In this work, a flat-plate solar air heater (FSAH) and a tubular solar air heater (TSAH) were designed and tested numerically. The work investigates the effect of increasing the contact area between the flowing air and the absorber surface of each heater and predicts the expected results before the fabrication of the experimental rig. Three-dimensional two models were designed and simulated by the ANSYS-FLUENT 16 Program. The solar irradiation and ambient air temperature were measured experimentally on December 1st 2022, at the weather conditions of Baghdad City- Iraq, at three air mass flow rates, 0.012 kg/s, 0.032 kg/s, and 0.052 kg/s. The numerical results showed the advantage in the thermal performance of the TSAH in comparison to the FSAH, represented by better air temperature difference, better heat transfer from the absorber to air, and better thermal efficiency. The TSAH has a higher thermal efficiency than the FSAH by 7 %, 19 % °C, and 22 % at 0.012 kg/s, 0.032 kg/s, and 0.052 kg/s, respectively. The improvement of the thermal characteristics of the TSAH can be referred to as the increment in the heat transfer contact area between the absorber and the flowing air.
In the hybrid coolingsolar systems , a solar collectoris used to convertsolar energy intoheat sourcein order to super heat therefrigerant leave thecompressor,andthisprocess helpsin the transformation ofrefrigerant state from gaseous statetothe liquid statein upper two-thirdsof thecondenserinstead of the lower two-thirdssuchas in thetraditional air-conditioning systems and this willreduce theenergyneeded torun the process ofcooling.In this research two hybrid air-conditioning system with an evacuated tube solar collector were used, therefrigerant was R22 and the capacity was 2 tons each.The tilt angle of the evacuated tube solar collector was changed and the solar collector fluid was replaced into oil instead of water.A comparison wasi
... Show MoreIn this paper a comparison of the experimental of evacuated tube solar water heater systems with and without mirror flat reflector. The aim of using the reflector to improve thermal efficiency, and the data gathered which are (temperature, solar irradiation and time) for three days were compared. the results from compared data the temperature lower increase in evacuated tube solar water heater system without reflector than the temperature increase in evacuated tube solar water heater system with reflector .The results show (53, 39, 35) % for three days respectively that the evacuated tube solar water heater system with reflector has higher thermal efficiencies than the results (47, 28, 30) % for three days respectively thermal efficiencies
... Show MoreIn the present work a comparative study for thermal and electrical performance of different hybrid photovoltaic/thermal collectors designs for Iraq climate conditions have been carried out. Four different types of air based hybrid PV/T collectors have been manufactured and tested. Three collectors consist of four main parts namely, channel duct, glass cover, axial fan to circulate air and two PV panels in parallel connection. The measured parameters are, the temperature of the upper and the lower surfaces of the PV panels, air temperature along the collector, air flow rate, pressure drop, power produced by solar cell, and climate conditions such as wind speed, solar radiation and ambient temperature. The thermal and hydraulic performances o
... Show MoreThe enhancement of the thermal and thermo-hydraulic performance of a semi-circular solar air collector (SCSAC) is numerically investigated using porous semi-circular obstacles made of metal foam with and without longitudinal porous Y-shaped fins. Two 10 and 40 PPI porous material samples are examined. Three-dimensional models are built to simulate the performance of SCSAC: model (I) with clear air passage; model (II) with only metal foam obstacles, and model (III) with metal foam obstacles as well as porous Y-fins. COMSOL Multiphysics software version 6.2 based on finite element methodology is employed. A conjugate heat transfer with a (k-ε) turbulence model is selected to simulate both heat transfer and fluid flow across the entir
... Show MoreNumerical simulations have been carried out on the solar chimney power plant systems. This paper gives the flow field analysis for a solar chimney power generation project located in Baghdad. The continuity, Naver-stockes, energy and radiation transfer equations have been solved and carried out by Fluent software. The governing equations are solved for incompressible, 3-D, steady state, turbulent is approximated by a standard k - model with Boussiuesq approximation to study and evaluate the performance of solar chimney power plant in Baghdad city of Iraq. The different geometric parameters of project are assumed such as collector diameter and chimney height at different working conditions of solar radiation intensity (300,450,600,750
... Show MoreThe thermal and electrical performance of different designs of air based hybrid photovoltaic/thermal collectors is investigated experimentally and theoretically. The circulating air is used to cool PV panels and to collect the absorbed energy to improve their performance. Four different collectors have been designed, manufactured and instrumented namely; double PV panels without cooling (model I), single duct double pass collector (model II), double duct single pass (model III), and single duct single pass (model IV) . Each collector consists of: channel duct, glass cover, axial fan to circulate air and two PV panel in parallel connection. The temperature of the upper and
... Show MoreIn a hybrid cooling solar thermal systems , a solar collector is used to convert solar energy into heat energy in order to super heat the refrigerant leaving the compressor, and this process helps in the transformation of refrigerant state from gaseous state to the liquid state in upper two-thirds of the condenser instead of the lower two-thirds such as in the traditional air-conditioning systems and this will reduce the energy needed to run the process of cooling .In this research two systems with a capacity of 2 tons each were used, a hybrid air-conditioning system with an evacuated tubes solar collector and a traditional air-conditioning system . The refrigerant of each type was R22.The comparison was in the amou
... Show MoreIn this study, the effect of the thermal conductivity of phase change material (PCM) on the performance of thermal energy storage has been analyzed numerically. A horizontal concentric shell-and-tube latent heat thermal energy storage system (LHTESS) has been performed during the solidification process. Two types of paraffin wax with different melting temperatures and thermal conductivity were used as a PCM on the shell side, case1=0.265W/m.K and case2=0.311 W/m.K. Water has been used as heat transfer fluid (HTF) flow through in tube side. Ansys fluent has been used to analyze the model by taking into account phase change by the enthalpy method used to deal with phase transition. The numerical simulatio
... Show MoreIn this work, a convex lens concentrating solar collector is designed and manufactured locally by using 10 convex lenses (concentrator) of a diameter 10cm and one Copper absorber tube of a diameter 12.5mm and 1mm in thickness 1m length. Two axes manual Tracking system also constructed to track the sun continuously in two directions. The experiments are made on 17th of May 2015 in climatic conditions of Baghdad. The experimental data are fed to a computer program to solve the thermal performing equation, to find efficiency and actual useful energy. Then this data is used in numerical CFD software for three different absorber diameters (12.5 mm, 18.75 mm and 25 mm). From the results that obtained the maximum the
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