Open Access

ARTICLE

Influence of Particle Size Distribution on the Optical Properties of Fine-Dispersed Suspensions

by Dmitrii Kuzmenkov^1,*, Pavel Struchalin^1,2, Yulia Litvintsova¹, Maksim Delov¹, Vladimir Skrytnyy¹, Kirill Kutsenko¹

1 National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute), Moscow, 115409, Russian Federation
2 Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, 5063, Norway

* Corresponding Author: Dmitrii Kuzmenkov. Email:

Fluid Dynamics & Materials Processing 2022, 18(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.32604/fdmp.2022.018526

Received 30 July 2021; Accepted 04 September 2021; Issue published 10 November 2021

Abstract

Nanofluids have great potential for solar energy harvesting due to their suitable optical and thermophysical properties. One of the promising applications of nanofluids is utilization in solar collectors with the direct absorption of light (DASC). The design of a DASC requires detailed knowledge of the optical properties of nanofluids, which can be significantly affected by the particle size distribution. The paper presents the method to take into account the particle size distribution when calculating nanofluid extinction spectra. To validate the proposed model, the particle size distribution and spectral absorbance were measured for aqueous suspension with multi-walled graphite nanotubes; the minimum size of primary nanoparticles was 49 nm. The proposed model is compared with experiments demonstrating the concentration averaged and maximum discrepancies of 6.6% and 32.2% against 12.6% and 77.7% for a model assuming a monosized suspension.

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