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Solar Collector Efficiency Analysis

The document is a question from a tutorial on solar energy engineering. It asks the student to calculate the mean water temperature and mean plate temperature of an array of 10 flat plate solar collectors used to heat water in Patiala, India between 10-11 am. Given data on the collector properties, water flow rate, ambient conditions, and solar radiation levels, the student is to use provided equations to determine the temperatures are 43.93°C for the mean water and 55.5°C for the mean plate.

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harshit khandelwal
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18 views2 pages

Solar Collector Efficiency Analysis

The document is a question from a tutorial on solar energy engineering. It asks the student to calculate the mean water temperature and mean plate temperature of an array of 10 flat plate solar collectors used to heat water in Patiala, India between 10-11 am. Given data on the collector properties, water flow rate, ambient conditions, and solar radiation levels, the student is to use provided equations to determine the temperatures are 43.93°C for the mean water and 55.5°C for the mean plate.

Uploaded by

harshit khandelwal
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology

Department of Mechanical Engineering

BE(Mechanical Engg.) (Final Year) Solar Energy Engineering (UME853)


Tutorial-6

Q1. An array of 10 flat plate solar collector panels is installed in parallel in Patiala to heat water. Each
solar collector panel has 1 m width and 2 m length. The flow rate of water through each collector
panel is 0.03 kg/s and the water enters the solar collector at 40°C temperature. The specific heat of
water is 4.19 kJ/kg°C. For the collector assume the overall loss coefficient (UL) to be 8.0 W/m2°C
and the collector efficiency factor (F1) to be 0.84. The average hourly radiation on the plane of
collector (Ig), the average hourly radiation absorbed by the absorber plate (S) and the average hourly
ambient temperature (Ta) during an hour 10-11 am were found to be 3.92 MJ/m2, 3.29 MJ/m2 and
2°C respectively. Determine the mean water temperature and mean plate temperature of absorber
plate during the hour 10 to 11 am.

Ans: 43.93°C, 55.5°C


Q1: An array of 10 flat plate solar collector panels is installed in parallel in Patiala to heat water. Each
solar collector panel has 1 m width and 2 m length. The flow rate of water through each collector panel
is 0.03 kg/s and the water enters the solar collector at 40°C temperature. The specific heat of water is
4.19 kJ/kg°C. For the collector assume the overall loss coefficient (U L) to be 8.0 W/m2°C and the
collector efficiency factor (F1) to be 0.84. The average hourly radiation on the plane of collector (Ig),
the average hourly radiation absorbed by the absorber plate (S) and the average hourly ambient
temperature (Ta) during an hour 10-11 am were found to be 3.92 MJ/m2, 3.29 MJ/m2 and 2°C
respectively. Determine the mean water temperature and mean plate temperature of absorber plate
during the hour 10 to 11 am.
solution

Mean water temperature (Tfm) and mean plate temperature (Tpm) are calculated by using following
expressions:
𝑞𝑢
𝑇𝑓𝑚 = 𝑇𝑓𝑖 + [1 − 𝑧(1 − 𝑒 −1/𝑧 )] Eq. (1)
𝐹𝑅 𝑈𝐿
𝑞𝑢
𝑇𝑝𝑚 = 𝑇𝑓𝑖 + (1 − 𝐹𝑅 ) Eq. (2)
𝐹𝑅 𝑈𝐿
qu for Eqs. (1) & (2) is calculated as:

𝑞𝑢 = 𝐹𝑅 [𝑆 − 𝑈𝐿 (𝑇𝑓𝑖 − 𝑇𝑎 )] , W/m2 Eq. (3)


where, FR is heat removal factor which is calculated as:

𝐹𝑅 = 𝑧𝐹1 [1 − 𝑒𝑥𝑝(− 1⁄𝑧)] Eq. (4)


𝑚̇𝑐𝑝 0.03×4190
In above Eq., z is calculated as: 𝑧 = = = 9.352
𝐴𝑐 𝐹1 𝑈𝐿 2×0.84×8

Thus, from Eq. (4), we get


𝐹𝑅 = 0.796
Using Eq. (3) to calculate qu
3600 2
106
𝑞𝑢 = 0.796 × [3.29 − 8 × (40 − 2) × ] = 1.75 MJ⁄ m = 1.75 × = 485.87 W/m2
106 3600
By using Eqs. (1) & (2),we get:
485.87
𝑇𝑓𝑚 = 40 + [1 − 9.352(1 − 𝑒 −1/9.352 )] = 43.93°𝐶 (𝐀𝐧𝐬)
0.796 × 8
485.87
𝑇𝑝𝑚 = 40 + [1 − 0.796] = 55.5°𝐶 (𝐀𝐧𝐬)
0.796 × 8

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