c
 

  

 

                 


 

Introduction

Today, the heat transfer characteristic and performance of the solar collector with and without
porous media are continuously studied numerically. Mathematical models are being developed which
are derived by using the energy equations. In this study,the thermal conductivity of the porous media is
considered.

The main objective of a solar collector is to achieve maximum amount of energy collected with
minimal cost. It is extensively used in residential, industrial and agricultural field. The heat transfer
characteristics of the solar collector have been widely studied. Yen and Linitheoretically and
experimentally studied the effects of collector aspect ratio of the collect on flat-plate, upward and
baffled solar collectors. Ongii predicted the thermal performance of four common types of single-pass
solar air heaters. Fathiii studied the thermal performance of a simple design solar air heater. Al-Kamil
and Al-Ghareebiv experimentally and theoretically studied the effects of the various parameters, such as
temperature, solar intensity and air flow rate on the performance of a flat plate solar air heater.Sopian
et al. vexperimentally studied on the thermal performance of the double-pass solar collector with and
without porous media in the second channel.Naphon and Kongtragool vi applied the mathematical
models for predicting the heat transfer characteristics and performance of the various configuration of
flat-plate solar air heater.

As described above, there are many studies on the solar air heater. However, the studies on
heat transfer characteristics of the double-pass flat plate solar collector with porous media are still
limited. The objective of this paper is to study theoretically on the heat transfer characteristic and
performance of the double- pass flat plate solar collector with and without porous media using
computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The effects of various relevant parameters on the model prediction
are also investigated.
½iterature Review

The basic physical equation used to describe the heat transfer characteristics are developed
from the conservation equations of energy. The model is based on that of Naphon and Kongtragool6
with the following assumptions.

á The air flow at the inlet is steady

á The inner and outer convective heat transfer coefficient is constant along the length of the solar
collector
á The thermal conductivity of the porous media is constant along the length of the solar collector.

Absorber

Air Inlet

Air Outlet
Insulation Glass

Absorber Air Inlet

Porous Air Outlet

Media

Insulation

Fig.1. Schematic diagram of the solar collector without (A) and with (B) porous media
u
 



Î
    
       
         
      
   (1)

Whereà is the solar intensity, ɲc is the absorptivity of the glass cover, ha is the heat transfer coefficient
between the ambient and the glass, Tc is the glass cover temperature, Tp is the absorber
platetemperature, Ta is the ambient temperature, Tf1 is the fluid temperature in the top channel, and
hr,cp andhr,ac are the radiative heat transfer coefficients between the glass cover and the absorber plate,
the glasscover and ambient, respectively, as follows (Fig. 1):

    

   (2)
  
    
  (3)
 

u






ó      
         
    (4)
!

where is the mass flow rate of fluid per unit width, Cp is the specific heat of working fluid, hfc1 is the
heat transfer coefficient between the glass cover and working fluid, and hf1p is the heat transfer
coefficient between the absorber plate and working fluid.

u




Î
 "     
       # 
  #       
     $ 
 $  (5)

where
 is the absorptivity of the absorber plate, " is the transmitivity of the glass cover, and  # is the
fluid temperature in the bottom channel.

u
 

  
 


ó     # 
  #     #$ $ 
  #  (6)
!

u
 

 
 

   
ó    %   # 
  #     #$ $ 
  #  (7)
! ! 

u
  

    #$ $
  #    $ $
     & $
   (8)

where& is the overall heat transfer coefficient, $ is the bottom plate temperature, and % is the
thermal conductivity of the porous media.

omputational Fluid Dynamics (FD)

Computational fluid dynamics, CFD, is a computational technology that enables the study of
dynamics of things that flow. Using CFD, a computational model can be built according to the desired
requirement. Flow physics can be applied to the model and an output prediction of the fluid dynamics
and related physical phenomena can be obtained. It is also a sophisticated computational-based design
and analysis technique.

CFD has the power to simulate flows of gases and fluids, heat and mass transfer, fluid structure
interaction and acoustic through computer modeling. By using CFD, we can create a virtual prototype
which we want to analyze and apply the required physical characteristic or any real world physics which
in turn will predict the outcome and performance of the desired model.

In this study, we will be using the software from ANSYS© for CFD. With this software, we will
have to build a virtual model of the double pass solar collector with and without porous media. From
there, we are able to determine the output prediction of the air flow and heat transfer in this solar
collector. By using the virtual model, we are able to manipulate the values and characteristic of the solar
collector to achieve the optimum heat transfer and air flow. All this values obtained from the CFD
software are theoretical, so we would need to compare the experimental results which are done by K.
Sopianv.

References

i
H.M. Yeh, T.T. Lin, Energy (1995)
ii
K.S. Ong, Solar Energy (1995)
iii
H.E.S. Fath, Energy Conservation and Management (1995)
iv
M.T. Al-Kamil, A.A. Al-Ghareeb, Energy Conservation and Management (1995)
v
K. Sopian, Supranto, W.R.W. Daud, M.Y. Othman, B. Yatim, Renewable Energy (1999)
vi
P. Naphon, B. Kongtragool, International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer (2003)
vii
BAA Yousef, NM Adam, Journal Of Energy in Southern Africa (2008)