Solar Thermal Systems Performances versus Flat Plate Solar Collectors Connected in Series

Khaled Zelzouli, Amenallah Guizani, Ramzi Sebai, Chakib Kerkeni

Thermal Processes Laboratory (LPT), Research and Technology Center of Energy (CRTEn), Borj Cedria, Tunisia.

DOI: 10.4236/eng.2012.412112                

Abstract

This paper shows the modeling of a solar collective heating system in order to predict the system performances. Two systems are proposed: 1) the first, Solar Direct Hot Water, which is composed of flat plate collectors and thermal storage tank, 2) the second, a Solar Indirect Hot Water in which we added an external heat exchanger of constant effectiveness to the first system. The mass flow rate by a collector is fixed to 0.04 Kg·s–1 and the total number of collectors is adjusted to 60. For the first system, the maximum average water temperature within the tank in a typical day in summer and annual performances are calculated by varying the number of collectors connected in series. For the second, this paper shows the detailed analysis of water temperature within the storage and annual performances by varying the mass flow rate on the cold side of the heat exchanger and the number of collectors in series on the hot side. It is shown that the stratification within the storage is strongly influenced by mass flow rate and the connections between collectors. It is also demonstrated that the number of collectors that can be connected in series is limited. The optimization of the mass flow rate on cold side of the heat exchanger is seen to be an important factor for the energy saving.

Keywords

Thermal Energy; Flat Plate Collectors; Stratification; Solar Heating Systems

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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