Low thermal conductivity is the main drawback of using paraffin wax as a latent heat thermal storage material in the solar air heater (SAH). In order to overcome this drawback, an absorber plate with extended surfaces through the paraffin wax was used. Two extended surface absorbers were used: a flat plate attached with downward fins and a V-corrugated plate. For the purpose of comparison, the SAH integrated with paraffin wax was tested using three proposed types of the absorber plate: flat, downward finned, and V-corrugated plates. The results showed superiority of the downward finned plate during the day. But the V-corrugated SAH remains the best choice for the applications in which the hot air is mostly needed during night as it is continuously operated for 7 h after sunset with the outlet air temperature of 8–11 °C more than the ambient air temperature.

This paper presents a three-dimensional numerical analysis of a flat plate solar air heater in the presence of a pin fin array using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software tool ansys fluent 16.2. The effect of geometric parameters of pin fins as well as the flow Reynolds number (4000–24,000) on the effective efficiency is evaluated. The longitudinal pitch (P L ) of pin fin array is varied as 30 mm, 40 mm, and 50 mm and the diameter (D w ) is varied as 1.0 mm, 1.6 mm, and 2.2 mm. The results show that the presence of pin fins generate considerable enhancement in fluid turbulence as well as heat transfer area to a maximum extent of about 53.8%. The maximum average increase in instantaneous thermal efficiency is found to be about 14.2% higher as compared with the base model for the fin diameter of 2.2 mm and a longitudinal pitch value of 30 mm. In terms of effective efficiency, the pin fin array exhibits significant enhancement, especially at lower flow rate conditions. Finally, the effective efficiency of the pin fin array is compared with the previous work of authors involving spherical turbulators and sinewave corrugations on the absorber plate. The results show that the pin fin array exhibits a relatively superior effective efficiency to a maximum extent of about 73% for lower flow rate conditions.

The present study deals with the experimental performance of a Marquise shaped channel solar flat-plate collector using Al 2 O 3 /water nanofluid and base fluid (pure water). The experimental setup comprises a special type of solar flat plate collector, closed working fluid systems, and the measurement devices. The absorber plate is made of two aluminum plates sandwiched together with Marquise-shaped flow channels. The volume fraction of 0.1% of Al 2 O 3 /water nanofluid is used for this study. The various parameters used to investigate performance of the collector energy and exergy efficiency are collector inlet and outlet fluid temperatures, mass flow rate of the fluid, solar radiation, and ambient temperature. The flow rate of nanofluid and water varies from 1 to 5 lpm. The maximum energy efficiencies attained are 83.17% and 59.72%, whereas the maximum exergy efficiencies obtained are 18.73% and 12.29% for the 20 nm—Al 2 O 3 /water nanofluids and pure water, respectively, at the flow rate of 3 lpm. These higher efficiencies may be due to the use of nanofluids and the sophisticated design of the absorber plate with the Marquise shaped channel.

The solar energy is a renewable source that has a great potential for conversion into thermal energy or for generation of electric power through photovoltaic panels in Brazil. Concerns about environmental impacts and the fossil resources scarcity have motivated the technological development of renewable alternatives to fill out the energy matrix. The flat-plate solar water heater is an equipment used for domestic or commercial applications to heat fluids, which can minimize the demand for electric energy and, consequently, decrease the electrical bill. However, the development of technologies to increase the conversion of solar energy into thermal energy remains a challenge in order to increase the efficiency of these devices. Thus, passive techniques to enhance heat transfer have been applied and those results seem to be promissory. Among them, delta-winglet longitudinal vortex generator (VG) is a consolidated passive technique currently applied on compact heat exchangers, although few works have been applied this technique on the solar water heater. By a computational fluid dynamics approach, in this work, we analyze the augmentation of heat transfer through delta-winglet longitudinal vortex generator inside a tube of a flat-plate solar water heater. For the Reynolds numbers 300, 600, and 900, the better ratio between the heat transfer and the pressure drop penalty is found for the attack angle of the delta-winglet of 30 deg, while the highest heat transfer was to the attack angle of 45 deg. Moreover, the first vortex generators showed significant impact only on the friction factor and could be eliminated of the solar water heater with no penalty to the heat transfer.

Concentrated solar power (CSP) is a mature and efficient technology to cater the large-scale demand of hot water. Conventional reflectors/mirrors in CSP share 50% of total system cost. High installation as well as O&M cost is the major concern in reflector-based CSP. Apart from the above, manufacturing defects and adverse service environment cause premature degradation of reflectors and substantial drop in efficiency and service life. Performance analysis of an innovative optically concentrated solar water heater (OCSWH) using plurality of Fresnel lenses of poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) is presented in the work. Size and yield of any solar water heater (SWH) are mainly dependent on its aperture area, output temperature, and mass flow rate, which are termed herein as critical parameters. Series of experimentations is carried out by varying critical design and operating parameters viz. aperture area, outlet temperature, and rate of mass flow, and similar experimentation is also carried out on commercially available flat plate SWH to compare its performance. Loss of heat from riser and header pipes is restricted by application of effective insulation. Substantial improvement in collector efficiency, increase in rate of mass flow, and rise in discharge temperature with reference to flat plate collector are noted. Economics is also studied covering life cycle cost (LCC), life cycle saving (LCS), and energy payback period.

In recent years, solar PV/T water collectors have been identified as one of the most promising hybrid devices. It is a combination of solar photovoltaic (PV) and solar flat plate collector (FPC) systems capable of generating electrical and thermal power simultaneously. This study presents a model which predicts solar PV/T collector power output using fuzzy logic techniques. A fuzzy logic model was established to predict power output of PV/T with respect to changes in input process and FPC output power. Membership functions were allocated in connection with each model input. Experimental tests conducted during the month of December 2016 are compared with the developed fuzzy model to verify predicted results. The results indicate an agreement between fuzzy model and experimental results with an accuracy of 94.38% and error of 5.62%.

In this study, the exergetic performance of a flat plate solar collector (FPSC) setup with ZnO-based ethylene glycol (EG)/water nanofluid as a working fluid has been evaluated against that of EG/water. As a passive means to augment the rate of heat transfer, internally grooved tubes of two different pitches (e = 0.43 and e = 0.44) have been examined and compared against the performance of plain tube. The mass flow rate was fixed at 0.015 kg/s and the volume fraction of ZnO nanoparticles is ф = 0.02% v/v. The results indicate an enhancement in exergy efficiency of 44.61% when using the grooved tube (e = 0.44) against plain tube without the nanofluid and 39.17% when nanofluid is used. Using the nanofluid enhanced the exergy efficiency of the FPSC by a maximum of 73.81%. Maximum exergy efficiency obtained was 5.95% for grooved tube (e = 0.44) with nanofluid as working fluid and is in good agreement with previous literature. Exergy destruction/irreversibility due to temperature differences and heat flow within the system has been reported. Sun-collector temperature difference accounts for nearly 86–94% of the irreversibility. The results for thermal efficiency of this experimental setup have been published and summarized in this study for reference.

A macro rectangular-channel flat-plate solar thermal collector is designed and examined in this study. It consists of a set of adjacent macro rectangular channels formed between the upper, lower, and fin-parts of an absorber plate, thus, overcoming the necessary welding between the absorber plate and riser tubes used in conventional flat-plate collectors. An optimization model is suggested and solved to obtain an optimal design of the proposed collector. After that, a detailed dynamic mathematical model of this collector is presented and numerical simulation is carried out using matlab . Furthermore, a comparison with a conventional sheet-and-tube solar thermal collector is investigated and parametric analysis is conducted under both steady-state and dynamic conditions. The results reveal that the designed collector yields an enhancement of 8% for integrated thermal efficiency under transient regime and an average improvement of 12% for steady-state efficiency when compared with the conventional collector. In addition, the influence of the variation of different parameters, such as the mass flow rate of the heat transfer fluid (HTF), the thickness of different parts of the absorber plate, and the number of channels, on the performance of the proposed collector is presented. From an economical perspective, the cost of materials composing the new collector is less than that of materials composing the conventional one.

This research document presents a new insulation material for solar thermal collectors. Tests were carried out in the laboratory, on an active solar energy demonstration system (ET 200), illuminated with a halogen lamp instead of sun. In this paper, the polystyrene used as insulation in the ET 200 flat plate solar collector was replaced by the cheaper natural material based on clay and straw. The polystyrene in the experimental device is placed under the absorber plate and along the edges of the casing containing the components of the solar collector. In this work, only the polystyrene of the four similar edges was replaced by the composite material. The use of the clay and straw as insulation material instead of polystyrene increased temperature difference (T 2 − T 1 ) between the inlet and the outlet of the absorber by 0.9±0.14 °C (p < 0.05); thus, increasing the useful power transmitted to water in the solar collector. Compared to polystyrene, tank water was well heated using the proposed material (p < 0.05). This latter also improved the performance of the solar collector by 5.77%. So, it is recommended to use the cheapest nonpolluting material based on clay and straw instead of synthetic insulation to improve the performance of the solar collector.

The evaluation of the performance and characteristics of a solar flat-plate collector (FPC) are reported for domestic and industrial requirements in the existing literature. A computer code was developed using matlab to model and evaluate the energetic and exergetic performance of a nanofluid-based FPC for steady-state and laminar conditions. The analysis was performed using practical geometry data, especially the absorber emittance, for a standard collector. Linear pressure losses in manifolds were taken into account, and a more accurate exergy factor corresponding to a correct value of 5770 K for the sun temperature was employed. The results demonstrate that copper–water nanofluid has the potential to augment the internal convection heat transfer coefficient by 76.5%, and to enhance the energetic efficiency of the collector from 70.3% to 72.1% at 4% volume concentration, when compared to the values with water. Additionally, it was revealed that copper nanofluid is capable of increasing the collector fluid's outlet temperature and decreasing the absorber plate's mean temperature by 3 K. The addition of nanoparticles to the water demonstrated a reduction in the total entropy generation by the solar FPC. Furthermore, increasing the nanoparticle size reflected a reduction in the overall performance of the solar collector.

In this study, a comparative investigation of two types of microheat pipe array (MHPA) flat-plate solar air collectors (FPSAC) based on exergy analysis has been conducted. The thermal performance of MHPA-type solar air collectors (SACs) with two different shaped fins is experimentally evaluated. A detailed parametric study is also conducted to examine the effects of various fins, operation parameters, and inlet air temperature at different mass flow rates on thermal and exergy efficiencies. Results indicated that using V-shaped slotted fins at the specified range of mass flow rates can enhance exergy efficiency. Exergy efficiency can be considered as the main criterion to evaluate the performance of MHPA FPSACs. Attaching V-shaped slotted fins on the condenser section of MHPA is more effective than attaching rectangular fins at high mass flow rates. By contrast, the latter is more effective than the former at low mass flow rates.

In this research, an inclined three-dimensional nanofluid-based tube-on-sheet flat plate solar collector (FPSC) working under laminar conjugated mixed convection heat transfer is numerically modeled. The working fluid is selected to be alumina/water (Al 2 O 3 /water) and results from heat transfer, entropy generation, and pressure drop points of view are being presented for various prominent parameters, namely volume fraction, nanoparticles diameter, Richardson and Reynolds numbers. According to the simulations, Nusselt number decreases as the Richardson number or volume fraction of the nanofluid rises, whereas heat transfer coefficient experiences an augmentation when volume concentration and the Richardson number surge. Also, data reveal that total entropy generation rate of the system declines when the alumina/water nanofluid is utilized inside the system as the volume fraction or the Richardson number increases. Additionally, it is found that increasing the nanoparticle volume concentration or the Richardson number diminishes the pressure drop considerably, whereas friction factor substantially proliferates as the Richardson number or volume fraction rises. Eventually, employment of larger alumina nanoparticles mean diameter eventuates in providing lower Nusselt number and apparent friction factor while it increases the pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient. Finally, comparing the efficiency of the presented FPSC design with those available in the literature shows a superior performance by the present design with its maximum occurring at 2 vol %.

This study compares the potential annual energy absorption of a flat-plate solar collector at different tilt angles in Poland. Optimal tilt angles were tested in three variants: over the course of the year, in fall/winter and in spring/summer. The results were compared with automatically tracked collectors where the active surface is perpendicular to the angle at which solar radiation reaches the collector. The results were simulated based on the meteorological data. A comparison of the energy outputs of solar collectors in optimization variants 1, 2, and 3 indicates that variant 1 produces the highest energy output.

Reverse natural air convection (hot plate top) was experimentally investigated between two inclined parallel aluminum plates (1 m × 2 m × 3 mm) with a separation distance of 20 mm to 100 mm. The inclination ϑ to the horizontal was varied from 0 deg to 90 deg. The mean temperatures of the plates have been adjusted to 90 °C and 30 °C resulting in Rayleigh numbers Ra between 2.7 × 10 4 and 3.3 × 10 6 . The experimental conditions correspond to the back side of an absorber in a typical solar flat-plate collector, where the conventional insulation has been removed. The upper hot plate simulates the absorber and was electrically heated by an area heater, while the temperature distribution over the plate was measured. The lower cold plate was held isothermally by integrated water tubes and a thermostat. The side walls of the rectangular cavity were thermally connected to the colder plate and had a distance of 10 mm to the hot plate, comparable to a typical collector casing. The experimentally obtained results for Nu (Ra,ϑ) were mathematically described and compared to rare reverse convection data of other authors, gained at smaller aspect ratios/flow lengths and for adiabatic side walls: The formula of Elsherbiny approximately (within 10%) describes solar flat-plate collectors between 0 deg and 60 deg inclination, while the relations of Arnold, Ozoe, and Inaba show large errors up to 50%. Additionally, we experimentally showed that pure air gap insulation (30–50 mm) has surprisingly acceptable loss coefficients between 1.3 and 2.5 W/m 2 K depending on collector slope. It can be used as a cheap insulation method for low temperature collector applications. Additionally, inserting an 25–50 μ m thick aluminum film symmetrically between the plates, a new and efficient insulation method for the absorber of a solar flat-plate collector was experimentally investigated: At plate distances of 30–50 mm, temperatures below 100 °C and slopes below 45 deg, this compact and cheap film insulation was proven to be equivalent to dry mineral wool and avoids its disadvantage of worsening insulation properties due to humidity.

Ground reflected radiation is one component of the global radiation on photovoltaic collectors in a solar field. This component depends on the view factor of the collector to ground, hence depends on the relative position of the collectors to each other. General analytical expressions and numerical values for the view factor to the ground were developed between flat-plate collectors positioned in a general configuration. Based on the general expression, the view factors to ground for particular collector configurations were derived. For deployment of photovoltaic collectors in multiple rows with common inclination angles, the view factor to ground is rather small, and hence, the reflected radiation from the ground on the collectors may be neglected compared to the direct beam and the diffuse components. However, in some cases the reflected radiation from the ground may constitute an appreciable amount as in snowy area. Bifacial photovoltaic (PV) panels can absorb solar radiation by both the front and the rear sides and are usually deployed vertically. In this case the reflected radiation from the ground on the panels may be appreciable depending on the ground albedo. The mathematical expressions of the different view factors may be used by the solar field designer to estimate the amount of reflected radiation from the ground reaching the collectors for different configurations of solar PV plants.

In this research, the thermal performances of flat, finned, and v-corrugated plate solar air heaters were investigated experimentally. A solar air heater with single glass cover, single pass was designed and tested under prevailing weather conditions of Tanta city (30°43′ N, 31° E), Egypt. The solar air heater was designed to be easy to replace the absorber plate from one to another one. Comparisons between the temperature difference of air across the heater and thermal efficiencies of the flat, finned, and v-corrugated plate solar air heaters were presented. The effect of change in the mass flow rate of air on the outlet air temperature and the thermal efficiency of the heater were also studied when the mass flow rates were 0.062, 0.028, and 0.009 kg/s. The experimental results showed that the maximum value of outlet temperature of the v-corrugated plate solar air heater was 5 and 3.5 °C more than that of flat and finned plates when the mass flow rate was 0.062 kg/s, respectively. And, it increased to be 8 and 5.5 C when the mass flow rate was 0.009 kg/s. It is also indicated that the thermal efficiency of the v-corrugated solar air heater is 8–14.5% and 6–10.5% higher than that of the flat and finned plate heaters, respectively, when the mass flow rate was 0.062 kg/s under the considered configurations and operating conditions. The experimental results also indicated that the convective heat transfer coefficient of the v-corrugated heater reached up to 1.64 and 1.36 times than that of the flat and finned heaters, respectively, when the flow rate was 0.062 kg/s.

Solar air-conditioning (AC) is an attractive AC system but it has intermittent output, and therefore, a conventional heater is needed as a backup. This study presents the effect of ratio of heat delivered by solar (Q solar ) to the total heat delivered to an adsorption chiller (Q solar + Q heater ) or solar fraction (SF) on the economic and environmental performance of a solar AC. This solar AC is not a solar-assisted AC, and therefore, it needs to fully cover the cooling load. The cooling demand of an office building in Kuala Lumpur, and the performance of flat-plate collectors and the adsorption chiller were calculated by equest and watsun software and by a mathematical model, respectively. Economic performance was analyzed by life-cycle cost analysis, whereas the environmental performance was analyzed by using typical emissions rate of energy systems used. It was found that a boiler was a better solution than an electric heater as a backup heater. Furthermore, the net profit (NP) at lower SF was higher because of its lower capital investment, but more emissions were released compared to the conventional AC because of the boiler operation. Thus, when economic and environmental performance were fairly considered, it is appropriate to have solar AC with an SF around 0.74.

Active types of integration of flat plate solar collectors and building envelopes are studied in this paper. The integrated structure of flat plate solar collector and building envelope includes glass cover, absorber plate, tubes, back insulation, and building envelope (we will call it integrated structure later in this paper). With the solar collector integrated with building, the boundary conditions of heat transfer both for the solar collector and the building envelope are changed significantly, and the thermal performance of solar collection and building heat transfer characteristics influences each other. The state space model for thermal analysis of the integrated structure is proposed in this paper, and method for solving this state space model is provided. Moreover, thermal analysis for a particular integrated structure was conducted both by state space model and fluent simulation, then the results were compared and agree well. The state space model has great advantages in time-spending over fluent simulation and it can be used for long-term (several months or a whole year) simulation of the integrated structure. Comparison were made between the integrated structure, detached solar collector and detached single wall based on results calculated by state space method. It shows that (1) integration has little impact on the thermal efficiency of solar collection and the useful heat gain of the integrated structure are nearly the same as that for the single detached solar collector under the same ambient conditions; (2) integration has significant impact on the heat flux across the wall, and the heat flux of the integrated structure is much less than the detached single wall.

Fixed tilt flat-plate solar thermal collectors, popularly known as solar water heaters, still remain as one of the most interesting technologies for utilization of solar energy. The system performance deteriorates due to scaling because of the continuous use of hard water as feed water. The present study deals with the experimental and analytical approach to determine the variation of Hottel–Whillier–Bliss (H–W–B) constants (which compactly represent the efficiency characteristics of a solar water heater) due to variation in solar power input and degree of scaling in case of forced circulation system (FCS) without considering the variation of input power to the circulating pump. Indoor tests are performed with a copper tube to investigate the flow characteristics. This forms a part of conventional FCS, in place of the usual nine-fin tube array in a full-fledged collector. In indoor tests, electrical heating is favored to simulate solar radiation level. Various energy parameters are determined and compared by incorporating the developed numerical code FLATSCALE. Variation between experimental and analytical mass flow rate, overall heat loss coefficient, and H–W–B constants with simulated solar radiation level is plotted. In scaled condition, the drop in instantaneous efficiency is due to both scale thickness and reduced water flow rate. Scale thickness acts as an additional thermal conductive resistance between absorber plate and flowing water. Overall heat loss coefficient increases as absorber plate temperature is high during reduced flow rate. The maximum deviation observed is 21.68% in mass flow rate, 14.64% in absorber plate mean temperature, 7.86% in overall heat loss coefficient, and 12.04% in instantaneous efficiency. Compared to a clean tube, a highly scaled tube of 3.7 mm scale thickness indicates a drop of 4.76% in instantaneous efficiency and 40.28% in mass flow rate. It is concluded that the growth of scale in FCS does not affect the instantaneous efficiency significantly because of the margin in heat carrying capacity of water in spite of high drop in the flow rate.

There is a growing interest in using solar energy in underfloor heating systems. However, the large areas required for the installation of solar thermal collector's array can be discouraging, especially in the apartment buildings where the apartment's roof is a common area. The objective of this study is to investigate the possibility of using compound parabolic concentrating (CPC) solar collectors instead of the commonly used flat-plate collectors (FPCs) in such systems. It is aimed to explore the feasibility of area reduction required by the collectors. Second, the temperature profiles of circulating water loop and the concrete slabs are sought to be examined. The system consists of solar thermal collectors, a storage tank, and circulation of water to transport the heat to four similar floor slabs. The CPC collector outlet fluid's temperature can reach a maximum of 95 °C, compared to 70 °C obtained from the FPCs. The results from the simulations show that a 2 m2 CPC collector array can perform satisfactorily to match the job of an 8 m2 FPC array, obtaining the same required circulating water's temperature in the slabs.