Determining the Effect of Inlet Flow Conditions on the Thermal Efficiency of a Flat Plate Solar Collector

Autor: Mohammad Alobaid, Ben Hughes, Andrew Heyes, Dominic O’Connor
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2018
Předmět:
Zdroj: Fluids, Vol 3, Iss 3, p 67 (2018)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2311-5521
DOI: 10.3390/fluids3030067
Popis: The main objective of this study was to investigate the effect of inlet temperature (Tin) and flowrate ( m ˙ ) on thermal efficiency ( η t h ) of flat plate collectors (FPC). Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was employed to simulate a FPC and the results were validated with experimental data from literature. The FPC was examined for high and low level flowrates and for inlet temperatures which varied from 298 to 373 K. Thermal efficiency of 93% and 65% was achieved at 298 K and 370 K inlet temperature’s respectively. A maximum temperature increase of 62 K in the inlet temperature was achieved at a flowrate of 5 × 10−4 kg/s inside the riser pipe. Tin and m ˙ were optimised in order to achieve the minimum required feed temperature for a 10 kW absorption chiller.
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