Assessment of Elastomeric Components of a Solar Thermal Collector
Abstract
Elastomeric components play important functions in solar thermal collectors (STC’s) as sealings, fittings or absorbers, being important that they maintain their properties along STC lifetime. In what ageing is concerned, current standards for assessment of elastomeric materials put emphasis on the effect of heating. The results presented in this paper refer to the evaluation of the effects of exposure to heating as well as to solar radiation by means of accelerated tests on two ethylene propylene diene terpolymer (EPDM) components of a commercial STC both carbon black filled compounds. At the current stage of the study, results showed that the effect of solar radiation may be relevant for the assessment of the components and, for that reason, should be considered along with temperature.
Keywords
Solar thermal collectors, Elastomeric components, Ageing, Accelerated tests