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Heat Transfer Analysis in Solar Thermal Collectors

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Advances in Sustainable Energy

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Abstract

Solar energy gained momentum due to energy security threats and climate change issues and pulled the attention of policymakers and researchers. Solar thermal collectors have been widely studied, and various new designs were reported. To improve the performance of these solar devices, it is essential to understand the heat transfer behavior of the systems. Because the heat transfer concepts help the researcher and designer to have a proper understanding of the losses associated and their identification. In this work, heat transfer mechanisms involved in solar thermal devices, such as flat plate collector, evacuated tube collector, solar concentrating collectors, solar pond, solar distillation, solar dryer, and solar refrigeration are discussed and important observations made by various researchers are also presented. Furthermore, this chapter also incorporates different aspects of heat transfer that are important for the improvement of solar collector designs.

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Acknowledgments

The authors of the work would like to thank the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, India, for providing the necessary facilities in formulating and completing this book chapter.

Authors Contribution

The outline of the chapter was formulated and based on the strength and working area of the authors, all the topics have been distributed. The contribution of the authors is provided below.

The chapter is conceptualized based on collective discussions among the authors. Specifically, Mr. Dudul Das has worked on the introduction of the chapter, solar flat plate collectors, and solar distillation. Mr. Samar Das has contributed the topics evacuated tube collectors and solar pond. Mr. Rabindra Kangsha Banik has covered the topic named solar concentrating collectors. Ms. Urbashi Bordoloi has worked on the solar dryer and solar refrigeration system. Dr. Pankaj Kalita was involved in the formulation and review of the chapter.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Energy, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, Assam, India

    Pankaj Kalita, Dudul Das, Samar Das & Rabindra Kangsha Banik

  2. Centre for Rural Technology, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, Assam, India

    Urbashi Bordoloi

Authors
  1. Pankaj Kalita
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  2. Dudul Das
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  3. Samar Das
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  4. Rabindra Kangsha Banik
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  5. Urbashi Bordoloi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pankaj Kalita .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hangzhou Branch of the Zhejiang Tsinghua Yangtze River Delta Research Institute, Clean Energy and Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Centre, Hangzhou City, China

    Yong-jun Gao

  2. Department of Materials, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Weixin Song

  3. Texas A&M University – Kingsville, Kingsville, TX, USA

    Jingbo Louise Liu

  4. Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University – Kingsville, Kingsville, TX, USA

    Sajid Bashir

Nomenclature

Nomenclature

A abs :

The area for solar energy absorption or absorber area, m2

A b :

Basin area of the solar still, m2

A c :

Aperture area, m2

C p :

Specific heat capacity, J/kgK

d :

The inner diameter of the tube, m

Gz :

Graetz number

f :

Friction factor

L ev :

Latent heat of vaporization, kJ/kg

T a :

Ambient temperature, K

T g :

Glass cover temperature, K

T f :

Fluid film temperature, K

T ab :

The temperature of an absorber , K

T con :

The temperature of condenser , K

T eva :

The temperature of the evaporator, K

T gen :

The temperature of the generator , K

T in :

Fluid inlet temperature, K

T out :

The outlet temperature of the tube, K

T w :

Water temperature, K

T wall :

Wall temperature, K

U L :

The overall heat transfer coefficient of losses to ambient, W/m2K

ε g :

The emissivity of a glass cover

ε p :

Emissivity of absorber

ε c :

Emissivity of cover

σ :

Stephan-Boltzmann constant

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Kalita, P., Das, D., Das, S., Banik, R.K., Bordoloi, U. (2021). Heat Transfer Analysis in Solar Thermal Collectors. In: Gao, Yj., Song, W., Liu, J.L., Bashir, S. (eds) Advances in Sustainable Energy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74406-9_9

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