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The purpose of this paper is to present novel search formulations in gradient‐type methods for prediction of boundary heat flux distribution in two‐dimensional nonlinear heat conduction problems.

The performance of gradient‐type methods is strongly contingent upon the effective determination of the search direction. Based on the definition of this parameter, gradient‐based methods such as steepest descent, various versions of both conjugate gradient and quasi‐Newton can be distinguished. By introducing new search techniques, several examples in the presence of noise in data are studied and discussed to verify the accuracy and efficiency of the present strategies.

The verification of the proposed methods for recovering time and space varying heat flux. The performance of the proposed methods via comparisons with the classical methods involved in its derivation.

The innovation of the present method is to use a hybridization of a conjugate gradient and a quasi‐Newton method to determine the search directions in gradient‐based approaches.

Because of its increased absorptance in fluid and reduced heat loss, direct absorption nanofluid (DANF) is receiving intense interest as an efficient way to harvest solar energy. This work aims to investigate, for the first time, the application of DANF in parabolic trough collectors (PTC), a promising collector for solar thermal systems.

A representative flow and heat transfer study of different fluids in a straight tube is conducted, and the basic energy equation and radiative transfer equations are numerically solved to obtain the fluid temperature distribution and energy conversion efficiency. Ethylene glycol (EG) and different concentrations of (i.e., 0.1-0.6 per cent) multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) in EG are used as sample fluids. Four cases are studied for a traditional PTC (i.e., using metal tube) and a direct absorption PTC (i.e., using transparent tube) including a bare tube, a tube with an air-filled glass envelope and a tube with vacuumed glass envelop. The numerical results are verified by an experimental study using a copper-glass absorber tube, which reveals the good potential of DANFs.

Compared with a conventional PTC, using DANF shows an increase of 8.6 per cent and 6.5 K, respectively, in thermal efficiency and outlet temperature difference at a volume fraction (0.5 per cent) of nanoparticles. The results also show that the improvement in solar efficiency increases with increasing particle concentrations, and the vacuum insulated case has the highest efficiency.

In all previous studies, an important section was missing as the effect of photons on the direct solar absorption trough collector, which is considered in this study. This paper proposes a new concept of using direct solar absorption nanofluids for concentrated solar collectors and analyzes the performance of both absorptance and transmittance efficiency considerations. To reveal the potential of the new concept, an analytical model based on energy balance is developed, and two case studies are performed.

This study aims to investigate the direct impact of knowledge sharing (KS) and functional flexibility (FF) on innovative work behavior (IWB) of small medium enterprises (SME’s) employees. This study also observes the mediating role of FF in the connection between KS and IWB.

This study adapted a quantitative methodology and used the cross-sectional data. Data were collected from the 751 workers of SMEs to validate the mediation model.

Results reveal that KS and FF significantly affect IWB in SME’s workers. The findings also reveal that FF acts as a mediator between KS and IWB link.

The live experience of currently working employees shows that IWB is dependent of employees' KS and FF. Moreover, this study contributed to the streams of knowledge management and organizational innovation perspective by emphasizing upon the mediating mechanism of FF.