Numerical study on the effect of collector height on the performance of solar water heater collector
by Ammar Ali; Abinash Mahapatro; Binayak Pattanayak; Adel Abdalrahman; Fadi Ali
International Journal of Global Energy Issues (IJGEI), Vol. 45, No. 3, 2023

Abstract: The current research aims to perform a numerical study on the effect of the collector height on the feasibility and effectiveness of a flat plate solar water heater (SWH) integrated with baffles. Numerical simulation is carried out using Ansys Workbench (CFD fluent), where the domain of study consists of water as fluid and metal collector (aluminium) as solid. Transverse baffles channel the water flow in the collector to ensure a proper flow distribution across the collector. Two height variations (H) viz. 3 cm and 5 cm are considered for the current investigation. The results show that reducing the height of the solar water heater leads to an increase in the speed of water flow in the collector. Nevertheless, the temperature of the water is increased by reducing the collector height due to the reduction of total volume and mass of water available in the collector. Moreover, the higher outlet temperature of the water corresponds to the lower collector height. Thus, the height of the solar water heater has a significant economic effect correlated to the performance and cost of the collector. The authors thereby emphasise that the height and the associated outlet temperature are reference parameters to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of the solar water collector.

Online publication date: Tue, 02-May-2023

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