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Effect of Perforated Tube Insert on Thermal Behavior of Flat-Plate Solar Water Collector

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Recent Advances in Energy Technologies

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering ((LNME))

Abstract

The thermal output of the flat-plate solar water collector (FPSWC) is lower owing to higher heat loss and poor heat removal by the heat transfer fluid. Converting a laminar into a turbulent flow does not require a significant investment than other methods which need to study further for higher thermal output. In this work, the contribution of perforated and plain tube inserts to improving the thermal output of FPSWC is studied and compared with plain riser tubes at 0.0167 kg/s. The perforation provided along the tube insert improved the fluid mixing between hot and cold fluid zones and enhanced the heat transfer coefficient (HTC). Further, the tube inserts act as extended heat surfaces by their frictional contact at the top and bottom inside the riser tube. The collector’s maximum and average instantaneous thermal efficiencies are 78.4 and 57.7% with a perforated insert, where the average thermal efficiency is 40 and 15.9% higher than using a collector with plain riser tubes and with plain tube inserts. The exergy efficiencies of the collector with perforated tube insert, plain tube insert, and without inserts are 3.9%, 3.3%, and 2.5%, respectively. The average exergy efficiency of a perforated inserted absorber is 31.25 and 90.9% higher than the collector with plain tube inserts and without the insert. The convective HTC has reached a maximum of 5.79 W/m2 K for the perforated insert, which is higher than the other two collectors.

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Abbreviations

A c :

Collector area (m2)

A p :

Absorber area (m2)

C pw :

Specific heat of water (kJ/kg K)

H :

Convective heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K)

I :

Solar radiation (W/m2)

ṁ:

Mass flow rate of water (kg/s)

T a :

Ambient temperature (K)

T f :

Mean temperature of water (K)

T i :

Inlet temperature of water (K)

T o :

Outlet temperature of water (K)

T s :

Sun temperature (K)

T w :

Absorber tube wall temperature (K)

Q conv :

Convective heat transfer (W)

Q water :

Heat transfer to water (W)

η th :

Instantaneous thermal efficiency (%)

η ex :

Exergy efficiency (%)

FPSWC:

Flat-plate solar water collector

HTF:

Heat transfer fluid

HTC:

Heat transfer coefficient

SWH:

Solar water heater

TT:

Twisted tape

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur Campus, Chennai, for supplying the required research infrastructure.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, Chennai, India

    Elumalai Vengadesan & Ramalingam Senthil

Authors
  1. Elumalai Vengadesan
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  2. Ramalingam Senthil
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Correspondence to Elumalai Vengadesan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Eng, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

    N. Lakshmi Narasimhan

  2. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain

    Mahmoud Bourouis

  3. Dept of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

    Vasudevan Raghavan

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Vengadesan, E., Senthil, R. (2023). Effect of Perforated Tube Insert on Thermal Behavior of Flat-Plate Solar Water Collector. In: Narasimhan, N.L., Bourouis, M., Raghavan, V. (eds) Recent Advances in Energy Technologies. Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3467-4_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3467-4_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-19-3466-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-19-3467-4

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