temperature for four seasons in the year 2021. The mapswere processed and analyzed by using ArcGIS software. Five maps of the LST were constructed. Each map represents diffe
Renewable energy resources have become a promissory alternative to overcome the problems related to atmospheric pollution and limited sources of fossil fuel energy. The technologies in the field of renewable energy are used also to improve the ventilation and cooling in buildings by using the solar chimney and heat exchanger. This study addresses the design, construction and testing of a cooling system by using the above two techniques. The aim was to study the effects of weather conditions on the efficiency of this system which was installed in Baghdad for April and May 2020. The common weather in these months is hot in Baghdad. The test room of the design which has a size of 1 m3 was situated to face the geographical south. The te
... Show MoreAutomatic license plate recognition (ALPR) used for many applications especially in security applications, including border control. However, more accurate and language-independent techniques are still needed. This work provides a new approach to identifying Arabic license plates in different formats, colors, and even including English characters. Numbers, characters, and layouts with either 1-line or 2-line layouts are presented. For the test, we intend to use Iraqi license plates as there is a wide range of license plate styles written in Arabic, Kurdish, and English/Arabic languages, each different in style and color. This variety makes it difficult for recent traditional license plate recognition systems and algorithms to recogn
... Show MoreSuccessfully, theoretical equations were established to study the effect of solvent polarities on the electron current density, fill factor and efficiencies of Tris (8-hydroxy) quinoline aluminum (Alq3)/ ZnO solar cells. Three different solvents studied in this theoretical works, namely 1-propanol, ethanol and acetonitrile. The quantum model of transition energy in donor–acceptor system was used to derive a current formula. After that, it has been used to calculate the fill factor and the efficiency of the solar cell. The calculations indicated that the efficiency of the solar cell is influenced by the polarity of solvents. The best performance was for the solar cell based on acetonitrile as a solvent with electron current density of (5.0
... Show MoreDifferent coating layers of fluorescent agent (FCA) on the solar cells were used. An increase of 35% in the energy conversion efficiency of the solar cell have been obtained. This increase is attributed to the reduction ofthe reflected light, eflection spectra show low values at higher thickness which explained the increase ofthe conversion efficiency with increases of layer thickness.
The present work is devoted to investigate the performance of a homemade Y-shape catalytic microreactor for degradation of dibenzothiophene (DBT), as a model of sulphur compounds including in gas oil, utilizing solar incident energy. The microchannel was coated with TiO2 nanoparticles which were used as a photocatalyst. Performance of the microreactor was investigated using different conditions (e.g., DBT concentration, LHSV, operating temperature, and (H2O2/DBT) ratio). Our experiments show that, in the absence of UV light, no reaction takes place. The results revealed that outlet concentration of DBT decreases as the mean residence time in the microreactor increases. Also, it was noted that operating temperature s
... Show MoreTest results of six half-scale reinforced concrete flat plates connections with an opening in the vicinity of the column are reported. The test specimens represent a portion of a slab bounded by the lines of contraflexure around the column. The tests were designed to study the effect of openings on the punching shear behavior of the slab-column connections. The test parameters were the location and the size of the openings. One specimen had no opening and the remaining five had various arrangements of openings around the column. All specimens were cast with normal density concrete of approximately 30 MPa compressive strength. The openings in the specimens were square, with the sides parallel to the sides of the column. Three sizes of ope
... Show MoreIn this work an experimental study is performed to evaluate the thermal performance
of locally made closed loop solar hot water system using a shell and helical coiled tube
heat exchanger as a storage tank. Several measurements are taken include inlet and outlet
temperatures of both collectors and supply water and temperature distribution within the
storage tank. This is beside the water flow rate in both collectors and load cycle. The
main parameters of the system are obtained.
This research is devoted to investigating the thermal buckling analysis behaviour of laminated composite plates subjected to uniform and non-uniform temperature fields by applying an analytical model based on a refined plate theory (RPT) with five unknown independent variables. The theory accounts for the parabolic distribution of the transverse shear strains through the plate thickness and satisfies the zero-traction boundary condition on the surface without using shear correction factors; hence a shear correction factor is not required. The governing differential equations and associated boundary conditions are derived by using the virtual work principle and solved via Navier-type analytical procedure to obtain critica
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