CFD Analysis on Solar Flat Plate Collector

by
Chelli Raju.G
Register no: 07MEE003
Final year M.Tech
Energy and Environmental Engineering
Under the Guidance of
Dr.D.Subhakar
Professor (Energy)
Dean (Academics)

School of Mechanical and Building Sciences

VIT University, Vellore

Contents
Absorber Plate
Generation of Geometry of Fin
Boundary Conditions
Modeling using Fluent
Results and Discussion
References

1.1 Absorber Plate

Absorber plate is the part of the solar flat plate collector which acts as the fin to increase
the surface area which in turn improves the rate of heat transfer. Due to absorption, the
plate temperature rises above the ambient. The metal plate absorbs solar radiation and
hence can be called an absorber. To attain thermal equilibrium with the surroundings, the
plate loses heat by two means: by convection to the air in the vicinity of the plate and by
radiation to the sky. The convective heat transfer is mainly due to wind, while the
radiative heat transfer takes place at longer wavelength (infra red). The aim is to attain
high temperature in the plate. Therefore, the plate should have the property to absorb all
the radiation falling on it and reflect no radiation. The plate should be oriented in such a
manner to receive maximum radiation for achieving maximum output. To improve the
efficiency and reduce the losses, the bottom and the sides of the absorber plate (with riser
tube) are insulated. This will reduce the heat loss at the bottom and thus the temperature
of plate and, therefore, the temperature of water will rise.
The thermal energy of the plate has to be transferred to a working media for use. This
is transferred by the mechanism of conduction and convection processes. Since the plate
is symmetry on both the side we assume that the sides are in adiabatic condition. The
pipes are welded in a continuous process. The metallurgical bonding ensures a very high
degree of thermal efficiency and an ability to withstand up to 200 to 300 degrees
centigrade stagnation temperature. Continuous welding ensures better efficiency due to
unrestricted transfer of heat from Fin to the Tube.

Figure 1: Absorber plate with pipe

1.2 Generation of Geometry in GAMBIT

The geometry was generated using GAMBIT and later it is exported to FLUENT as a
mesh file for simulation. The vertices are set on the plane according to the dimensions
given in the standards.
Dimensions of the fin and tube (Solchrome.com)

Copper tubes of 25.4 mm OD and 0.71 thickness

Selectively coated copper fins of thickness 0.15mm and 115mm width

Once the vertices are located the edges and faces are created. The meshing is done for all
the edges and faces depending on the degree of accuracy. The boundary types are given
and the continuums are mention in the GAMBIT. Now the geometry is ready for the
modeling.

Figure:2 Geometry of Flat plate in GAMBIT

The above geometry is exported as the mesh file to the Fluent. The outer boundary is
named as the solid and the inner as the fluid continuums respectively.

1.3 Boundary Conditions

The solar flat plate is subjected to the solar radiation. The top surface receives the solar
flux and simultaneously there is a convective loss from the top surface. Hence the
boundary condition for the top surface is flux as well as the convection. It is a mixed
boundary condition. In such case a thin layer of the selective coating is assumed and heat
generation rate is assumed.
The ambient temperature is assumed to be 300K and the thickness of the selective coating
is 0.0015m and heat transfer coefficient, h = 8W/m2K (Duffie Beckmann 2nd Edition).
At the bottom the absorber plate is well insulated in order to minimize the losses. Hence
there is no heat loss or gain. Therefore T/x=0.
The fin is symmetry and hence both the sides are assumed to be adiabatic therefore the is
no heat loss or gain.
The fluid inside the tube obtains heat from the metallic surfaces through convection and
gets heated above the ambient temperature. The inside heat transfer coefficient is taken as
300 W/m2K (Duffie Beckmann 2nd Edition).

Modeling in FLUENT
The case file is read as .mesh file. The grid size check is done. The solver is defined as
the steady state and the models are defined in order to introduce the energy equation. The
materials are defined according to the continuum taken. For our case we have selected the
copper as the material of construction for pipes and fins and liquid water for the inside
fluid. The boundary conditions as mentioned in the section 1.3 are applied. The iterations
are initialized for all the zones until the convergence is obtained. The contours are
obtained in order to predict the temperature profiles and the energy balance is conducted
to verify the conservation of energy. Since the solar flux is not constant through out the
day the temperature profiles for different values of fluxes are obtained.

Results and Discussion

The temperature profiles are obtained at different solar flux.

Figure: 3 Temperature distributions in 2D

The temperature distributions as shown in the figure 3 are obtained. The temperature will
be represented by the colors from red to blue i.e. red for higher value and blue for the
initial low value.

Figure: 4 Temperature profile for different flux values

The value of the flux was changed for the given conditions and the profile is obtained as
shown in the figure 4

References

www.solchrome.com

Solar Engineering of Thermal Processes John. A. Duffie and William. A.

Beckman, 2nd Edition, 1991.