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.
Background: The purpose of this study was to assess the relation among the ramal length and width with various cervical and cranio-facial measurements for a sample of Iraqi adults with different skeletal classes. Materials and method: The sample composed of 71 Iraqi adults (36 females and 35 males) with an age ranged between 17-30 years and had different skeletal mal-relations using SNA, SNB and ANB to differentiate between them and assorting them into CL.I, CL.II and CL.III mal-relation. Each individual was subjected to clinical examination and digital true lateral cephalometric radiograph that had been analyzed using AutoCAD 2007 software computer program to determine sixteen linear and ten angular measurements. Descriptive statistics wer
... Show MoreIn this work, chemical and thermal treatment were used to enhance silica extract on the purity of rice husk and to reduce the impurities associated with the extraction of silica. The thermal degradation of rice husk was studied. The characteristics and thermal degradation behavior of rice husk which investigated using thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA). Hydrochloric acid was used to soak the rice husk and the study of leaching influence is followed by XRF tests for samples before and after the combustion process. Acid treatment and combustion method seem to have a clear effect on silica purity. The pyrolysis processes were carried out at Laboratory temperature up to 650 oC in the presence of nitrogen gas flowing at 150 ml/min. The effect o
... Show MoreThe increasing population growth resulting in the tremendous increase in consumption of fuels, energy, and petrochemical products and coupled with the depletion in conventional crude oil reserves and production make it imperative for Nigeria to explore her bitumen reserves so as to meet her energy and petrochemicals needs. Samples of Agbabu bitumen were subjected to thermal cracking in a tubular steel reactor operated at 10 bar pressure to investigate the effect of temperature on the cracking reaction. The gas produced was analyzed in a Gas Chromatograph while the liquid products were subjected to Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. Heptane was the dominant gas produced in bitumen cracking at all temperatures and the r
... Show MoreEffect of the thermal annealing at 400oC for 2 hours and Argon laser radiation for half hour on the optical properties of AgAlS2 thin films, prepared on glass slides by chemical spray pyrolysis at 360oC with (0.18±0.05) μm thickness .The optical characteristics of the prepared thin films have been investigated by UV/Vis spectrophotometer in the wavelength range (300 – 1100)nm .The films have a direct allow electronic transition with optical energy (Eg) values decreased from (2.25) eV for untreated thin films to (2.10) eV for the annealed films and to (2.00) eV for the radiated films. The maximum value of the refractive index (n) for all thin films are given about (2.6). Also the extinction coefficient (K) and the real and imaginary d
... Show MoreThe physical, the thermal and the mechanical properties of Nano-composites, that consisted of Polyprime EP epoxy that reinforced by multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), have been studied. Various loading ratios, 0.1, 0.5, and 1 wt. %of MWCNT shave been infused into epoxy by a magnetic stirrer and then the hardener mixed with the mthat supplied with the epoxy. All sample shave been cutting using CNC machine. Tensile test, three-point bending, hardness tests, lee's disk, differential scanning calorimetry, water absorption and dielectric and electrical conductivity test were utilized on unfilled, MWCNT-filled epoxy to identify the loading effect on the properties of materials. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to determine the
... Show MoreBackground: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of thermo cycling and different pH of artificial saliva (neutral, acidic, basic) on impact and transverse strength of heat cure acrylic resin reinforced of with 5% silanated ZrO2 nano fillers. Materials and methods: 120 samples were prepared, 60 samples for impact strength test and another 60 samples for transverse strength test, for each test, samples were divided into two major groups (before and after thermo cycling), then each of these major groups were further subdivided into 3 subgroups according to the pH of prepared artificial saliva (neutral, acidic, basic). Charpy impact device was used for impact strength test and Flexural device was used for transverse strength test. R
... Show MoreBackground: In this study we evaluate the effect of plasma treatment (oxygen and argon) gas in two different exposure times on the surface of heat cure and light cure acrylic resin. Materials and method: 100 specimens of heat cure and light cure acrylic resin were fabricated. The measurements of the samples were (75mm, 25mm and 4.5mm) length, width and depth respectively with stopper of 3mm depth. Two types of gas used oxygen and argon in (5,10) min by using (DC-glow discharge plasma device) then we apply cold cure soft lining material, with the help of Instron machine we test the shear stress value. Results: A highly significant effect after argon and oxygen gases treatment in both 5 and 10 min exposure times on shear bond strength to soft
... Show More<span lang="EN-US">The fundamental of a downlink massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) energy- issue efficiency strategy is known as minimum mean squared error (MMSE) implementation degrades the performance of a downlink massive MIMO energy-efficiency scheme, so some improvements are adding for this precoding scheme to improve its workthat is called our proposal solution as a proposed improved MMSE precoder (PIMP). The energy efficiency (EE) study has also taken into mind drastically lowering radiated power while maintaining high throughput and minimizing interference issues. We further find the tradeoff between spectral efficiency (SE) and EE although they coincide at the beginning but later their interests become con
... Show MoreDue to the urgent need to develop technologies for continuous glucose monitoring in diabetes individuals, poten tial research has been applied by invoking the microwave tech niques. Therefore, this work presents a novel technique based on a single port microwave circuit, antenna structure, based on Metamaterial (MTM) transmission line defected patch for sensing the blood glucose level in noninvasive process. For that, the proposed antenna is invoked to measure the blood glu cose through the field leakages penetrated to the human blood through the skin. The proposed sensor is constructed from a closed loop connected to an interdigital capacitor to magnify the electric field fringing at the patch center. The proposed an tenna sensor i
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