Theoretical Foundations of Chemical Engineering, Vol. 35, No. 6, 2001, pp. 604–608.

Translated from Teoreticheskie Osnovy Khimicheskoi Tekhnologii, Vol. 35, No. 6, 2001, pp. 643–647.
Original Russian Text Copyright © 2001 by Zueva, Magiera.

Mathematical Model of Heat Transfer in a Solar Collector

and Its Experimental Validation
G. A. Zueva* and J. Magiera**
* Ivanovo State University of Chemical Technology, pr. Engel’sa 7, Ivanovo, 153460 Russia
** Instytut Inzynierii Chemicznej i Chemii Fizycznej, Politechnika Krakowska, ul. Warszawska 24, Krakow, 31-155 Poland
Received November 16, 2000

Abstract—A mathematical model is proposed for heat transfer in a system involving a solar collector and a
heat exchanger. An analytical solution is obtained for the problem of heat conduction through the collector wall
under the Cauchy boundary conditions with regard for internal heat sources due to the solar energy flux. A sche-
matic of an experimental setup involving a Solahart solar collector is presented, in which solar radiation heats
a heat-transfer medium flowing by gravity. The observed temperatures of the heat-transfer medium at the col-
lector outlet agree satisfactorily with those calculated within the proposed model.

At present, utilizing solar energy is particularly top-
ical. A promising way of doing this is by converting
solar energy into thermal energy in solar collectors.
Design and optimization of solar collectors require
well-grounded models of heat transfer in these appara-
tuses.
The purpose of this work is to construct a physical
and mathematical model of heat transfer in a solar col-
lector.
Heat transfer in a system involving a solar collector
and a heat-exchange tank (Fig. 1) can be described as
follows. The solar energy flux Qr incident on the collec-
tor heats the heat-transfer medium flowing through the
collector. The heat-transfer medium should not freeze
at low temperatures (one can use, e.g., ethylene glycol,
whose melting point is –12.3 K). The heat-transfer
medium passes through the heat-exchanger jacket and
heats water, which can then be used for domestic pur-
poses. The heat-transfer medium may flow by gravity
(driven by the difference between its densities in the
collector and the heat exchanger) or be pumped. Along
with the radiant energy flux Qr , there is also a convec-
tive heat flux Qc. The flux Qc may be directed toward or
away from the collector, depending on whether the col-
lector surface temperature is lower or higher than the
ambient temperature. If the collector surface tempera-
ture exceeds the ambient temperature, there is a heat
loss due to the heat flux away from the collector. Inside
the thermally insulated heat exchanger, the heat Q is
transferred between the hot liquid in the jacket and
water. The problem is to formulate a mathematical
model of heat transfer from the collector to the heat
exchanger under the condition that Q is maximum.
Let us consider the case of a constant flow rate of the
heat-transfer. Our main purpose is to model the heating
of the collector wall. We assume that the thickness of
the collector wall (Fig. 2) is so small that this wall can
be regarded as an infinite plate of thickness R with a
constant initial temperature (T0 = const). The ambient
temperature Θ is constant, as well as the temperature Tl
of the heat-transfer medium on the inner side of the
wall. The solar energy flux is incident on the collector
panel. The radiant energy flux density is E0 = const. It
can be assumed that these conditions are satisfied in a
short time interval ∆t. Let us divide the calculation time
span into such short time intervals. As the initial condi-
tions in a given time interval ∆t, we can take the final
conditions for the preceding time interval. Similarly,
the time-variable process parameters (e.g., the solar
energy flux density and the heat-transfer coefficients of
the liquid and gas phases) can be approximated by
piecewise constant functions; i.e., in these time inter-
vals, these parameters are assumed to take constant but
generally different values.
We assume that the absorption of the radiant energy
by the wall obeys Bouguer’s law [1]. According to this
law, internal heat sources emerge in the wall, whose
intensity decreases in the direction of the radiant flux:
q(x) = µ(1 – ω)E0exp(– µ(R – x)).
Hot
2 water
Q
Qc
Qr
1 Cold
water
Heat-transfer medium
Fig. 1. Heat fluxes in the (1) solar collector and (2) heat
exchanger.

0040-5795/01/3506-0604$25.00 © 2001 MAIK “Nauka /Interperiodica”

 MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF HEAT TRANSFER IN A SOLAR COLLECTOR 605

í ∞

M n cos  µ n ---
∑
E0 A x
× -----2 ( 1 – exp ( aµ t ) ) – 2
2
q1 (α1)
µ  R 
q0 (α0) n=2

2
Θ
  aµ 2n t 2 
íl 1 ×  exp  – ----------
- – exp ( aµ t ) + D ( – 1 – H 1 )
  R  
2
0
R x
Heat-transfer Wall Environment ∞
medium flow
 x
∑K
A
× --- – W exp ( aµ t ) + 2 n cos  µ n ---
2

Fig. 2. Heat transfer through the collector wall: (1)T0 =

µ R
n=1
const and (2) T = T(x, t).
 aµ 2n t
- + H 1  T 0 – Θ – -----0 – A
E
Here, ω is the reflection coefficient, µ is the attenuation
× exp  – ----------
 R 
2  α 0 ∫
coefficient, and x is the coordinate along the wall thick-
ness. ∞
 x  aµ 2n t
∑ B n cos µ n --- exp  – ----------
- + H 2 ( T l – T 0 )R
2
Convective heat transfer takes place between the +2
wall and the environment and between the wall and the  R  R 
2
n=1
liquid in the collector. It is required to find the temper-
ature as a function of time and x. ∞
Bn µn
 ----- cos µ
× A(1 + H1 x ) – 2 ∑ ----- + H 1 sin µ n
µ R 
The mathematical formulation of the problem is the 2 n
following: n=1 n
(5)
∂T ( x, t ) ∂ T ( x, t )
2  aµ 2n t
× sin  µ n --- exp  – ----------
x
------------------- = a --------------------- - + Dµ exp ( µR )H 2
∂t ∂x
2  R  R 
2

µ
+ ------ ( 1 – ω )E 0 exp ( – µ ( R – x ) ), (1)
M
∞

∑
cρ Ax
× ( – 1 – H 2 ) ------2 ( 1 – exp ( aµ t ) ) – 2R
2
------2-n
t > 0, 0 < x < R; µ µ
n=1 n

T(x, 0) = T0, (2)

x   aµ 2n t 2 
× sin  µ n ---  exp  – ----------
- – exp ( aµ t )
∂T ( R, t )  R   R 
2

λ -------------------- = α 0 [ Θ – T ( R, t ) ] + E 0 , (3)
∂x
∞
∂T ( 0, t ) Bn
∑ -----K
Ax
+ DH 2 ( – 1 – H 1 ) ------ – W exp ( aµ t ) + 2
2
λ ------------------- = α 1 [ T ( 0, t ) – T l ]. (4)
∂x µ µ n
n
n=1

It is required to find T(x, t) at t > 0 and 0 < x < R.

 x  aµ 2n t
This heat-conduction boundary-value problem was × sin µ n exp  – ----------
--- -
solved by the operational method [2].  R  R 
2

The solution of the problem was obtained in the

form
+ H 1 H 2  T 0 – Θ – -----0 – Ax -
E
 α 0
T ( x, t ) = T 0 + H 2 ( T 0 – T l ) – A ( 1 + H 1 R ) -
∞
Bn  x   aµ 2n t
∞
+ 2R ∑ µ n  R  R 
2
- – H 2 ( T l – T 0 )x
----- sin µ n --- exp  – ----------
H1 R n=1

∑ B n  cos µ n + ---------- sin µ n cos  µ n ---

x
+2
 µn   R 1
+ D exp ( µx ) -----2 ( exp ( aµ t ) – 1 )
2
n=1
µ
 aµ 2n t
× exp  – ----------
- + Dµ ( 1 + H 1 ) exp ( µ n R )
2 1
+ D -----2 ( exp ( µx ) exp ( aµ t ) – µx – 1 ).
2
 R 
2
µ

THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING Vol. 35 No. 6 2001

606 ZUEVA, MAGIERA

Water discharge

Heat-transfer medium
Water
Hot water
2

9 8

7
3 4

Hot-water 1 1
offtake

25°–60°
Discharge
of heat-transfer
medium

Cold water
3
Water discharge

Fig. 3. Schematic of the experimental setup: (1) Solahart solar collector with a heat-transfer medium flowing by gravity, (2) heat
exchanger, (3) pulse flow meter, (4) total liquid flow meter, (5) thermal energy meter, (6) resistance heater, (7) control block,
(8) transducers, (9) additional collector for heated water.

Here, µ
B n = -----n [ 2 + R ( H 1 + H 2 ) ] sin µ n
R
1
A = -------------------------------------------- ,
µ
2 –1
H1 + H2 + H1 H2 R
+ -----n – RH 1 H 2 – ( H 1 + H 2 ) cos µ n ,
µ R
D = --------- ( 1 – ω )E 0 exp ( – µR ),
cρa 2 –1
µ
M n = B n µ + -----n2
2
H 1 = α 0 /λ, H 2 = α 1 /λ, ,
R
( sinh ( µR ) + cosh ( µR ) ) sinh ( µx )
µ
K n = M n  -----n sin µ n – µ cos µ n ,
W = -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-,
µ [ sinh ( µR ) ( µ + H 1 H 2 ) + µ cosh ( µR ) ( H 1 + H 2 ) ]
2
R 

THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING Vol. 35 No. 6 2001

 MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF HEAT TRANSFER IN A SOLAR COLLECTOR
and µn are the roots of the characteristic equation
µ
2
-----n2 – H 1 H 2
R
cot µ n = ------------------------------, n = 1, 2, … .
µ
( H 1 + H 2 ) -----n
R 40
The operational method gives the solution of the
problem at both large and small Fourier numbers Fo =
at/R2 [2]. Since the plate thickness is small (R = 6 ×
10–4 m), the Fourier numbers are rather large (Fo Ⰷ 0.1).
This is the reason why the solution was obtained in the
form of the sum of trigonometric series. As data anal-
ysis showed, it is sufficient to retain only the first term
in these series (because the Fo values are relatively
small and the roots of Eq. (6) show the property of
µ1 < µ2 < … < µn < …).
The liquid temperature at the collector outlet was
found as [2]
out α 0 T ( 0, t ) – kΘ
Tl = -----------------------------------
-,
α0 – k
where
1 parameters (temperature and humidity), and the radiant
k = -----------------------------
1 R 1
----- + --- + -----
α0 λ α1
is the heat-transfer coefficient and T(0, t) is the temper-
ature of the inner surface of the wall at the collector out-
let.
If the wall is flat and its heat-transfer resistance is
very low, the wall temperature is usually determined as
[3]
α0 Θ + a1 T l
T 2 = --------------------------
-.
α0 + α1
In the simplest case, the wall temperature calculated
by Eq. (8) is close to T(0, t) calculated in terms of our
model (5) (E0 = 0, R = 6 × 10–4 m, α0 = 30 W/(m2 K),
α1 = 231 W/(m2 K),Θ = 303 K, T0 = 293 ä, Tl = 283 ä,
and t = 80 s). Equation (8) gives T2 = 285.2901 K. From
Eq. (5), we obtain T(0, t) = 285.2909 K. However,
unlike Eq. (8), Eq. (5) gives the collector wall tempera-
ture distribution as a function of both time and the nor-
mal coordinate. Moreover, Eq. (5) takes into account
how heat transfer is affected by the solar energy flux.
The adequacy of the model was tested using data
obtained experimentally at the Institute of Chemical
Engineering and Physical Chemistry, Krakow Polytech-
nical University. The experimental setup (Fig. 3)
involved a block of two Solahart flat solar collectors. The
outer surface area of the collector block was 3.72 m2, and
the inner volume of the heat-exchange tank was 180 dm3.
The setup was equipped with a computer system, which
simultaneously measured the temperatures of the heat-
transfer medium at the inlet and outlet of the collector
THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
607
T lout, K
80
(6) 60
20
0
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 t, h
Fig. 4. Calculated time variation of the heat-transfer
medium temperature at the collector outlet (thick line) and
water temperature in the heat exchange tank (dashed line)
during the daylight hours of one day at Θ = 12–34°C and
E0 = 511–882 J/(m2 s). The thin lines represent the results
of replica experiments performed during the daylight hours
of three consecutive days.
(7)
block and heat exchanger, the flux densities of the heat-
transfer medium and water, the thermal energy trans-
ferred by the flowing heat-transfer medium, ambient
energy flux density.
The basic geometrical and physical parameters that
were used in model validation were dictated by the oper-
ating conditions of this experimental setup (G = 8.3 ×
10−6 m3/s, l = 1.87 m, S = 2.68 × 10–3 m2, and τ = 603 s).
The heat transferred to the liquid flowing through the
collector was calculated as
out
Q = Gρlcl( T l – Tl )τ.
The radiant energy flux density E0(t) as a function of
(8)
time was calculated as proposed in the literature [4].
Figure 4 presents the calculated and observed liquid
temperatures at the collector outlet. One can see that the
model fits the experimental data well. The relative error
in the calculated temperature of the heat-transfer
medium at the collector outlet does not exceed 10%
within time intervals that are important in practice.
Using this model, we calculated the time variation
of the water temperature in the heat-exchange tank dur-
ing the daylight hours (from 9 a.m. till 5 p.m. of one day
(Fig. 4, dashed line)). Calculation has shown that the
circulation of the heat-transfer medium through the
heat-exchanger jacket should be stopped at 5 p.m.,
because the difference between the heat-transfer
medium temperatures at the inlet and outlet of the heat
exchanger becomes smaller than 10 K and, in a short
time, the heat-transfer medium in the heat exchanger
will be cooled rather than heated.
Thus, the mathematical model proposed enables one
to optimize the operation of the system involving a
solar collector and a heat-exchange tank.
Vol. 35 No. 6 2001
608 ZUEVA, MAGIERA
NOTATION
a—thermal diffusivity of the plate, m2/s;
c, cl—specific heats of the plate and the heat-trans-
fer medium, respectively, J/(kg K);
G—flow rate of the heat-transfer medium, m3/s;
l—liquid path length in the collector, m;
S—cross-sectional area of the collector, m2;
T(x, t)—temperature field in the plate, K;
Tl—liquid temperature in the collector, K;
t—time, s;
w = G/S—velocity of the heat-transfer medium,
m2/s;
α0—coefficient of heat transfer from the outer sur-
face of the wall to the air, W/(m2 K);
α1—coefficient of heat transfer from the inner sur-
face of the wall to the liquid, W/(m2 K);
Θ—ambient temperature, K;
λ—thermal conductivity of the plate, W/(m K);
THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
ρ, ρl—densities of the plate and the heat-transfer
medium, respectively, kg/m3;
τ = l/w—average residence time of the liquid in the
collector, s.
REFERENCES
1. Shashkov, A.G., Sistemno-strukturnyi analiz protsessa
teploobmena i ego prilozheniya (Systems and Structural
Analysis of Heat Transfer and Its Applications), Mos-
cow: Energoatomizdat, 1983.
2. Kartashov, E.M., Analiticheskie metody v teorii teplo-
provodnosti tverdykh tel (Analytical Methods in the The-
ory of Heat Conduction in Solids), Moscow: Vysshaya
Shkola, 1985.
3. Klimenko, A.P. and Kanevets, G.E., Raschet teploob-
mennykh apparatov na elektronnykh vychislitel’nykh
mashinakh (Computer-Aided Design of Heat-Transfer
Apparatuses), Moscow: Energiya, 1966.
4. Nowicki, J., Promieniowanie s loneczne jako źród lo
energii, Warsaw: Arkady, 1980.
Vol. 35 No. 6 2001