Thermodynamic Analysis of a Solar Flat Plate Water Heater Using Extended Surface Absorber Tube
Abstract
This paper studies the effect of an absorber tube with and without an extended surface of a solar flat plate water heater. The investigation of this system is carried out using with data acquisition system. Here, a tube and rod are used as an extended surface inside an absorber tube. The extended surfaces are frictionally engaged with the inner side of the tube wall, and it is kept in the axial flow direction of the fluid flow path. The various performance factors such as friction factor and non-dimensional numbers are analyzed. The results show that the outlet temperature of the extended surface absorber tube collector is 8 C higher when compared to the plain tube collector. Also, it was found that the rod extended surface gives a higher outlet temperature when compared to the tube extended surface. While there was low friction loss, no impact on the pressure drop was found using extended surface inside the absorbing tube.
Keywords
Solar flat plate water heater, Extended surface absorber tube, Non-dimensional number