CFD Analysis of a solar flat plate collector with different cross sections
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29019/enfoque.v11n2.601Keywords:
Solar collector, cross section, efficiency, ANSYS Fluent, CFD.Abstract
Low and medium solar heating systems used for domestic and industrial applications, such as water and space heating, usually utilize solar flat plate collectors in order to absorb solar thermal energy converting it into heat and then transferring the heat to a fluid (usually water or air) that flows through it. The aim of this study is to evaluate the solar flat plate collector’s efficiency and the fluid behavior inside the pipeline with three different cross sections, whose hydraulic diameters are 10, 5.12 and 6.16 mm, by using ANSYS Fluent. The results obtained from the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tool showed that the collector with the Type I cross section reached temperatures up to 330 K at the pipe outlet obtaining an efficiency of 68 %, higher than those of Types II and III, whose efficiencies were 51 % and 60 %, respectively. Type I cross section also presented the lowest values in both speed and pressure drop, these being 0.266 m/s and 108.3 Pa, respectively.
Downloads
References
ANSYS Fluent Theory Guide 12.0. (2009, Abril).
ANSYS Fluent User Guide. (2012, Noviembre).
Basavanna, S., & Shashishekar, K. (2013). CFD Analysis of triangular absorber tube of a solar flat plate collector. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, 2 (1): 19-24.
Birhanu, G., Ramayya, A. & Shunki, G. (2016). Computational Fluid Dynamic Simulation and Experimental Testing of a Serpentine Flat Plate Solar Water Heater. International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 7 (10): 320-333.
Eisenmann, W., Wiese, F., Vajen, K. & Ackermann, H. (2000). Experimental investigations of serpentine-flow flat-plate collectors. Philipps-Universität Marburg, D-35032 Marburg, Germany.
Gunjo, D. G., Mahanta, P. & Robi, P. S. (2017). CFD and experimental investigation of flat plate solar water heating system under steady state condition. Renewable Energy, 106: 24-36.
Ingle, P., Pawar, A., Deshmukh, B. & Bhosale, K. (2013). CFD Analysis of Solar Flat Plate Collector. International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering, 3 (4): 337-342.
Kannan, N., & Vakeesan, D. (2016). Solar energy for future world: -A review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 62: 1092-1106.
Karanth, K., Madhwesh , N., Kumar, S. & Manjunath, M. (2015). Numerical and experimental study of a solar water heater for enhancement in thermal performance. International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology, 4 (3): 548-553.
Li, Q., Liu, Y., Guo, S. & Zhou, H. (2017). Solar energy storage in the rechargeable batteries. Nano Today, 16: 46-60.
Madhukeshwara, N. & Prakash, E. (2012). An investigation on the performance characteristics of solar flat plate collector with different selective surface coatings. International Journal of Energy & Environment, 3: 99-108.
Marroquín-De Jesús, Á., Olivares-Ramírez, J. M., Jiménez-Sandoval, O., Zamora-Antuñano, M. A. & Encinas-Oropesa , A. (2013). Analysis of Flow and Heat Transfer in a Flat Solar Collector with Rectangular and Cylindrical Geometry Using CFD. Ingeniería Investigación y Tecnología, 14 (4): 553-561.
Matrawy, K. K. & Farkas, I. (1997). Comparison study for three types of solar collector for water heating. Energy Conversion and Management, 38: 861–869.
Mesa, F. (2006). Colector solar de placa plana. Bogotá: Energía Solar.
Muhammed Yarshi, K. A. & Benny, P. (2015). Analysis of Heat Transfer Performance of Flat Plate Solar Collector using CFD. International Journal of Science, Engineering and Technology Research, 4 (10): 3576-3580.
Mukesh Manilal, K. (2016). Design, CFD Analysis and Fabrication of Solar Flat Plate Collector. International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology, 3 (1): 1000-1004.
Myrna, D. K. S., & Beckman, W. (1998). Analysis of serpentine collectors in low flow systems. Solar Energy Laboratory University of Wisconsin-Madison 1500 Engineering Drive Madison, WI 53706.
Prakash, B., Vishnuprasad, B. & Ramana, V. (2013). Performance study on effect of nano coatings on liquid flat plate collector: An experimental approach. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, 2 (4): 379-384.
Prasad, P., Byregowda, H. & Gangavati, P. (2010). Experiment Analysis of Flat Plate Collector and Comparison of Performance with Tracking Collector. European Journal of Scientific Research, 40 (1): 144-155.
Ranjitha, P., Somashekar, V. & Jamuna, A. (2013). Analysis of Solar Flat Plate Collector for Circular Pipe Configuration by using CFD. International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT), 2(12), 3356-3362.
Selmi, M., Al-Khawaja, M. & Marafia, A. (2008). Validation of CFD simulation for flat plate solar energy collector. Renewable Energy, 33 (3): 383-387.
Shelke, V., & Patil, C. (2015). Analyze the Effect of Variations in Shape of Tubes for Flat Plate Solar Water Heater. International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Research (IJSER), 3 (4): 118-124.
Sopian, K., Syahri, M., Abdullah, S., Othman, M. & Yatim, B. (2004). Performance of a non-metallic unglazed solar water heater with integrated storage system. Renewable Energy, 29 (9): 1421-1430.
Vasudeva Karanth, K., Manjunath, M. & Yagnesh Sharma, N. (2011). Numerical Simulation of a Solar Flat Plate Collector using Discrete Transfer Radiation Model (DTRM) – A CFD Approach. Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering, 3.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Enfoque UTE
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
The articles and research published by the UTE University are carried out under the Open Access regime in electronic format. This means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access. By submitting an article to any of the scientific journals of the UTE University, the author or authors accept these conditions.
The UTE applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license to articles in its scientific journals. Under this open access license, as an author you agree that anyone may reuse your article in whole or in part for any purpose, free of charge, including commercial purposes. Anyone can copy, distribute or reuse the content as long as the author and original source are correctly cited. This facilitates freedom of reuse and also ensures that content can be extracted without barriers for research needs.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 International (CC BY 3.0).
The Enfoque UTE journal guarantees and declares that authors always retain all copyrights and full publishing rights without restrictions [© The Author(s)]. Acknowledgment (BY): Any exploitation of the work is allowed, including a commercial purpose, as well as the creation of derivative works, the distribution of which is also allowed without any restriction.
Enfoque UTE - Facultad de Ciencias de la Ingeniería e Industrias - Universidad UTE
