Gas radiative effects on gas-filled flat plate solar collectors

2019 ◽  
Vol 97 (10) ◽  
pp. 1115-1124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khosro Lari ◽  
Ali Tarokh ◽  
Mohammad Naghizadeh

A standard thermal solar collector can be used for both hot water production and air heating purposes. Gas-filled solar collectors represent a new emerging design approach with enhanced characteristics. In this research, numerical modeling is utilized to study radiative effects of the participating gases on the performance of solar collectors. The coupled radiative–convective heat transfer in the solar collector is considered and the collector cavity is considered as a radiatively participating medium. The finite volume method has been adopted to solve the governing equations and discrete ordinates method is used for radiative transfer. After validating the model used in this study, it is used to obtain the heat transfer characteristics of a flat-plate solar collector with real solar conditions of the city of Kerman, Iran, in summer at a wide range of air absorption coefficients. According to the results, by increasing the absorption coefficient of the air, the temperature of the absorber plate is reduced and the air temperature is increased, but the increase of air temperature is much higher than the reduction of absorber temperature. Hence, it is concluded that it is possible to use participating gases in the solar air heaters to enhance the performance of the collector.

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.


2014 ◽  
Vol 90 ◽  
pp. 364-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rehena Nasrin ◽  
Salma Parvin ◽  
M.A. Alim

Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 1508
Author(s):  
Nagesh Babu Balam ◽  
Tabish Alam ◽  
Akhilesh Gupta ◽  
Paolo Blecich

The natural convection flow in the air gap between the absorber plate and glass cover of the flat plate solar collectors is predominantly evaluated based on the lumped capacitance method, which does not consider the spatial temperature gradients. With the recent advancements in the field of computational fluid dynamics, it became possible to study the natural convection heat transfer in the air gap of solar collectors with spatially resolved temperature gradients in the laminar regime. However, due to the relatively large temperature gradient in this air gap, the natural convection heat transfer lies in either the transitional regime or in the turbulent regime. This requires a very high grid density and a large convergence time for existing CFD methods. Higher order numerical methods are found to be effective for resolving turbulent flow phenomenon. Here we develop a non-dimensional transient numerical model for resolving the turbulent natural convection heat transfer in the air gap of a flat plate solar collector, which is fourth order accurate in both spatial and temporal domains. The developed model is validated against benchmark results available in the literature. An error of less than 5% is observed for the top heat loss coefficient parameter of the flat plate solar collector. Transient flow characteristics and various stages of natural convection flow development have been discussed. In addition, it was observed that the occurrence of flow mode transitions have a significant effect on the overall natural convection heat transfer.


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.


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