To enhance the performance of a solar collector, the
absorption of energy from the sun should be increased
and heat losses to the surroundings (such as the reflection
of sun’s radiation, radiation from the hot surface of the
collector, and heat lost by convection from the collector
to the surroundings) should be decreased. Also, the rate
of heat transfer from the absorber plate to the working
fluid and from the fluid to the end user should be improved
(Javadi et al., 2013). Therefore, enhancement of the thermal
properties of the working fluid by using a nanofluid
in order to transfer the maximum amount of heat from
the absorber plate to the end users is one way to improve
the thermal efficiency of a solar collector (Wang and
Mujumdar, 2007; Godson et al., 2010; Javadi et al., 2013).