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Swelling and Temperature Increase Modelling of Ionized Porous Hydrogels for Solar Vapor Generation using FEM

Simyarian, Mahdi | 2024

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 57324 (08)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Mechanical Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Naghdabadi, Reza
  7. Abstract:
  8. The concern of water shortage in the past years has caused special attention to advanced water purification technologies. Using solar steam generators to separate water from impurities has made us use both renewable solar energy and provide potable water. For solar radiation, the maximum steam production capacity is theoretically 0.7kg/(m^2 h), which is a small amount. To increase this capacity, advanced materials and structure design are needed to improve the heat capacity of the converter by reducing heat loss and better converting solar energy into heat energy. One of the advanced materials used to improve water purification efficiency is hydrogel containing metal nanoparticles. These materials, in addition to the ability to pass water, also have the ability to absorb it. The purpose of this research is to model the swelling of ionized porous hydrogel and its temperature increase for use in solar evaporation converter, using the finite element method. To simulate fluid penetration in hydrogel containing light-absorbing nanoparticles, chemical potential, electric potential difference between hydrogel and fluid, and functional groups of hydrogel chains are effective. Flory-Renner equations have been used to model hydrogel swelling.To perform finite element modeling, weak form equations have been implemented in Comsol, then using this software, the modeling of solar radiation to the surface of ionized porous hydrogel, the production steam capacity and the increase in hydrogel temperature have been calculated. Using the performed modeling, a parametric study of the steam production process in the solar converter has been carried out. The effective parameters for increasing the efficiency of the solar converter are the type of hydrogel, the type of metal nanoparticle and its volume ratio. According to the results, for the gold nanoparticle, which has the best performance among the studied particles, the highest vapor production rate is 12% by volume, but for copper and silver sulfate nanoparticles, the highest vapor production rate is 15-18%, respectively, and adding more nanoparticles has an effect. It does not improve steam production rate. Also, in the case of the type of hydrogel, the denser the polymer network, the lower the swelling rate of the hydrogel, and as a result, the steam production rate increases. By using the results of this research, it is possible to make more economical solar steam generators by reducing the number of laboratory tests
  9. Keywords:
  10. Solar Vapor Generation ; Nanoparticles ; Ionized Porous Hydrogel ; Swelling Hydrogel ; Metallic Nanoparticles

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