Enhancement of the performance of bubble absorber using hybrid nanofluid as a cooled absorption system

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the enhancement of the performance of bubble absorber using hybrid nanofluid as a cooled NH₃/H₂O absorption system to reduce their size and to find the best fitting model. A numerical model for ammonia-water bubble absorber was developed to show the influence of operating conditions and design parameters on the absorber performance.

Design/methodology/approach

A finite difference numerical method is used to solve the numerical model. The model is subjected to the inlet conditions of liquid, vapor and coolant flow regimes. The absorber modeling was divided into small elements along the absorber length.

Findings

The model proposed is validated with previously published works. Then agreement between the both is considered as good.

Research limitations/implications

Numerical results/The use of hybrid nanofluids.

Originality/value

The results showed that the hybrid nanofluid is the best cooling medium. Very high heat transfer rates are obtained because of the high thermal conductivity and specific heat of hybrid nanofluid, and consequently, the absorber size decreases. It was also found that the absorber thermal load and the mass absorption flux increase with increasing of solid volume fraction. Also, the existence of an optimal absorber length was revealed, required for complete absorption when using hybrid nanofluid as a cooling medium. It is recommended that using hybrid nanofluid to remove the heat from the absorber is the best candidate for NH₃/H₂O absorption performance enhancement.

Citation

Ben Jaballah, R., Ben Hamida, M.B., Saleh, J. and Almeshaal, M.A. (2019), "Enhancement of the performance of bubble absorber using hybrid nanofluid as a cooled absorption system", International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, Vol. 29 No. 10, pp. 3857-3871. https://doi.org/10.1108/HFF-05-2018-0212