scholarly journals Investigation of Performance of Solar Flat and Curved Plate Collectors through Numerical Simulations

Author(s):  
Luqman Ahmed Pirzada ◽  
Xiaoli Wu . ◽  
Qaiser Ali ◽  
Asif Khateeb .

Solar energy is radiant light as a form of thermal heat energy which can be obtained and used by means of a variety of solar apparatus. As apparatus the flat and curved plate solar collector is specifically designed for assembling solar energy as a solar water heater system. The designing potency of this collector lone can generate medium level hot water from radiant sunlight source via absorbed plates. Standard type flat and curved plates solar collector plates are mostly used in remote coldest regions of the world where hot water is consumed for commercial and domestic purposes. These types of solar collector Plates can cheaply be manufactured compared to other solar panels like solar Shingles, Polycrystalline Solar Panels, Mono-crystalline Solar Panels, and Thin Film Solar Panels. For future work, this proposed pre-design is recommended for fabrication. A numerical study was carried-out on eight city locations in China by tracing their horizontal and vertical longitudinal, latitudinal lines noting the date, time and sunlight feeding of temperatures in the Celsius scale with the help of simulation and modeling tools like CFD, ANSYS FLUENT software, mesh geometry tools, and by using the Navier-Stokes and Continuity equations by fluid flow discharge rate, mass flow, water temperature and dropping of temperature, radiation working mechanisms, dimensions of water flowing tubes and absorber plates, density, the velocity of water as the working fluid, the viscosity of water in a cold and hot state as a process of Pre-design. Work also focuses on the comparison between flat plate collector and curved plate collector radiant sunlight absorption, As end result it is found the Curved plate collector produces 22% more elevated heat of outgoing water than flat plate collector.

2013 ◽  
Vol 368-370 ◽  
pp. 1228-1231
Author(s):  
Fen E Hu ◽  
Sheng Xian Wei ◽  
Neng Bang Hou

A solar radiation model to determine solar energy collection on solar collector array with different aspect ratios has been developed. The relations between the aspect ratio and the average daily solar radiation collection on the collector array have been deeply studied. The results show that there is an optimum aspect ratio to maximize the solar energy collection on the collector arrays. The optimum aspect ratios of the 1000 m2 collector array for Haikou, Kunming, Lhasa and Beijing are 10/1, 1/3, 5/1 and 10/1.The optimum aspect ratios of 1000 m2, 500 m2, 200 m2 and 100 m2 collector arrays for Kunming are 1/3, 3/1, 7/1 and 1/5, respectively.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 90-97
Author(s):  
Basil Noori Merzah ◽  
Majid H. Majeed ◽  
Fouad A. Saleh

In this work, a system of a heat pipe is implemented to improve the performance of flat plate solar collector. The model is represented by square shape portion of the evaporator section of wicked heat pipe with a constant total length of 510 mm, and the evaporator section inclined by an angle of 30o. In this models the evaporator, adiabatic and condenser lengths are 140mm, 140mm, and 230mm respectively. The omitted energies from sunlight simulator are 200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000 W/m2 which is close to the normal solar energy in Iraq. The working fluid for all models is water with fill charge ratio of 240%. The efficiency of the solar collector is investigated with three values of condenser inlet water temperatures, namely (12, 16 and 20o C). The numerical result showed an optimum volume flow rate of cooling water in condenser at which the efficiency of collector is a maximum. This optimum agree well with the ASHRAE standard volume of flow rate for conventional tasting for flat plate solar collector. When the radiation incident increases the thermal resistance of wicked heat pipe is decreases, where the heat transfer from the evaporator to condenser increases. The numerical results showed the performance of solar collector with square shape evaporator greater than other types of evaporator as a ratio 15 %.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (11) ◽  
pp. 108-110
Author(s):  
Shiv Kumar Tripathi ◽  
Mohammad Azim Aijaz

The analysis of thermal performance of the flat-plate collector includes parameters such as solar intensity, ambient temperature and configuration of flat-plate collectors etc. A Solar Water Heater are devices which are provides hot water for bathing, washing, cleaning, etc. using of solar energy. It is generally installed where sunlight are available. The solar energy is the most capable of the alternative energy sources. Solar energy is considered an attractive source of renewable energy that can be used for water hearing in both homes and industry.


2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Himanshu Tyagi ◽  
Patrick Phelan ◽  
Ravi Prasher

Due to its renewable and nonpolluting nature, solar energy is often used in applications such as electricity generation, thermal heating, and chemical processing. The most cost-effective solar heaters are of the “flat-plate” type, but these suffer from relatively low efficiency and outlet temperatures. The present study theoretically investigates the feasibility of using a nonconcentrating direct absorption solar collector (DAC) and compares its performance with that of a typical flat-plate collector. Here a nanofluid—a mixture of water and aluminum nanoparticles—is used as the absorbing medium. A two-dimensional heat transfer analysis was developed in which direct sunlight was incident on a thin flowing film of nanofluid. The effects of absorption and scattering within the nanofluid were accounted for. In order to evaluate the temperature profile and intensity distribution within the nanofluid, the energy balance equation and heat transport equation were solved numerically. It was observed that the presence of nanoparticles increases the absorption of incident radiation by more than nine times over that of pure water. According to the results obtained from this study, under similar operating conditions, the efficiency of a DAC using nanofluid as the working fluid is found to be up to 10% higher (on an absolute basis) than that of a flat-plate collector. Generally a DAC using nanofluids as the working fluid performs better than a flat-plate collector, however, much better designed flat-plate collectors might be able to match or outperform a nanofluids based DAC under certain conditions.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. T. Nitsas ◽  
I. P. Koronaki ◽  
L. Prentza

The utilization of solar energy in thermal energy systems was and always be one of the most effective alternative to conventional energy resources. Energy efficiency is widely used as one of the most important parameters in order to evaluate and compare thermal systems including solar collectors. Nevertheless, the first law of thermodynamics is not solely capable of describing the quantitative and qualitative performance of such systems and thus exergy efficiency is used so as to introduce the systems’ quality. In this work, the performance of a flat plate solar collector using water based nanofluids of different nanoparticle types as a working fluid is analyzed theoretically under the climatic conditions in Greece based on the First and Second Law of Thermodynamics. A mathematical model is built and the model equations are solved iteratively in a MATLAB code. The energy and exergy efficiencies as well as the collector losses coefficient for various parameters such as the inlet temperature, the particles concentration and type are determined. Moreover, a dynamic model is built so as to determine the performance of a flat plate collector working with nanofluids and the useful energy that can be stored in a water tank. The exergy destruction and exergy leakage are determined for a typical day in summer during which high temperatures and solar intensity values are common for the Greek climate.


2021 ◽  
pp. 100028
Author(s):  
L. Syam Sundar ◽  
V. Punnaiah ◽  
Manoj K. Singh ◽  
António M.B. Pereira ◽  
António C.M. Sousa

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Ferrández ◽  
Carlos Moron ◽  
Jorge Pablo Díaz ◽  
Pablo Saiz

ResumenEl actual Código Técnico de la Edificación (CTE) pone de manifiesto la necesidad de cubrir parte de la demanda energética requerida para el abastecimiento de agua caliente sanitaria y climatización de piscinas cubiertas mediante sistemas de aprovechamiento de la energía solar térmica. En este artículo se presenta una comparativa entre las dos principales tipologías de captadores solares térmicos que existen en el mercado: el captador de placa plana y el captador de tubo de vacío, atendiendo a criterios de fracción solar, diseño e integración arquitectónica. Todo ello a fin de discernir en qué circunstancias es más favorable el uso de uno u otro sistema, comparando los resultados obtenidos mediante programas de simulación con la toma de medidas in situ.AbstractThe current Technical Building Code (CTE) highlights the need to cover part of the energy demand required for the supply of hot water and heating of indoor swimming pools using solar thermal systems. This article presents a comparison between the two main types of solar thermal collectors that exist in the market: the flat plate solar collector and the vacuum tube solar collector, according to criteria of solar fraction, design and architectural integration. All of this in order to discern in what circumstances the use of one or the other system is more favourable, comparing the results obtained through simulation programs with the taking of measurements in situ.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carola Sánchez ◽  
José Macías ◽  
Jonathan León ◽  
Geancarlos Zamora ◽  
Guillermo Soriano

Passive solar water heating (SWH) is a convenient method to meet domestic hot water requirements in rural areas, where electricity may not be available or fuel supply might be limited due to difficult access. In this work, a low-cost thermosiphon flat-plate solar collector alternative is presented. The design was purposely limited to materials and recyclable products widely available in the local market, such as Tetra Pak, plastic bottles, and polypropylene (PP) fittings and pipes. Since PP is a thermoplastic polymer, a poor heat conductor, it was necessary to ensure a suitable system isolation to obtain an optimum thermal performance, comparable to commercial solar collectors. The design was built and tested in Guayaquil, Ecuadorian coastal city. Six inexpensive temperature sensors were placed at the entrance and exit of the collector, on the flat-plate and inside the hot water storage tank. Data was recorded using an Arduino single-board computer and later analyzed with the data gathered via weather station. The implementation costs of the system are approximately US$300, the overall performance during January 2017 fluctuated between 54% and 23%, and the storage tank temperature range varied from to 46°C to 33°C. Due to its reliability and affordable cost, the SWH system is an attractive alternative to an Ecuadorian commercial solar flat plate collector, which price is set between US$600 and US$700, it has an efficiency around 60%, and the average annual storage tank temperature is 62°C.


Author(s):  
Mustafa Aktaş ◽  
Meltem Koşan ◽  
Erhan Arslan ◽  
Azim Doğuş Tuncer

The integrated usage of solar energy systems, heat pump applications, and thermal energy storage units is an effective way for heating systems due to their sustainability and stability in operations. In this study, a novel direct solar-assisted heat pump with thermal energy system has been designed which uses the solar collector as the evaporator of the heat pump. Besides, two-dimensional transient numeric analyses have been conducted for the thermal energy storage unit using the ANSYS Fluent 16.2 commercial software package. With this direct system, the heat required for heating systems is supplied from the condenser with the heat received from the solar collector of the working fluid. For an effective and high performance system, the solar collector is designed as a double-pass which provided superheating of the working fluid. It is aimed to store the surplus energy from the solar energy in the thermal energy storage unit and to operate the system continuously and efficiently in both sunny and overcast weather conditions. Furthermore, the system has been analyzed theoretically and the results show that coefficient of performance may improve. As a result, this newly designed system can be successfully applied for thermal applications.


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