Renewable Energy 162 (2020) 411e426

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Thermal performance of a coupled solar parabolic trough collector

latent heat storage unit for solar water heating in large buildings
Bilal Lamrani a, *, Fre

de

ric Kuznik a, Abdeslam Draoui b
a
Universit

e de Lyon, INSA-Lyon, CETHIL UMR5008, F-69621, Villeurbanne, France
b
Facult

e des Sciences et Techniques de Tanger, Equipe de Recherche en Transferts Thermiques et Energ

etique (UAE/U10FST), BP 416, Tanger, Morocco

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper deals with the feasibility of using a coupled solar parabolic trough collector-latent heat
Received 19 May 2020 thermal energy storage system for large buildings hot water production. A detailed dynamic thermal
Received in revised form model is developed to investigate the thermal performance of the studied system under realistic
26 July 2020
meteorological conditions. The validation of the developed model is carried out through comparing
Accepted 11 August 2020
Available online 22 August 2020
numerical results with existing numerical and experimental data and a good agreement is obtained.
Three kinds of phase change materials are studied and the optimal design of the storage system is
determined for weather conditions of a typical summer day in the south of France. Both charging and
Keywords:
Solar parabolic trough collector
discharging processes of the latent heat storage system are investigated and obtained results show that
Phase change material using the storage system is suitable to provide hot water all the night. These results indicate also that for
Hot water a mass flow rate of 1800 l/h, using RT-55 as phase change material in the studied system is preferable
Latent heat compared to RT-42 and RT-65. Finally, it is concluded that using the proposed system with RT-55 as
Large buildings storage medium is suitable for large buildings hot water production and the system is able to produce hot
water within the ranges of 85e36
C and 63-38
C, during daytime and nighttime operation, respectively.
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction studies presented by the scientific community are commonly car-

ried out on individual SWH systems to investigate their thermal
In Europe, building sector, which includes tertiary and housing performance [5e7].
building, is considered as one of the main energy intensive sector For large buildings, where the consumption of hot water is high
and accounts for 38% of energy consumption [1]. Due to the such as in commercial building [8,9], hospitals [10], hotels and
requirement of thermal comfort, 85% of this energy is mainly used lodging buildings [11], the integration of SWH systems is also
for space heating and hot water production. Currently, the energy suitable and can contribute successfully to the reduction of the
use for domestic hot water production represents around 15e40% energy consumption and the negative impact of fossil fuels on the
of the total energy needs in buildings [2] which induces greenhouse environment. In 1993, Pedersen [12,13] have studied the thermal
gas emissions, atmosphere pollution and global warming. performance and the economic feasibility of a large SWH system for
One way to reduce this energy consumption is the use solar domestic hot water production under weather conditions of
energy for hot water production in both tertiary and housing Denmark. The studied SWH system consists of 156 m2 of FPCs in-
building sectors. In this application, water is heated through con- tegrated into a large roof to cover a part of the demand of about 150
verting solar energy into thermal energy using solar water heaters apartments. The results from these studies showed that the
(SWHs). The latter can be classified into three main types: flat plate payback time is about ten years and it is necessary to increase the
collectors (FPCs), evacuated tube collectors (ETCs) and concen- solar collector area per apartment to reach a high yearly solar
trated solar collectors [3]. In the literature, FPCs and ETCs are the fraction. Ndoye et al. [14] have studied numerically the effect of
most commonly used in building sector and are generally coupled integrating FPCs and ETCs for hot water production on the energy
to storage systems [4]. In addition, numerical and experimental consumption in three different types of large buildings. The studied
types of reference buildings are: 3-star hotel, residential and office
building. They have shown that integrating these solar collectors is
* Corresponding author. beneficial and the greatest amount of avoided CO2 emissions is
E-mail address: [Link]@[Link] (B. Lamrani).

[Link]
0960-1481/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
412 B. Lamrani et al. / Renewable Energy 162 (2020) 411e426

observed in hotel building. Colmenar-Santos et al. [15] have production is proposed by Haillot et al. [30]. The performance of the
investigated the integration of SWHs for hot water production in studied FPC-LHTES was conducted under weather conditions of
high-rise buildings. ETCs are selected as SWH system and the Perpignan city (France) and the effect of the PCM on the energy
studied high-rise building is a five-star hotel in Sao Paulo city consumption was presented. They have demonstrated that using
(Brazil). Due to the required large amount of hot water for daily PCM in the hot water production system leads to increase signifi-
operation of the hotel, a large quantity of collector is used with a cantly the system efficiency. Tri Luu et al. [31] studied numerically a
total area of 320 m2. These SHWs are placed at the main entrance coupled ETC-LHTES for domestic hot water production in Queens-
canopy of the hotel due to the low roof area. From this study, it has land (Australia). The performance of the system using PCM is
been shown that using SWHs for high consumption buildings such compared with the traditional coupled ETC-water tank. Based on
as hotels is suitable and leads to save up 65% of the electricity cost. the obtained numerical results, they have shown that using PCM
Recently, Fertahi et al. [16] have studied numerically the thermal improves the thermal performance of the system and reduces
performance of both FPCs and ETCs equipped with a centralized significantly the energy consumption compared to the traditional
storage tank and integrated into a large residential building. Dy- one.
namic simulation for these SWHs were carried out under weather Recently, Abdelsalam et al. [32] have investigated numerically a
conditions of Morocco using a total area of 62.124 m2. They have FPC coupled with storage tank incorporated with PCMs for hot
shown that using ETCs as SWH system with centralized heat stor- water production in typical single-family house. The effect of using
age is suitable for hot water production compared to FPCs due the PCM and its volume on the thermal performance of the system is
high-obtained solar fraction throughout the year. studied. They confirmed that the integration of PCM in the storage
It should be noted that few studies were conducted so far on hot tank leads to increase the solar fraction and to reduce significantly
water production for large buildings and the common used SWHs the storage tank volume. Based on the above literature review, most
are either FPCs or ETCs. However, using these type of solar collec- of the proposed studies on SWHs with PCM are focused on hot
tors in this application is not beneficial compared to solar water production for individual house and using only traditional
concentrator collectors such as solar parabolic through collector solar collectors such as FPCs and ETCs. To the best of authors’
(SPTC) [17]. In fact, SPTC gives higher thermal performance knowledge, very few studies in the literature have considered solar
compared to the traditional solar collectors and it is able to produce hot water production for large buildings and most of the proposed
hot water in the range of 50e95
C. In addition to its thermal ad- studies used only FPCs and ETCs with conventional water storage
vantages, it is considered economically viable and recommended tank.
for large buildings with 7-day-a-week hot water use [18,19]. The Thus, the main contribution of the present work is firstly, to
feasibility of using SPTC for hot water production under weather investigate the feasibility of using a SPTC as SWH coupled with a
conditions of Cyprus has been conducted by Kalogirou and Lloyd heat storage system in PCMs for large buildings hot water pro-
[17]. The studied SPTC model is 1 m2 aperture area and it is duction. Secondly, to develop a transient thermal model to simulate
investigated for domestic and hotel hot water production. Form this the thermal behavior of the coupled SPTC-LHTES and to determine
study, it is concluded that for individual hot water production, FPCs the optimal design parameters. Finally, to evaluate the thermal
are suitable compared to SPTCs. However, for large buildings such performance of the SPTC-LHTES under realistic conditions and to
hotels, SPTCs should be used instead of FPCs due to theirs thermal demonstrate the effect of some design and operating parameters
and economic benefits. The feasibility of using SPTC to produce hot such as PCM type and water mass flow rate on the produced water
water at low temperature is already studied by several authors temperature.
[20e25] and they have shown that this solar concentrator is able to The structure of the present paper can be summarized as the
produce hot water temperature in the suitable range for building following: A detailed description of the proposed SPCT-LHTES
application. system for the production of hot water for large buildings with its
Due to the intermittent nature of solar energy, the use of ther- operating strategy are presented in section 2. A thermal dynamic
mal energy storage with the SPTC for the production of hot water numerical model is developed for both solar concentrator and the
presents a promising solution and could contribute to the reduction heat storage system and is validated in sections 3 and 4. In section
of the energy consumption during the off-sunshine hours. Inte- 5, an optimization study of the storage system is carried out and the
grating phase change materials (PCMs) with SWHs for domestic thermal performance of the SPTC-LHTES system using weather
application has receiving increasing interest due to its high-energy conditions of a typical summer day in the south of France are
storage density compared to traditional sensible heat storage presented and analyzed. Finally, the main findings of the present
[26,27]. Elbahjaoui and El Qarnia [28] have studied numerically a study are summarized in the conclusion section with some
FPC coupled with latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) sys- perspectives.
tem for individual domestic hot water production. A transient
thermal model is developed to predict the thermal behavior of the 2. System description
coupled FPC-LHTES system under weather conditions of Marrakech
city (Morocco) and the optimal design of the storage system is The studied hot water production system consists mainly of a
determined. They have shown that using the LHTES system is SPTC coupled with a well-insulated LHTES system and a circulation
suitable to provide hot water during nighttime operation. They pump (Fig. 1). During the daytime operation (Fig. 1 a), the SPTC is
have found also that the mass flow rate of water and the PCM type used to concentrate the heat flux on an absorber in which passes a
have a significant effect of the water temperature during the dis- Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF). A part of the heated HTF (water) is then
charging process. Teamah et al. [29] have incorporated PCM cy- collected into the storage unit in a closed loop and the rest of HTF is
lindrical modules into a storage tank for hot water production. FPC directed to the hot water storage tank. It is worth noting that the
is used as SWH and coupled with the PCM storage tank. A dynamic present study is focused on the modelling of the coupled solar
thermal model is developed to simulate the functioning of the concentrator PCM storage system and therefore the heat transfer in
system using typical weather conditions of Toronto city (Canada). the hot water storage tank is not considered. During the charging
Authors concluded that using PCMs as heat storage medium leads process of the PCM storage system, the heat is transferred by
to reduce the storage tank volume by about 50%. Another study convection and conduction from the heated water to the PCM,
where a FPC is coupled with a LHTES for individual house hot water which leads to increase its temperature and to store both sensible
 B. Lamrani et al. / Renewable Energy 162 (2020) 411e426 413

Fig. 1. Schematic of the coupled SPTC heat storage system: (a) daytime operation mode, (b) nighttime operation mode.

and latent heat. During the nighttime operation (Fig. 1 b), the cir- Table 1
culation pump between the SPTC and the LHTES is turned off and Characteristics of the studied PCM.
the circulation of the water coming from the SPTC is stopped. Next, rs ; rl ðkg =m3 Þ Cp ðkJ =kgKÞ kðW =mKÞ Ls ðkJ =kgÞ Tmelt ð
CÞ
the cold water passes through the thermal energy storage system
RT-42 880e760 2.0 0.2 165 42
and the stored heat in the PCM is released and used to produce hot RT-55 880e770 2.0 0.2 170 55
water (discharging process). Through this operation strategy, do- RT-65 880e780 2.0 0.2 150 65
mestic hot water is produced during both, daytime thanks to the
SPTC and nighttime thanks to the LHTES system.
process) during the daytime operation. This solar collector is able to
2.1. Latent heat thermal energy storage system concentrate only beam solar radiation on a receiver tube in which
passes a working fluid. More details about the operation principle
The proposed storage system consists of a series of cylindrical of the SPTC can be found in Refs. [33]. In fact, this type of solar
tubes where the working fluid (water) flows through the inner collector has been widely used in several thermal applications
tubes and the PCM is filled in the shell space (Fig. 2). Each tube is [34,35] and it is suitable to provide hot water in particular for large
characterized by an inner radius ri and a length H (Fig. 2 b). To buildings with 7-day-a-week hot water users such as, hospitals,
reduce heat losses, the sides the LHTES system are well insulated. In jails and barracks [21,36]. In the present study, the required mass
the present study, three types of PCM with different melting tem- flow rate of hot water in large buildings is fixed at 0.5 kg/s (about
peratures are investigated and the optimal number of tubes in the 1800 kg/h) [18,19] with a maximal temperature of 85
C. Based on
storage system is determined. The characteristics of the studied these operation conditions, the optimal area of the SPTC for the
PCMs are given in Table 1. present application is equal to 100 m2. A schematic diagram of the
used SPTC is given in Fig. 3 and its main characteristics are sum-
marized in Table 2. Water is used as the working fluid and its
2.2. Solar parabolic through collector
thermo-physical properties are given as a function of temperature.
These thermophysical properties are taken from Ref. [33] and are
As previously mentioned, the SPTC is coupled in a closed loop
given in Table 3.
with the LHTES system to ensure the heat storage process (charging

Fig. 2. Schematic of the LHTES: (a) Storage system; (b) PCM tube unit.
414 B. Lamrani et al. / Renewable Energy 162 (2020) 411e426

Fig. 3. Schematic of concentrator solar collector: (a) components of the SPTC; (b) cross-section of the SPTC.

Table 2 - The axial conduction is negligible compared to the thermal

Characteristics the studied SPTC under investigation. convection in the flow.
Parameters Values
The energy balance equations are expressed as follows:
Collector Area (W*L) 100 m2
Internal diameter of absorber (DA;i ) 0.066 m
External diameter absorber (DA;e ) 0.070 m - HTF (water):
Internal diameter glass envelop (DV ;i ) 0.109 m
External diameter glass envelop (DV;e ) 0.115 m

 vTf m_ f vTf  
Thermal absorptance of absorber ðaA Þ 0.906 rCp f pri2 ¼  Cp;f þ hc 2pri Tm;ðr¼ri Þ  Tf (1)
Thermal absorptance of glass envelop ðaV Þ 0.02 vt Np vx
Transmittance coefficient of glass envelop ðtV Þ 0.95
Emittance coefficient of absorber ðεA Þ 0.14
Emittance coefficient of glass envelop ðεV Þ 0.86 - PCM:

     
vh 1 v vh v vh vf
3. Mathematical modelling ¼ ar þ a  rm Ls (2)
vt r vr vr vx vx vt
3.1. Modelling of the LHTES unit
Where h is the sensible enthalpy and it is given as follows:
The mathematical model of the LHTES system is based on the
coupling between transient heat transfer inside the PCM and ðT


transient convective heat transfer in the HTF. To model the phase hðTÞ ¼ href þ rCp m
dT (3)
change process inside the PCM, the enthalpy method is used Tm
[37,38].
Due to the staggered structure of tubes inside the LHTES system, With href is the reference enthalpy and hc is the convective heat
only a repeating LHTES tube is analyzed (Fig. 2-b). This LHTES transfer coefficient calculated at each axial location using the
module is delimited by a dotted line (region of symmetry) where Gnielinski correlation [45].
the conduction heat flux is null. The same methodology has been In addition to the above equations, the initial and the boundary
used and validated in literature [39e43]. conditions are the following:
To simplify the developed model, the following assumptions are
considered: - At t ¼ t0:

- The PCM is considered homogenous and isotropic; Tm ¼ Tf ¼ Tamb (4-a)

- Natural convection becomes less important in the thin PCM unit
as natural convection is constrained, thus its influence during
the phase change process is ignored [43,44]; - ct > t0 (Charging process):
- The thermophysical properties of the PCM are independent of
temperature, except the density which is phase-dependent;
Tf ðx ¼ 0Þ ¼ Tf ;in (4-b)
- The conductive thermal resistance of the LHTES inner tube is
neglected;

Table 3
Thermophysical properties of water [33].

r ¼ 1031:84412 þ 18:53 103 T  4:68515 104 T 2

k ¼  0:34149 þ 4:97 103 T  6:00979 106 T 2
Cp ¼ 5543:35375  8425:29 103 T þ 0:01305 T 2
m ¼ 0:03537  2:55881 104 T þ 6:21204 107 T 2  5:03136 1010 T 3
 B. Lamrani et al. / Renewable Energy 162 (2020) 411e426 415

vTm ðx ¼ 0; ri to RÞ vTm ðx ¼ L; ri to RÞ Qab ¼ Id :Ao :tV :rm :aA :g:kðqÞ (13)

¼0 ; ¼0 (4-c)
vx vx
With hcv and hr are the convective heat transfer coefficient and the
vTm ðx; r ¼ ri Þ   radiative heat transfer coefficient, respectively. These heat transfers
km ¼ hc Tmðr¼ri Þ  Tf (4-d) coefficients are taken from Refs. [33] and are given in the Appendix.
vr
In addition to the energy governing equations, the initial and the
vTm ðx; r ¼ RÞ boundary conditions are expressed as follows:
¼0 (4-e)
vr
- At t ¼ t0:
With Tf,in is the water temperature at the inlet of the LHTES and it is
equal to the water outlet temperature of the SPTC during the Ti ¼ Tamb (14)
charging process.
Where i is the component of the SPTC.
- ct > t0 (Discharging process):
- ct > t0 :
During the discharging period of the LHTES system, the same
boundary conditions described above are used and the water inlet x ¼ 0:
temperature at the LHTES is assumed equal to ambient air
Tf ¼ Tf ;in (15)
temperature:
x ¼ L:
Tf ðx ¼ 0Þ ¼ Tamb (4-f)
vTf
¼0 (16)
vx

3.2. Modelling of the SPTC

The transient thermal behavior of the considered SPTC is

4. Numerical procedure and model validation
modeled using energy balances at each of its components. In this
mathematical model, the conduction heat transfer in the receiver
4.1. Numerical modelling
tube is ignored, the HTF is considered incompressible with unidi-
rectional flow and the system is equipped with a full sun tracking
Governing equations in both LHTES system and SPTC are dis-
system. The energy equation at each component of the SPTC is
cretized using an implicit finite difference method. Integrating Eq.
given as the following:
(1) in the axial direction leads to obtain the following finite dif-
ference equation:
- For the water:
!
 
vTf ðx; tÞ vTf ðx; tÞ Tf0;P a
mf Cp;f þv ¼ Qu (5) Dt þ DxTf ;W þ bTmðr¼ri Þ
vt vx
Tf ;P ¼ 1 a
(17)
Dt þ Dx þ b
- For the absorber pipe:
Where:
vTA ðx; tÞ

mA Cp;A ¼ Qab  Qcv;int þ Qr;int  Qu (6) m_ f
vt a¼ (18)
Np rf pri2

- For the glass cover:

2hc
b¼
 (19)
vT ðx; tÞ

 rCp f ri
mV Cp;V V ¼ Qcv;int þ Qr;int  Qcv;ext þ Qr;ext (7)
vt
Where Tf0;P is the water temperature at the previous time step.
Where:
For the PCM, the differential equation is obtained by integrating
  Eq. (2) for each control volume in the plane (r, x). The obtained
Qu ¼ hcv;f Af TA  Tf (8) system of algebraic equations is given as follows:

Qcv;ext ¼ hcv;ext AV ðTV  Tamb Þ (9) AP Tm;P ¼ AE Tm;E þ AW Tm;W þ AN Tm;N þ AS Tm;S þ Q (20)

  It is worth noting that during this analysis, the phase change

Qr;ext ¼ hr;ext AV TV  Tsky (10) process is considered isothermal and the liquid fraction is updated
at each time step using the following expression [37,46]:

Qcv;int ¼ hcv;int AA ðTA  TV Þ (11) AP Tm;P

fPkþ1 ¼ fPk þ (21)
rm Ls r DDrDt x
Qr;int ¼ hr;int AA ðTA  TV Þ (12)
The value of the liquid fraction f is corrected if it is greater than 1
or smaller than 0 as follows:
416 B. Lamrani et al. / Renewable Energy 162 (2020) 411e426

This small difference between predicted and measured results may

f ¼ 1 if f  1f ¼ 0 if f  0 (22) be explained by the negligence of the effect of natural convection
In order to solve the system of algebraic equations (Eq. (20)), the during the melting process. Thus, the developed numerical model
iterative Tri-diagonal Matrix Algorithm is used. It should be noted of the LHTES can be applied to evaluate the performance of the
that Eq. (20) and Eq. (17) are coupled through Eq. (4-d). thermal energy storage system under different operation
The same numerical methodology is applied for discretizing the conditions.
governing equations of the SPTC (Eqs. (5)e(7)). The obtained sys- To evaluate the validity of the developed numerical model for
tem of algebraic equations is written in the following form: the SPTC, obtained numerical results are compared with both
measured results from the Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) [47]
[A] {T} ¼ {B} (23) and numerical results from validated TRNSYS model (Type 1288) of
the SPTC. The experimental test of SNL is carried out on a solar
To determine space-time distribution of the temperature in the concentrator similar to that used in the present study. More details
SPTC, the system of algebraic equations (Eq. (23)) is solved using about this experimental study can be found in Ref. [47]. The
the iterative Gauss algorithm. comparative study between predicted results and experimental
In order to investigate numerically the performance of the ones shows a good agreement and the maximum discrepancy does
coupled SPTC-LHTES system during both charging and discharging not exceed 3% (Fig. 7).
processes, a Fortran program is developed and validated with To assess the viability of the developed SPTC model under
existing experimental and numerical data in the literature. In this transient conditions, a comparative study is carried out between
developed numerical code, the iterative calculation is performed numerical results using the developed model and those from a
for each time step until the convergence criterion is reached as validated model under TRNSYS 18 software. The latter is based on
follows [33,37]: the dynamic efficiency equation approach and validated using the
EN-12975 standard [48]. Weather conditions of a typical summer
 k  k1  day in Ajaccio city (41
550 N, 8
440 E) are used as input parameters
 Tf  Tf 
 P  in both models and obtained results are presented in Fig. 8. It can be
Max P
   < 106 (24)
 k1  seen that the developed numerical model in the present work
Tf
P predicts successfully the real thermal dynamic behavior of the SPTC
under transient conditions. Obtained numerical results are in good
The flow chart of the developed numerical model is given in
agreement with the TRNSYS model one with an average relative
Fig. 4.
error of about 1.5%.
From the detailed validation study presented above, the devel-
4.2. Grid dependence verification and model validation oped numerical models are suitable to predict the thermal behavior
of the SPTC and the LHTES system under different operation
In order to assess the effect of the number of grid on the stability conditions.
of the numerical scheme and to determine the optimal mesh, five
different grids (Nx, Nr) were investigated i.e. (100, 15), (100, 20), 5. Numerical results and analysis
(100, 25), (100, 30) and (150, 30). Generally, increasing the number
of grid leads to increase the result accuracy. However, the calcula- In this section, the coupled SPTC-LHTES for large buildings hot
tion time is also increased. From Fig. 5 it can be seen that from the water production is numerically investigated under climatic con-
grid (100, 25), there is no significant difference in PCM temperature ditions of the south of France. Firstly, the optimal amount of PCM
with a minimal calculation time. In fact, the relative deviation be- and the optimal number tubes in the LHTES is determined for each
tween predicted PCM temperature using the grid (100, 25) and studied PCM using weather data of a typical sunny day in Ajaccio
(150, 30) does not exceed 0.18%. Therefore, this smaller grid, which city. Secondly, the transient thermal behavior of the coupled SPTC-
corresponds to the space steps of Dx ¼ 102 m in the axial direction LHTES during both charging and discharging process is investi-
and Dr ¼ 2.104 m in the radial direction, is adopted in the present gated. Finally, the effect of the PCM type on the LHTES performance
numerical study. and the feasibility of the hot water production system for large
To investigate the validity of the proposed numerical model, a buildings in the south of France are presented and analyzed.
comparative study between the obtained numerical results and
experimental results of Lacroix [39] for the LHTES system, experi-
5.1. Optimization study
mental data from Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) [47] and nu-
merical results from validated TRNSYS Type 1288 for the SPTC is
In order to determine the optimal amount of PCM and the
presented and analyzed.
optimal number of tubes in the heat storage system, the PCM liquid
The experimental study presented by Lacroix [39] is realized on
fraction at the end of the charging process ðf Þ and the efficiency of
a concentric cylindrical tube similar of that used in the present
the LHTES ðh Þ are used as performance indicators. The storage
study and containing n-octadecane as PCM. The length of the inner
system efficiency h can be defined as the following:
tube is equal to 1m and is made of copper. The outer tube has an
internal diameter equal to 0.0258m and made of plexiglass. In order Qst
to reduce the heat losses, the outer cylinder is well insulated. h ¼ ð tc (25)
Several thermocouples are installed inside the PCM to measure its Iðrtv aA ÞAc dt
temperature during the experimental setup. The same test condi- 0

tions are used in the present computational model and the ob-
Where Qst is the heat stored into the latent form during the
tained results for two different tests (water inlet temperatures:
charging period tc and expressed as follow:
10
C and 20
C above the phase transition temperature of the PCM
are presented in Fig. 6. The analysis of this figure shows that the
Qst ¼ f MPCM Ls (26)
obtained numerical results are in good agreement with the
experimental one and the maximum relative error is about 4.95%. It should be noted that the objective of this optimization study is
 B. Lamrani et al. / Renewable Energy 162 (2020) 411e426 417

Fig. 4. Flow chart of the developed calculation program.

to determine the optimal number of tubes, which maximizes the system, firstly, the hourly thermal energy needed for the operation
efficiency of thermal energy storage. In fact, for each studied PCM, of the system is calculated using Eq. (27). Secondly, the accumulate
the required PCM volume to run the hot water production system energy is determined using Eq. (28) and finally the required PCM
during the off-sunshine hours is calculated first, then the optimal volume is deduced from Eq. (29) [37,43].
number of tubes to be used is determined. This is obtained when
the maximal value of both f and h are reached. Generally, if the
 
value of f at the end of the charging process is close to one, then the
Qf ¼ m_ f Cp;f Tf ;o  Tf ;in (27)
LHTES is fully charged and the thermal efficiency is maximal.
To calculate the PCM volume needed in the hot production
418 B. Lamrani et al. / Renewable Energy 162 (2020) 411e426

80
Exp
Num
75 +/- 5 %

Thermal efficiency (%)

70

65

60

55

50
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Tin-Tamb /Id

Fig. 5. Evolution of PCM temperature: Grid independence verification.

Fig. 7. Comparison between numerical results and experimental results of SNL [47].

TRNSYS_EN-12975 Present model

70

65

60

Outlet water temperature °C

55

50

45

40

35

30

25

20

15
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
Fig. 6. Variation of predicted and measured PCM temperature for two different Time (Hours)
operation conditions.
Fig. 8. Comparison between numerical results and TRNSYS (Type 1288) results [48]:
Ac ¼ 100 m2, m_ f ¼ 0.5 kg/s.

ðt
Q_ f ;total ¼ Qf dt (28) from 2500 to 2800 h. Hourly ambient temperature and DNI
received by the solar concentrator during the typical summer day is
0
presented in Fig. 9. It can be seen that maximal ambient temper-
ature is equal to about 30
C and the maximal value of DNI is about
Q_ f ;total 860 W/m2.
VPCM ¼     (29)
rs Cp;s Tmelt  Tf ;cold þ rLs þ rl Cp;l Tf ;hot  Tmelt The evolution the LHTES efficiency with the number of tubes is
presented if Fig. 10-a In this case, PCM RT-42 is used as storage
It is interesting to note that the maximal discharging period is medium with a fixed mass equal to 11544.72 kg. Increasing the
assumed equal to 10 h. The average inlet cold-water temperature number of tubes leads to increase the heat transfer exchange be-
during this period is about 15
C and the suitable outlet water tween PCM and hot water, however; the mass flow rate in tubes

temperature is assumed equal to 60
C. Table 4 presents the accu- m_
decrease as the number of tubes increases ( Npf . It can be seen that
mulated thermal energy over the discharging process and Table .5
summarizes the required volume for each studied PCM. the storage efficiency increases until reaching a maximal value than
Once the PCM required volume is determined, the optimal it decreases. The optimal number of tubes, which corresponds to
number of tubes is calculated using Eq. (30). It worth nothing that the maximal value of LHTES efficiency, is equal to 299 tubes.
when Np varies, only the water mass flow rate and the external The evolution of the PCM liquid fraction during the charging
radius re of each PCM tube are affected. process using the selected optimal number of tubes is presented in
Fig. 10-b. It can be seen that at the beginning of the charging pro-
VPCM cess, the melting of the PCM starts until 6: 00 a.m. and the PCM
Np ¼   (30) liquid fraction is close to zero before this hour. During this period,
p re2  ri2 H
the useful heat by the solar collector is low due to the low solar
irradiance received and the temperature of the water thus pro-
As previously mentioned, the present study is carried out using
duced is not high enough to melt the PCM. The PCM during this
weather conditions of a typical summer day (21 June) in Ajaccio city
period stores heat only in the sensible form through the increase of
(41
550 N, 8
440 E). This city is characterized by a hot summer
its temperature until the melting temperature. After 6: 00 a.m. and
Mediterranean climate with an annual sunshine duration ranging
 B. Lamrani et al. / Renewable Energy 162 (2020) 411e426 419

Table 4 0.710
PCM Storage operation conditions. 0.705

m_ f (kg/s) Qf (kW) Q_ f ;total (GJ),10h Tf ;in (
C) Tf ;o (
C) 0.700

0.5 94.05 3.3858 15 60 0.695

0.690

0.685
Table 5 0.680
Size of the studied PCM storage systems.
0.675
PCM VPCM (m3) MPCM (kg) H(m) ri (m) 0.670

RT-42 13.119 11544.72 5 0.01 0.665

RT-55 12.719 11192.72 5 0.01
0.660
RT-65 13.478 11860.64 5 0.01
0.655

0.650
120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 360 390 420 450
Ambient temperature Solar solar irradiance Np
32 900 (a)

800 1.0
30
Np= 299
700 0.9
28
600 DNI (W/m²) 0.8

26 0.7
500
T °C

24 400 0.6

0.5
f
300
22
0.4
200
20 0.3
100

18 0.2
0
0.1
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
Time (Hours)
0.0
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Fig. 9. Variation of ambient temperature and DNI received by the SPTC during 21 June Time (Hours)
in Ajaccio city. (b)

Fig. 10. Optimization results for RT 42: (a) Variation of the LHTES efficiency with the
number of tubes; (b) Time wise variation of the liquid fraction using the optimal Np.
when the useful heat by the solar collector increases, the produced
water temperature increases and the melting of PCM begins. Dur-
ing these sunshine hours, the PCM liquid fraction increases and the Inlet Middle Outlet
heat is stored into latent form with time until the end of the 90
charging process. It should be noted that through using the optimal
number of tubes (Np ¼ 299), about 99% of RT-42 mass is melted at 80

the end of the charging process which corresponds to a maximal

70
LHTES efficiency.
The same methodology is adopted for other studies PCMs and
60
the obtained optimal number of tubes are 350 and 310 for RT-55
T °C

and RT-65, respectively. 50

5.2. Transient thermal behavior during charging process 40

30
In this section, the thermal behavior of the solar hot water
production system using RT-42 as PCM is analyzed during the
20
daytime operation process. It is worth noting that in the following
section, the numerical simulations are carried out using the defined 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
optimum parameters in the previous section. Time (Hours)
Fig. 11 shows the hourly evolution of water temperature at the
Fig. 11. Hourly variation of water temperature in the SPTC during the charging process.
inlet, middle and outlet of the absorber tube of the SPTC. It can be
seen that from 6:00 a.m., the solar collector starts to concentrate
solar irradiation on the absorber tube and to produce hot water. A absorber and the residence time of water in the collector with the
part of the heated water is transferred to the PCM storage tank for length of the receiver. Outlet water temperature starts to increase
charging process and the rest of the hot water is transferred to the in the morning until reaching a maximum value of 82
C at 4:00
hot water storage tank for direct use or storage. It can be seen that p.m. The maximum difference between the inlet and the outlet
the temperature of the water leaving the collector is higher than water temperatures is obtained from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and it
that in the middle of the SPTC. This behavior is mainly due to the is about 34
C, while is equal to zero at 8: 00 p.m. In fact, maximal
increase in both the rate of heat transfer between the water and the
420 B. Lamrani et al. / Renewable Energy 162 (2020) 411e426

75 r1= 0.0112 m r2= 0.0318 m r3= 0.0537 m

70 80

65
60 70
55
50 60
Useful heat kW

45
40
Tmelting
50

T °C
35
30 40
25
20
30
15
10
20
5
0 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Time (Hours)
Time (Hours) (a)

Fig. 12. Useful heat gain by water in the SPTC during the charging process.
r1= 0.0112 m r2= 0.0318 m r3= 0.0537 m
1.1

1.0
DNI received by the solar collector is observed from 10:00 a.m. to
0.9
5:00 p.m., which correspond to a maximal heat gain by the SPTC. At
8:00 p.m. the DNI received by the solar collector is equal to zero and 0.8

thus the useful heat gain is also equal to zero. Liquid fraction
0.7
Fig. 12 shows the hourly variation of the heat gain by water 0.6
during the daytime operation of the coupled SPTC-LHTES system. It
0.5
can be observed that the heat flow recovered by water is minimal
0.4
during both early morning and late afternoon due to the low values
of DNI received by the SPTC. Maximal values of heat gain are ob- 0.3

tained when the solar irradiation is maximal and the highest value 0.2

of heat gain by water is about 72.6 kW reached at noon. 0.1

Fig. 13 shows the hourly variation of the PCM temperature and 0.0
the PCM liquid fraction at three different points in the LHTES unit. 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Time (Hours)
These three points are located in H/2 in the axial direction and in
(b)
r ¼ 0.0112 m, 0.0318 m and 0.0537 m in the radial direction. It can
be observed that from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., both PCM tempera- Fig. 13. Time wise variation of liquid fraction (a) and PCM temperature (b) at three
ture (Fig. 13-a) and liquid fraction (Fig. 13-b) in point r1 increase different locations in the LHTES system.
faster than those in locations r2 and r3. In fact, the PCM in location r1
is close to the hot water flow compared to r2 and r3, which leads to
increase its temperature quickly and to change its physical state temperature. As time progress and from 07:00 a.m., the melting of
from solid to liquid during the early morning. However, for r2 and r3 PCM begins at some locations, which leads to store thermal energy
and due to the low thermal conductivity of PCM, more time is into both sensible and latent forms. From 10:00 a.m., the amount of
needed to reach the phase transition temperature (T ¼ 42
C) and to stored thermal energy in latent form is higher than that stored in
complete the melting process. After 6:00 p.m., the water temper- sensible form due to the increase of the amount melted PCM. At the
ature at the inlet of the LHTES, which considered equal to the outlet end of the charging process (07:00 p.m.), the cumulative stored
water temperature of the SPTC, starts to decrease (see Fig. 11) and thermal energy into latent form is 2.24 times greater than that
leads to a rapid reduction of the PCM temperature in r1 compared stored into sensible form and are equal to about 1860 MJ and
to other PCM locations. 830 MJ, respectively. In fact, this result demonstrates the advantage
Fig. 14 shows the hourly variation of the total volumetric of using PCM as storage medium due to its high-energy storage
enthalpy (sensible þ latent) in the storage system during the density compared to the traditional sensible heat storage. Finally,
functioning of the coupled SPTC-LHTES. At the begging of the the obtained stored latent energy is in good agreement with the
charging process and for a PCM location close to the hot water flow maximal storage capacity of the used commercial PCM RT-42
(for example r1), the amount of stored thermal energy (sensible and (MPCM  Lf z 1900 MJ).
latent) increases quickly compared to other PCM locations far from
the hot water flow. It can be seen also that during the phase tran- 5.3. Transient thermal behavior during discharging process
sition process, the PCM stores a high amount of thermal energy
thanks to the latent heat compared the stored sensible heat. During the discharging process, assumed to be from 7:00 p.m. to
Maximal value of total volumetric enthalpy is reached in PCM 5: 00 a.m., the circulation of water between the SPTC and the LHTES
location r1, as it is closer to the hot water flow compared to other is stopped. Then, the cold water passes through the LHTES and the
locations, and it is about 233 MJ/m3. stored thermal energy is released to produce hot water. The vari-
The time wise variation of the cumulative stored thermal energy ation of liquid fraction of PCM RT-42 during the discharging process
in the proposed SPTC-LHTES system during the charging process is for seven different mass flow rates is presented in Fig. 16-a. It can be
presented in Fig. 15. During the early morning, the thermal energy seen that increasing the mass flow rate of water during the dis-
is stored only into the sensible form due to the increase of the PCM charging leads to solidify quickly the PCM. This behavior is
explained by the increase of the transferred heat rate from PCM to
 B. Lamrani et al. / Renewable Energy 162 (2020) 411e426 421

r1= 0.0112 r2= 0.0318 r3= 0.0537

250

225

Total volumetric enthalpy MJ/m3

200

175

150

125

100

75

50

25

0
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Time (Hours)

Fig. 14. Time wise variation of total volumetric enthalpy in three different locations in the LHTES system.

E_Total E_Latent E_Sensible

1.0
3000
0.15 kg/s
0.9 0.2 kg/s
0.25 kg/s
2500 0.8 0.3 kg/s
0.35 kg/s
0.7 0.4 kg/s
Stored Energy MJ

2000 0.5 kg/s

Liquid fraction

0.6

0.5
1500
0.4

1000 0.3

0.2

500
0.1

0.0
0 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Time (Hours)
Time (Hours) (a)

Fig. 15. Time wise variation of the cumulative total, latent and sensible stored thermal 70

energy in the LHTES during the charging process of RT-42. 0.15 kg/s
65
0.2 kg/s
0.25 kg/s
60
0.3 kg/s
water with the mass flow rate. However, increasing the water mass 55 0.35 kg/s
0.4 kg/s
flow leads also to reduce the residence time of water in the LHTES 0.5 kg/s
50
system. From Fig. 16-b, it is clear that the outlet water temperature
T °C

decreases quickly with the increase of the mass flow rate due to the 45

reduction of the water residence time. For a low value of mass flow 40
rate (0.15 kg/s for example), about 35% of PCM RT-42 in the LHTES
35
system is not solidified at the end of the discharging process and
the outlet water temperature is approximately equal to the melting 30

temperature all the night. For an optimal functioning of the pro- 25

posed PTC-LHTES during the discharging process, the liquid frac-
20
tion at the end of the discharging process must be minimal while 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

the water outlet temperature must be maximal all the night. Based Time (Hours)
on this criterion, the suitable mass flow rate of water during the (b)

discharging process of RT-42 is 0.25 kg/s with a liquid fraction at

Fig. 16. Time wise variation of average PCM liquid fraction (a) and water temperature
the end of the discharging process of about 0.17. The correspond at the outlet of the LHTES system (b) during the discharging process of RT-42.
water outlet temperature varies between 65
C and 28
C all the
422 B. Lamrani et al. / Renewable Energy 162 (2020) 411e426

RT - 42 RT - 55 RT - 65
2000
200
1750
Total volumetric enthalpy MJ/m3

Latent stored/released energy MJ

175
1500

150
1250

125
1000

100 750

75 500

250
50
Charging process Discharging process
0
25 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30
60 58 56 54 52 50 48 46 44 42 40 38 36 Time (Hours)
T (°C) (a)

Fig. 17. Evolution of total volumetric enthalpy with PCM temperature during the RT - 42 RT - 55 RT - 65
1.0
discharging process: m_ f ¼ 0.25 kg/s.
0.9

0.8
night.
Using the selected optimal mass flow rate for RT-42 (m_ f ¼ 0.7

Liquid fraction
0.25 kg/s), the evolution of total volumetric enthalpy at 0.6

r2 ¼ 0.0318 m during the discharging process is given in Fig. 17. At 0.5

the beginning of the discharging process, only sensible heat is
0.4
released and transferred to the cold water as the PCM temperature
0.3
still high than the phase change temperature. When the PCM
temperature reaches the phase transition point (about 42
C), the 0.2
stored latent heat is released and leads to produce hot water. After 0.1
the complete solidification process (PCM temperature lower than Charging process Discharging process
0.0
42
C), the PCM temperature continues to decrease and the heat is 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30
transferred to the water only into the sensible form. Time (Hours)
(b)

Fig. 18. Time wise variation latent heat stored/released (a) and average PCM liquid
5.4. PCM effect on SPTC-LHTES performance
fraction during the functioning of the SPTC-LHTES.

On order to study the effect of the PCM type on the SPTC-LHTES

performance, the three studied PCMs, RT-42, RT-55 and RT-65, are and RT-42, a small amount of PCM still in the liquid state. This can
investigated. For each PCM, the optimal design parameters deter- be explained by the small amount of melted PCM during the
mined previously are used and the performance of the system charging process for RT-65 and by the difference between each
during both charging and discharging process is compared. PCM melting temperature and cold-water temperature.
Fig. 18 illustrates the time wise variation of the latent heat In practical case of hot water production in large buildings, high
stored/released and the average liquid fraction for the three studied amount of hot water with a temperature between 45
C and 60
C is
PCMs during charging and discharging process. It should be noted required during both daytime and nighttime. For the daytime
that in this analysis the water mass flow rate is equal to 0.5 kg/s and operation (sunshine hours), the proposed SPTC-LHTES system us-
0.25 kg/s during the charging and the discharging process, ing the three PCMs is able to produce hot water with a temperature
respectively. It can be seen in Fig. 18-a that during the melting range from 36
C to 85
C (Fig. 19) and with a mass flow rate equal
process of PCM, maximal amount of latent heat is stored in RT-42 to 0.5 kg/s (about 1800 l/h). This water temperature with a mass
and it is equal to about 1860 MJ. However, for RT-55 and RT-65, flow rate of 1800 l/h is suitable in large buildings and it can be used
the amount of latent heat stored at the end of the charging pro- directly or stored in water tank for later use. For the nighttime
cess is 1592.68 MJ and 1134.45 MJ, respectively. This result is due to operation (off-sunshine hours), the stored sensible and latent heat
the amount of melted PCM at the end of the charging process in PCM is released and it is transferred to the cold water. In fact, the
(Fig. 18-b) which it is about 98%, 83.7% and 63.7% for RT-42, RT-55 temperature of produced hot water depends on both PCM type and
and RT-65, respectively. In fact, as the amount of melted PCM in- water mass flow rate. To demonstrate the effect of these parameters
creases the stored thermal energy in PCM is also increased. It on water temperature, the hourly variation of water temperature
should be noted that for all studied PCMs, the energy input during using the three studied PCMs and for three different mass flow
the charging operation is the same, thus the time required for a rates of water (0.25 kg, 0.375 kg/s and 0.5 kg/s) during the dis-
complete melting process is minimal for a PCM with low phase charging process is given in Fig. 20. It can be observed that, for the
transition temperature (RT-42 for example) and maximal for a PCM three PCMs, increasing the mass flow rate of water leads to reduce
with high transition temperature (RT-65 for example). the water temperature during all night. For example, increasing the
During the discharging process, the stored thermal energy is mass flow rate from 0.25 kg/s (Fig. 20-a) to 0.5 kg/s (Fig. 20-c) using
released to the cold water, which explains the decrease in both heat RT-42 as PCM, leads to decrease the average water temperature by
stored and liquid fraction with time. At the end of the discharging about 30% all the night. Indeed, increasing the water velocity
process, the PCM RT-65 is completely solidified, however; for RT-55
 B. Lamrani et al. / Renewable Energy 162 (2020) 411e426 423

RT - 42 RT - 55 RT - 65 RT - 42 RT - 55 RT - 65
90
70
mf = 0.25 kg/s
65
80
60

55
70
50

T °C
45
T °C

60
40

35
50
30

25
40
20
19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Time (Hours)
(a)
Time (Hours)
RT - 42 RT - 55 RT - 65
Fig. 19. Time wise variation of water temperature during the charging process. 70
mf = 0.375 kg/s
65

60
increases the convection heat transfer in the storage system,
however; this behavior is obviously due the reduction of the water 55

residence time in the LHTES with the increase of the water mass 50
flow rate.

T °C
45
It is true that about of 98% of PCM RT-42 is melted during the
40
charging process (Fig. 18-b). However, for hot water production in
large buildings where the required mass flow rate is about 0.5 kg/s, 35

this PCM is not beneficial. In fact, for this fixed mass flow rate 30
(0.5 kg/s), the water outlet temperature using RT-42 still lower than
25
the suitable water temperature (between 45 and 60
C) all the nigh
and its varies between 37
C and 22
C (Fig. 20-c). For RT-65, the 20
19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
outlet water during the discharging process varies within the range Time (Hours)
68e45
C. However, a high amount of this PCM is not melted during (b)

the charging process (about 37%) which is not practically beneficial

for the proposed SPTC-LHTES as this PCM quantity still useless. RT - 42 RT - 55 RT - 65
70
Based on the suitable water temperature for large buildings and its mf = 0.5 kg/s
associated mass flow rate, using RT-55 as PCM in the proposed 65

SPTC-LHTES is suitable compared to both PCMs RT-42 and RT-65. It 60

can be shown clearly in Fig. 20-c that the produced water tem- 55
perature during all the night is within the range 38e63
C through
50
using PCM RT-55 for a mass flow rate of 0.5 kg/s. In order to
T °C

improve the heat transfer in this RT-55 and to complete both the 45

melting process during the charging process and the solidification 40

process during the discharging process, several heat transfer heat 35
enhancement techniques can be investigated and deserve a
30
detailed separate study.
Finally, it can be concluded that the proposed SPTC-LHTES is 25

suitable for large buildings with high consumption rate of hot water 20
19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
(up to 1800 l/h) and it is able to produce hot water within the
Time (Hours)
ranges of 85e36
C and 63-38
C, during daytime and nighttime (c)
operation, respectively. It is worth noting that in large buildings
(hotels, hospitals, barracks, etc), the amount of SHWs is generally Fig. 20. Time wise variation of water temperature during the discharging process for
high which require a large space and the roofs of these buildings are three different mass flow rates: 0.25 kg/s (a), 0.375 kg/s (b) and 0.5 kg/s (c).
not always enough to allocate these solar panels. To overcome this
problem, it is recommended to use available unshaded ground
space around these type of buildings and the proposed system can shell and tube latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) system
be successfully ground mounted. and a circulation pump. A detailed thermal dynamic model is
developed for investigating the performance of the coupled SPTC-
LHTES under realistic weather conditions and it is validated with
6. Conclusion existent experimental and numerical results. The maximal
discrepancy between numerical results and experimental data does
In the present work, a novel solar water heater with heat storage not exceed 5%. The optimal design of the LHTES is determined for a
in PCM is proposed for large buildings hot water production such as typical summer day in Ajaccio city in the south of France. The effect
hotels, hospitals, barracks, etc. The studied system is composed of both water mass flow rate and the PCM type on the produced
mainly of a solar parabolic through collector (SPTC) coupled with a water temperature during the discharging process is presented and
424 B. Lamrani et al. / Renewable Energy 162 (2020) 411e426

discussed. The main findings of the present work can be summa- Ls Latent heat of fusion (J/kg)
rized as the following: MPCM Mass of phase change material (kg)
m_ f Mass flow rate of water (kg/s)
 Using the solar concentrator (SPTC) as solar water heater is able Np Number of tubes in the storage system()
to produced hot water in the range of 85e36
C and with a Pr Prandtl number ()
suitable mass flow rate for large building (up to 1800 l/h) during Q Heat rate (W)
the sunshine hours. Q_ Thermal energy (J)
 Maximal useful heat by water in the SPTC with an area of 100 m2 r Radial coordinate (m)
during the daytime operation is about 72.6 kW and it is reached ri Inner radius (m)
at noon. re Outer radius (m)
 The proposed storage system in PCM is coupled with the SPTC Re Reynolds number ()
and it is able to store thermal energy during the sunshine hours T Temperature (K or
C)
and to release it to the cold water during the off-sunshine hours; t Time (s)
 Maximal amount of stored latent heat in PCM at the end of the v Velocity (m/s)
charging process is 2.24 times greater than that stored into VPCM Volume of phase change material (m3)
sensible form. W Width of the solar collector (m)
 The mass flow rate of water and the PCM melting temperature X Axial coordinate (m)
have a significant effect on the water temperature during the
nighttime system operation;
 Increasing the mass flow rate from 0.25 kg/s to 0.5 kg/s during Greek symbols
nighttime operation of the system leads to decrease the average a Absorptance coefficient ()
outlet water temperature by about 30%. t Transmittance coefficient ()
 The amount of latent heat stored at the end of the charging g Intercept factor ()
process is 1860 MJ, 1592.68 MJ and 1134.45 MJ for RT-42, RT-55 ε Emittance ()
and RT-65, respectively. r Density (kg/m3)
 For a high consumption rate of hot water (about 1800 l/h), using rm Reflectivity of surface ()
RT-55 as PCM in the studied SPTC-LHTES is suitable compared to m Dynamic viscosity [Pa.s]
RT-42 and RT-65. s StefaneBoltzmann constant (W/m2K4)
 The proposed SPTC-LHTES is suitable for large buildings hot h Efficiency ()
water production and it is able to produce hot water within the Dr Radial space step (m)
ranges of 85e36
C and 63-38
C, during daytime and nighttime Dx Axial space step (m)
operation, respectively.

As perspectives of the present study, the heat transfer Subscript

enhancement techniques of the LHTES and economic and envi- A Absorber
ronment assessment of the proposed coupled SPTC-LHTES system ab Absorbed
will be investigated and presented in future research works. amb Ambient
c Collector
CRediT authorship contribution statement cv Convection
ext Exterior
Bilal Lamrani: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, f Fluid

de
Writing - original draft, Validation. Fre
ric Kuznik: Writing - re- i Inner
view & editing. Abdeslam Draoui: Writing - review & editing. In Inlet
int Interior
l Liquid
Declaration of competing interest
m Phase change material
mel Melting
The authors declare that they have no known competing
o Outlet
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
r Radiation
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
s Solid
st Stored
Nomenclature u Useful
V Glass cover
A Area (m2) sky Sky
a Thermal diffusivity (m2/s)
Cp Heat capacity (J/kg K)
D Diameter (m) Abbreviations
f Liquid fraction () DNI Direct normal irradiance
f Liquid fraction at the end of the charging process () ETC Evacuated tube collector
fr Friction factor () FPC Flat plate collector
h Enthalpy (J/m3) or heat transfer coefficient (W/m2K) HTF Heat transfer fluid
H Length of the storage system (m) LHTES Latent heat thermal energy storage
Id Direct normal irradiance on the collector (W/m2) PCM Phase change material
k Thermal conductivity (W/m K) SPTC Solar parabolic through collector
L Length of the solar collector (m) SWH Solar water heater
 B. Lamrani et al. / Renewable Energy 162 (2020) 411e426 425

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€ll, Comprehensive analysis of the per-
>
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>
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>
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>
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>
>
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