The electrical and thermal performance of a typical single pass hybrid photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) air collector is modeled, simulated and analyzed for two selected case studies in Iraq. An improved mathematical thermo-electrical model is derived in terms of design, operating and climatic parameters of the hybrid solar collector to evaluate its important characteristics: collector flow and heat removal factors, PV maximum power point and its temperature coefficient, and overall power and efficiency. Unlike previous PV/T thermal models, the present model is obtained with some additions and corrections in radiation and convection heat coefficients for the top loss and for the air duct with more applicable sky temperature correlation. The well-known 5-parameter electrical model of PV module is solved using improved boundary conditions and translation equations for better convergence and accuracy. The voltage temperature coefficient of the PV module is included in the boundary conditions for convergence stability. The module parameters are taken to be dependent on solar radiation and PV cell temperature for improved accuracy. A Matlab computer simulation program is developed to solve the thermo-electrical model. The developed model is verified with previously published experimental results and theoretical simulations; it is proved to be most accurate in respect to percentage errors and correlation coefficients. Different parameters of the PV/T collector such as cell and air temperatures, thermal gain, PV current and voltage, and fill factor have been investigated. The results identified the effects of most important operating conditions such as sky, inlet and cell temperatures, air flow rate and incident solar radiation on the performance of the hybrid collector. The approved model is applied for a winter day (22 January 2011) in Baghdad city and for a summer day (20 May 2011) in Fallujah city. It is found that the electrical, thermal and overall collector efficiencies for the two case studies were 12.3%, 19.4% and 53.6% respectively for the winter day, while that for the summer day were 9%, 22.8% and 47.8%.
In this study, the optical and thermal performance of a Parabolic Trough Collector PTC system is investigated theoretically. A series of numerical simulations and theoretical analysis has been conducted to investigate the effect of the receiver geometry and location relative to the focal line on its optical performance. The examined receiver geometries are circular, square, triangular, elliptical and a new design of circular‐ square named as channel receiver. The thermal performance of PTC is studied for different flow rates from (0.27 to 0.6 lpm) theoretically. Results showed that the best optical design is the channel receiver with an optical efficiency of 84% while the worst is the elliptical
A numerical study of the double-diffusive laminar natural convection in a right triangular solar collector has been investigated in present work. The base (absorber) and glass cover of the collector are isothermal and isoconcentration surfaces, while the vertical wall is considered adiabatic and impermeable. Both aiding and opposing buoyancy forces have been studied. Governing equations in vorticity-stream function form are discretized via finite-difference method and are solved numerically by iterative successive under relaxation (SUR) technique. Computer code for MATLAB software has been developed and written to solve mathematical model. Results in the form of streamlines, isotherms, isoconcentration, average Nusselt, and average Sherw
... Show MoreThe design, construction and investigation of experimental study of two compound parabolic concentrators (CPCs) with tubular absorber have been presented. The performance of CPCs have been evaluated by using outdoor experimental measurements including the instantaneous thermal efficiency. The two CPCs are tested instantly by holding them on a common structure. Many tests are conducted in the present work by truncating one of them in three different levels. For each truncation the acceptance half angle (θc) was changed. Geometrically, the acceptance half angle for standard CPC is (26o). For the truncation levels for the other CPC 1, 2 and 3 the acceptance half angle were 20o, 26o and 5
... Show MoreAn experimental and theoretical study has been done to investigate the thermal performance of different types of air solar collectors, In this work air solar collector with a dimensions of (120 cm x90 cm x12 cm) , was tested under climate condition of Baghdad city with a (43° tilt angel) by using the absorber plate (1.45 mm thickness, 115 cm height x 84 cm width), which was manufactured from iron painted with a black matt.
The experimental test deals with five types of absorber:-
Conventional smooth flat plate absorber , Finned absorber , Corrugated absorber plate, Iron wire mesh on absorber And matrix of porous media on absorber .
The hourly and average efficiency of the collectors
... Show MoreIn this work, the effect of vortex shedding on the solar collector performance of the parabolic trough solar collector (PTSC) was estimated experimentally. The effect of structure oscillations due to wind vortex shedding on solar collector performance degradation was estimated. The performance of PTSC is evaluated by using the useful heat gain and the thermal instantaneous efficiency. Experimental work to simulate the vortex shedding excitation was done. The useful heat gain and the thermal efficiency of the parabolic trough collector were calculated from experimental measurements with and without vortex loading. The prototype of the collector was fabricated for this purpose. The effect of vortex shedding at different operation condition
... Show MoreIn the current research, the work concentrated on studying the effect of curvature of solar parabolic trough solar collector on wind loading coefficients and dynamic response of solar collector. The response of collector to the aerodynamic loading was estimated numerically and experimentally. The curvature of most public parabolic trough solar collectors was investigated and compared. The dynamic response of solar collector due to wind loading was investigated by using numerical solution of fluid-structure interaction concept. The experimental work was done to verify the numerical results and shows good agreement with numerical results. The numerical results were obtained by using finite element software package (ANSYS 14). It was found
... Show More