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A New Transparently Insulated, Bifacially Irradiated Solar Flat-Plate Collector
A New Transparently Insulated, Bifacially Irradiated Solar Flat-Plate Collector
(X) 4 (~)
Pnnted )n the L? SA ('op.~righl .:c 1992 Pergamon Pres~ Lid
Abstract--A new type of transparently insulated flat-plate collector was developed. It reaches higher efficiencies
at low irradiation values or high operating temperatures than any other collector type known. Both sides of
its absorber are covered with transparent insulation material and both sides are irradiated. Thus, the heat
losses of the collector related to the total absorber area are distinctly reduced. An optical efficiency of n0 =
0.72 and a temperature dependent U-value of U(AT) = (0.95 + 0.0076 AT K ~) W m 2 K -i were measured
with an outdoor test facility. The bifacial-absorber collector is considered to be the best option for the DttW
system of the energetically self-sutScient solar house in Freiburg because of its outstanding winter performance.
403
404 A. (,~()E'IZBERGER el al.
Fig. I. Design ofthe bifacial-absorber collector. The absorber (a) is completely surrounded by the transparent
insulation material (b), separated from it by an air-gap of only a few centimetres. The back surface of the
absorber is irradiated with the help of two semi-cylindrical mirrors (c).
lector under winter conditions. The actual dimensions spectrum of a black body at the temperature T =
are given in the cross section of Fig. 2. 100°C. Figure 3 shows both the absorptance-trans-
The size of the absorber sheet is 0.836 m by 1.84 mittance product ( r a ) and the effective absorptance-
m so the total area Aa~ of both absorber surfaces is transmittance product ( r a ) , of the arrangement used
,4,~ = 3.08 m 2. Due to the design of the prototype, in dependence on the incidence angle, as calculated by
the aperture area Aap is equal to the absorber area A ~ a computer model [ 6 ].
of the collector. Computation of the angular dependence of the front
The transparent insulation material was of the side is straightforward. For beams incident on the back,
polycarbonate honeycomb type, as described in[5]. the directions are drastically altered by the semi-cylin-
Its thickness was 50 ram, while the dimensions of the drical reflectors. Results of a ray tracing computation
rectangular cells were about 3.5 m m by 4.5 mm. Low- for incidence angles 0 °, +40 ° and - 4 0 ° (in the plane
iron glazing of thickness 4 mm was directly attached perpendicular to the cylinder axes) are depicted in Fig.
to the honeycomb for weather protection and in order 4. The inserts give the intensity distribution along the
to avoid inter-cell convection through the open cells radius and the distribution of incidence angles in ar-
of the honeycomb layer. The air gap between the ab- bitrary units integrated over the back surface area of
sorber and the honeycomb material was 24 m m wide. the absorber. The reflectivity of the mirror has been
The selective coating of the absorber surfaces had an assumed to be 0.9 in these calculations. Strong inho-
absorptance a~,, for the solar spectrum of a~o, = 0.95 mogeneities are expected at 0 ° and at negative angles,
and an emissivity ( (IO0°C) = 0.10 for the radiation for which - 4 0 ° is given as an example. In the exper-
i~ 1760 era
= 1672 ram ----
-- 972 mm ~-
= 836 mm ~.
~ ' lil!ili_iliill]llll.lil!lllllilll.lll!ilJlllVl~iil)lll~Jlliil
"5 ~
,.,....a L,~ ~t~li[~tllllliiiiiiliii~'lilliiiiiiilllmi~iiiliilll~i i
o b c d e
Fig. 2. Cross seetion of prototype 1 to scale. The components shown are: (a) absorber sheet, (b) 24 mm
air gap. (e) 50 mm polycarbonate honeycomb structure, (d) 4 m m low-iron glazing, (e) semi-cylindrical
mirrors.
A new solar flat-plate collector 405
1.0
0.8
0.6-
0
._. 0.4
0.2
0.0 , , ,
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
incidence angle e , degrees
Fig. 3. Absorptance-transmittancc product (ra) (solid line) and effective absorptance-transmittance product
(r(~)¢ (dashed line) of the used TI M--absorber arrangement, calculated by computer modelling.
iment, however, the temperature was found to be con- had to be accepted in comparison to a conventionally
stant along the absorber within the accuracy of the designed transparently insulated flat-plate collector.
measurement. This is probably due to three causes: This reduction was due to some disturbance of the
1. Small inhomogeneities of the mirror surface will radiation directed to the rear surface of the absorber:
dampen the intensity peaks. I. To protect the mirrors from pollution, they were
2. The transparent insulation material has the ten- covered with low-iron glass panes, which cause ad-
dency to homogenize the light intensity by multiple ditional reflection losses.
reflections. 2. The transparent insulation of the edges, which was
3. Heat conduction within the aluminum absorber 7 cm wide and 15 cm thick, partially obscured the
plate of thickness 2 m m provides for an equalization mirrors' apertures and led to more attenuation.
of the temperature inhomogeneities. 3. For a single beam reflection, the reflectance p of
Plane mirrors are mounted at the ends of the cyl- the mirror was p = 0.95, and the effective mean
inder halves. Thus also in the planes parallel to the reflectance am, which also takes into account that
cylinder axes, shadow and booster effects at the rear part of the irradiation was multiply reflected, was
of the absorber were expected for off-normal incidence p m = 0.93 for diffuse irradiation.
angles due to the finite length of the mirror. These 4. Direct irradiation reflected to the absorber back
inhomogeneities were limited, because the cylinder surface showed an angular distribution (see Fig. 4
axes were aligned in the south-north direction. for comparison ), which could lead to a decrease of
While the bifacial-absorber design minimizes the the transmittance through the transparent insula-
heat losses, some reduction of the optical et~ciency tion.
° ;
~~d
L
eg
e
rs0
ongle of incidence: angle of incidence: ,4
.~
(a) (b) (c)
Fig. 4. Results of ray tracing computations for incidence angles of(a) 0 °, (b) +40 °, and (c) -40 ° (in the
plane perpendicular to the cylinder axes) to investigate possible inhomogeneities caus~xt by the circular
reflector (the reflectance p of the mirror was assumed to be p = 0.9 in this computation). The intensity
distribution along the radius and the distribution of incidence angles integrated over the back surface area
of the absorber are given in arbitrary units.
406 A. GOETZBF~RGER ('1 a/.
1.0
0.8
0.6
®e-
U 0.4.
•g 0.2
0.0 i i i i i i i i
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
incidence angle O, degrees
Fig. 5. Incidence angle modifiers m (0, ~' - 90 ° ) ( solid line ) and m ( O, (¢ = 0 ° ) ( dashed line ) of the bifaeial-
absorber collector. ~" = 0 is defined as the direction along the axcs of the cylinder halves.
Table 1. Results of indoor measurements: Stagnation parameters of prototype 1 under the solar simulator
2.0
7
1.8
o 1 o
0.8 ' ' ' I ' ' ' ' ' I ' ' ' ' ' '
20 40 60 80 100 120
AT, K
Fig. 6. lnstantanous U-values for prototype 1, determined from the cooling rate at night in outdoor mea-
surements and linear fit U(AT) = (0.95 + 0.0076 AT K - t ) W m 2 K -'.
1.0
"6" 0 . 9
O %..
0.8
i 0.7
0 . 6
0.5
0.42
"~ 0 . 3 '
o
..~
0.2'
0.1
0.0 I I ' ' I '
Fig. 8. Alternative construction ofa bifacial-absorber collector with horizontal orientation ofthe absorber
and inclined aperture area.
A new solar flat-plate collector 409
D H W system, using the T R N S Y S and W A T S U N All data is related to the absorber area Aa~, where
simulation programmes: in the case of the bifacial-absorber collector, both sur-
faces of the absorber sheet are included in Aa~. Since
• evacuated tube collectors with the characteristics the available roof area is limited, the ratio A,bJA~,~
becomes important, where A m is the gross area of the
~o = 0.85 (4a) collector. For the evacuated tube collector, we took
Ag,~ only as the area which is covered by the tubes and
U(~T) the spaces between them, because the headers of the
=(I.78+0.0127ATK ') Wm-2K '' (4b) collector modules can be covered by PV cells.
For the computations, weather conditions from the
Aa~/Agrs = 0.65, and (4c) Test Reference Year of Freiburg, located in southern
G e r m a n y at 48°N, were used. The following data
• improved flat-plate collectors with transparent covers briefly describes these weather conditions in order to
which consist of 100 m m polycarbonate honeycomb give a background for the results that follow. The an-
attached to a 4 m m low-iron glass pane[I]. Their nual horizontal global irradiation is 1109 kWh m -~
data: a - ' , with 0.714 kWh m -2 d ' as the daily mean value
in December, and 6.014 kWh m -2 d - ' in July. The
~o = 0.76 (5a) monthly mean ambient temperature is 0.3°C in Jan-
uary and 19.2°C in July.
The hot water storage tank of the simulated D H W
U(~T) system had a volume of 1000 L. The results of the
=(I.20+0.010ATK -1) W m - 2 K -' (5b) computations are shown in Fig. 9. It gives the required
additional heating energy in kWh per year in depen-
dence on the covered roof area for each collector type,
Aa~/Ag~ = 0.89, (5c) each time assuming optimal behaviour of all the other
components of the D H W system. Using biracial-ab-
• bifacial-absorber collectors with performance as sorber collectors of 13.5 m ~ gross area, the demand of
given for prototype 1: additional heating energy for the D H W system of the
energetically self-sufficient solar house can almost be
halved, compared to evacuated tube collectors covering
r/o = 0.72 (6a) an equal roof area.
Due to the architecture of the building, a new design
U(,aT) for the bifacial-absorber collector was developed. A
prototype 2 was constructed with an absorber area of
=(0.95 +0.0076ATK-') Wm-:K- (6b) approximately 7.1 m ~. The central axis of its semi-
cylindrical mirror is aligned in the east-west direction.
Aal,,s/Asrs = 0.89. (6c) A cross section of prototype 2 with its dimensions is
50O
@
400
@ 300
r-
@
t~
•~ 200
"6
e-
~" 100
° 0~
o 0 I I I I I r 1 I I
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
roof oreo n e e d e d , m2
Fig. 9. Comparison of collectors for the domestic hot water system of the energetically selfosulficient solar
house in Freiburg. The yearly required additional heating energy is shown in dependence on the covered
roof area for evacuated tube collectors (dotted line), improved fiat-plate collectors covered with 100 mm
polycarbonate honeycombs (chain dotted line), and bifacial-absorber collectors (solid line).
410 A. GOETZBERGER et a/.
Fig. 10. Cross section of prototype 2 to scale. The components shown arc: (a) absorber sheet, (b) 33 mm
air gap, (c) 50 mm polycarbonate honeycomb structure, (d) 4 mm low-iron glazing, (e) semi-cylindrical
mirror.
shown in Fig. 10. A front view of prototype 2 is given capturing absorber area. This concept is only practi-
in Fig. 11. Outdoor measurements are under way, and cable due to the application of transparent insulation
first results show that the second prototype performs materials with superior thermal insulation and optical
similarly to the first one. transmission qualities.
The constructed prototypes reach better et~ciencies
than any other known nonconcentrating solar collector,
6. CONCLUSION including evacuated tube collectors, for high values of
A T / G . This in principle means that excellent perfor-
The design of a solar fiat-plate collector with a mance can be achieved under two extreme operating
transparently insulated, bifaciaily irradiated absorber conditions: under conditions of low irradiation or high
leads to minimal heat losses related to the radiation operating temperatures. During the winter test phase
5630 rnm
870 mm c d
...... J, L
i
E
\
E
t~ (i]
t~
I
E
E b
o
r~
,4:)
I
i
L . . . i x x x x x x x ,
Fig. 1I. Front view of prototype 2 with (a) aperture of the front surface of the absorber, (b) aperture of the
semi-cylindrical reflector which irradiates the back surface of the absorber, (c).opaque side insulation of the
absorber, (d) supports for the low-iron glass panes.
A new solar flat-plate collector 411
the former has been demonstrated. Since the available ( r a ) absorptance-transmittance product for solar ra-
t r a n s p a r e n t insulation materials were not t e m p e r a t u r e diation
(ra), effective absorptance-transmittance product
resistant above 130°C, investigations on a high tem- ( ra),.~, effective absorptance-transmittance product under
perature bifacial-absorber collector are p l a n n e d for the experimental conditions of the solar simulator
near future, when a new generation of thermally stable azimuth angle (°)
t r a n s p a r e n t insulation materials will be available.
Two bifacial-absorber collectors which are similar
to prototype 2 are u n d e r construction for the energet- REFERENCES
ically self-sufficient solar house in Freiburg.
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