Heat and Mass Transfer

, Volume 51, Issue 10, pp 1403–1411 | Cite as

Study of thermal effects and optical properties of an innovative absorber in integrated collector storage solar water heater

  • Yaser Taheri
  • Kazem Alimardani
  • Behrooz M. Ziapour
Original
First Online:
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Accepted:

Abstract

Solar passive water heaters are potential candidates for enhanced heat transfer. Solar water heaters with an integrated water tank and with the low temperature energy resource are used as the simplest and cheapest recipient devices of the solar energy for heating and supplying hot water in the buildings. The solar thermal performances of one primitive absorber were determined by using both the experimental and the simulation model of it. All materials applied for absorber such as the cover glass, the black colored sands and the V shaped galvanized plate were submerged into the water. The water storage tank was manufactured from galvanized sheet of 0.0015 m in thickness and the effective area of the collector was 0.67 m2. The absorber was installed on a compact solar water heater. The constructed flat-plate collectors were tested outdoors. However the simulation results showed that the absorbers operated near to the gray materials and all experimental results showed that the thermal efficiencies of the collector are over than 70 %.

Keywords

Absorber Plate Solar Water Heater Water Storage Tank Radiation Heat Transfer Coefficient Solar Thermal System 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

List of symbols

Ac

Area of the collector (m2)

Cp

Specific heat of the water (kJ/kg K)

g

Acceleration due to gravity (m/s2)

hc1

Convective heat loss coefficient from the absorber plate to upper glass (W/m2 K)

hr1

Radiative heat loss coefficient from the absorber plate to the upper glass (W/m2 K)

hr2

Radiative heat loss coefficient from the upper glass to the ambient (W/m2 K)

hw

Convective heat loss coefficient due to wind (W/m2 K)

IT

Incoming radiation in 1-h (kJ/m2)

K

Thermal conductivity of the air at mean temperature (W/m K)

Ke

Extinction coefficient (m−1)

L

Thickness of the air layer between absorber plate and upper glass (m)

Lg

Thickness of glass (m)

m

Mass of the water in the tank (kg)

n

The day of the year

Nu

Nusselt number

q1

Heat flux from the absorber plate to the upper glass (W/m2)

q2

Heat flux from the upper glass to the ambient (W/m2)

qT

Total heat loss from the system (W/m2)

R1

Thermal resistance between the absorber plate and the upper glass

R2

Thermal resistance between the upper glass and the ambient

RT

Total thermal resistance between the absorber plate and the ambient

Ra

Rayleigh number

Ta

Temperature of the ambient (°C)

Tp

Temperature of the absorber plate (°C)

TGlass2

Temperature of the upper glass (°C)

Ts

Temperature of sky (°C)

ΔTp−c

Temperature difference between the absorber plate and the upper glass (°C)

UT

Total heat loss coefficient (W/m2 K)

Greek letters

α

Thermal diffusivity (m2/s)

β

Tilt angle of the water heating system (°)

β′

Volumetric thermal expansion (K−1)

ν

Kinematic viscosity (m2/s)

τa

Transmittance with absorption losses

δ

Declination (°)

ϕ

Latitude (°)

γ

Surface azimuth angle (°)

ω

Hour angle (°)

σ

Stefan-Boltzmann constant (W/m2 K4)

ɛP

Emissivity of the absorber plate

ɛG2

Emissivity of the second glass

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  • Yaser Taheri
    • 1
  • Kazem Alimardani
    • 1
  • Behrooz M. Ziapour
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of Mechanical EngineeringUniversity of Mohaghegh ArdabiliArdabilIran

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