Modeling of Flat-Plate Solar Collector Operation in Transient States, May
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MODELING OF FLAT-PLATE SOLAR COLLECTOR OPERATION IN TRANSIENT STATES A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Purdue University by Ahmad M. Saleh In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Engineering May 2012 Purdue University Fort Wayne, Indiana ii ُشُكرا To my wife and my soul mate, RANA, you are the light of my life To the smile of my life, to my big boy, LAITH To my father and mother, to whom I will be grateful forever To my sisters, All’a and Reem; my brothers, Mahmoud and Mohammed iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author would like to extend his thanks to his advisors Dr. Hosni Abu- Mulaweh and Dr. Donald Mueller, for their excellent guidance and encouragement throughout the study. The author would like to thank Dr. Peter Dragnev and Dr. Zhuming Bi for the interest they have shown in the study by being members of the examining committee and for their helpful comments. The author is grateful to Dr. Suliman Ashur and Dr. Mohammed Alhassan: a special thank for all your encouragement, support, guidance, and valuable advice. Finally, I would like to extend my thanks to all persons who encouraged or helped me during my work, especially: R. Amayreh, L.Amayreh, B. Nuaerat, M. Saleem, A. Izmirly, A. Abu-Aqeel, M. Dafua, M. Kadous, Y. Mahmat, and R. Fares. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. vi LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... vii NOMENCLATURE ......................................................................................................... ix ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER 1- INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................1 1.1 General ..................................................................................................................1 1.2 Objectives .............................................................................................................7 1.3 Thesis Organization ..............................................................................................8 CHAPTER 2- LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................9 CHAPTER 3- THEORETICAL MODELING .................................................................21 3.1 The Mathematical Model Development of a Flat – Plate Solar Collector System ...............................................................................................................21 3.1.1 The glass cover ................................................................................................23 3.1.2 The air gap between the cover and the absorber .............................................25 3.1.3 The absorber ....................................................................................................26 3.1.4 The insulation ..................................................................................................27 3.1.5 The working fluid ...........................................................................................28 3.1.6 The storage tank ..............................................................................................29 3.2 The Numerical Solution For The Solar Collector Mathematical Model .............30 3.3 The Heat Transfer Correlations ..........................................................................32 CHAPTER 4- MATHEMATICAL MODEL PROGRAMING .......................................35 CHAPTER 5- DESIGN OF EXPERIMENT ....................................................................38 CHAPTER 6- RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ................................................................44 v Page 6.1 Convergence Study ............................................................................................44 6.2 Experimental Verification ..................................................................................52 6.2.1 Case 1 ..............................................................................................................52 6.2.2 Case 2 ..............................................................................................................55 CHAPTER 7- CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ....................................58 7.1 Conclusions ........................................................................................................58 7.2 Recommendations ..............................................................................................59 LIST OF REFERENCES ..................................................................................................60 APPENDICES Appendix A: MATLAB Code ........................................................................................63 Appendix B: Data Collected on March 22nd .................................................................70 Appendix C: Data Collected on March 29th ..................................................................72 vi LIST OF TABLES Table Page 6.1 The range of error comparing to the 72 nodes model, and the running time of each number of nodes at 1.5 GPM ............................................................46 6.2 The range of error compared to the 0.1 seconds case, and the running time for the same number of nodes running at different time steps. ......................48 6.3 The weather details of the experimental dates ......................................................52 B.1 Measured solar irradiance and ambient temperature on March 22nd ..............….70 B.2 Measured temperatures on March 22nd ............................................................….70 C.1 Measured solar irradiance and ambient temperature on March 29th ................….72 C.2 Measured temperatures on March 29th .............................................................….72 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1.1 Estimated U.S energy use in 2010 ........................................................................2 1.2 Renewable energy consumption by major source ................................................3 1.3 Typical active solar energy collection system ......................................................5 1.4 Schematic of a concentrating solar collector .......................................................6 1.5 Cross-section of a typical liquid Flat Plate Collector ..........................................6 2.1 Z-arranged collector array ..................................................................................13 2.2 Perforated collector - Rooftop HVAC Unit .......................................................17 3.1 Sketch of the five nodes analyzed in the flat-plate solar collector model .........21 3.2 1-D heat transfer in the cover ..............................................................................24 3.3 1-D heat transfer in the air gap between cover and absorber .............................25 3.4 1-D heat transfer in the absorber .........................................................................27 3.5 1-D heat transfer in the insulation .......................................................................27 3.6 Energy balance in a control volume of the working fluid in flat-plate solar collector...............................................................................................................28 3.7 Storage tank control volume ..............................................................................29 4.1 MATLAB code flowchart ..................................................................................37 5.1 Front view of the utilized solar collector ...........................................................39 viii Figure Page 5.2 Side view the utilized solar collector .................................................................39 5.3 Water pump installation ......................................................................................40 5.4 Flow meter and the pump power switch ............................................................40 5.5 The inlet and outlet thermocouples locations ....................................................41 5.6 HH1384 data logger 4-input thermometer .........................................................42 5.7 SDL-1 solar irradiance data logger ....................................................................43 6.1 Outlet temperature histories for different number of nodes at 1.5 GPM. ...........45 6.2 Selected period for the outlet temperature histories obtained for each number of nodes .................................................................................................45 6.3 Outlet temperature for different input solar radiation ........................................47 6.4 Outlet temperature histories obtained by 24 nodes at different time-steps .........48 6.5 The temperature histories at the collector's outlet for different flow rates ........49 6.6 Temperature histories for all the analyzed cross section (node 12) ....................50 6.7 Temperature histories for all the analyzed cross section (node 24) ....................50 6.8 Working fluid temperature histories at the inlet, mid-point and the outlet .........52 6.9 Recorded outlet and inlet temperature histories on March 22nd .........................53 6.10 History of the recorded solar radiation on March 22nd .......................................54 6.11