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Principles and Performance of Solar Energy Thermal Systems: A Web Course by

V.V.Satyamurty

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MODULE 12 Lecture No: 13

Solar Flat Plate Collectors
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Lecture 13
12.4 THERMAL NETWORKCOLLECTOR
12.5 OVERALL HEAT LOSS COEFFICIENT

12.6 ESTIMATION OF OVERALL HEAT LOSS COEFFICIENT

12.7 CORRELATION FOR TOP LOSS COEFFICIENT, Ut

Lecture 13

12.4 THERMAL NETWORK FOR THE COLLECTOR

Thermal network diagram for a flat plate collector is shown in Fig. 12.3 (a). The flat plate collector is
assumed to be having two glass covers. At some typical location on the plate where the temperature is TP,
solar energy absorbed is S  I T   . This S is distributed to thermal losses from top and bottom and to
useful energy gain. Assuming that the overall heat loss coefficient to be UL , S the incident absorbed energy
and Qu to be the useful energy gain, thermal network shown in Fig. 12.3 (a) to the simplified form shown
in Fig. 12.3 (b). The two networks will be equivalent subject to the relation between UL and the other
resistances shown in Fig. 12.3(a).

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Ta
Ta
1 1
hc 2 a hr , c 2 a R1

Tc2 Tc2
1 1
R2 Ta
hc1c 2 hr , c1c 2

Tc1 Tc1 S 1
1 1 UL
R3
h p c1 hr , p c1

S Qu S Qu Qu Tp
Tp Tp

x R4
k
Tb Tb
1 1
hb  a hr , b  a R5
Ta Ta

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 12.3 Thermal network for a 2 cover flat plate collector a) in terms of
conduction, convection and radiation b) in terms of equivalent resistances and
c) simple equivalent circuit

12.5 COLLECTOR OVERALL HEAT LOSS COEFFICIENT

The glass covers are at temperatures TC1 and TC2. The emissivities of the plate, and the covers are P
and C1 and C2 respectively.

 T p4  Tc41 
qloss ,top  h p c1 T p  Tc1   (12.4)
1 1
 1
p c

Eq.(12.4) can be rewritten as,

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qloss ,top  h p c1  hr , p c1 T p  Tc1  (12.5)

where, hr , p c1 is the radiative heat transfer coefficient between the plate and the glass cover 1, defined

by,

 T p  Tc1 T p2  Tc21 

hr , p c1  (12.6)
1 1
 1
p c

Thus the resistance R3 can be expressed by,

1
R3  (12.7)
h p c1  hr , p c1

The resistance from the top cover to surroundings has the same form as Eq.(12.7), but the convection
heat transfer coefficient is for wind blowing across the collector. The wind heat transfer coefficient can be
calculated from,

hw  5.7  3.8V (12.8)

( McAdams [30], Heat Transmission 3rd Ed., McGraw-Hill, 1954 )

In Eq.(12.8) hw is in W/m2C and the wind velocity V, is in m/s. More recent relation is due to Watmuff
et al [31],

hw  2.8  3.0V (12.9)

In Eq. (12.9) also the units of hw and V are W/m2C and m/s respectively. The radiation loss from the
top cover takes place to an effective sky temperature and hence the radiative heat transfer coefficient from
cover 2 to the ambient, hr ,c 2a is given by,

 Tc 2  Ts Tc22  Ts2 Tc 2  Ts 

hr ,c 2a   c (12.10)
Tc 2  Ta

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Ts in Eq.(12.10) is the effective sky temperature given by,

Ts  0.0552Ta1.5 (12.11)

In Eq.(12.10) both Ts and Ta are expressed in Kelvin. The resistance R1 can now be expressed as,

1
R1  (12.12)
hw  hr ,c 2 a

Similarly, R2 is related by,

1
R2  (12.13)
hc1c 2  hr ,c1c 2

where hc1c 2 is the convective heat transfer coefficient between the two covers and hr ,c1c 2 is the

radiative heat transfer coefficient between the two covers, expressed in terms of the cover temperature Tc1
and Tc2 along with the emissivities as,

 Tc1  Tc 2 Tc21  Tc22 

hr ,c1c 2  (12.14)
1 1
 1
 c1  c2

For this two cover system, the top loss coefficient, Ut can be calculated from,

1
Ut  (12.15)
R1  R2  R3

The resistances R4 and R5 represent the two resistances in series for heat loss from the bottom. The
bottom loss coefficient Ub is given by,

1
Ub  (12.16)
R4  R5

R4, the resistance to conduction through the bottom insulation is given by,

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L
R4  (12.17)
k

L is the thickness of the insulation and k is the thermal conductivity. Usually R5 the resistance to
convection from the bottom of the collector is small and is negligible compared to R4 and is often
considered as zero. Thus, Ub is simply given by,
1 k
Ub   (12.17)
R4 L
As can be seen from the expressions, Ut and Ub can be calculated by calculating the various
resistances which are expressed in terms of the temperatures. The calculation of the overall heat transfer
coefficient thus involves an iterative procedure. The calculation will be demonstrated through an example
in the lecture class. The overall heat transfer coefficient UL is related to the top and bottom loss coefficients
by,

U L  Ut Ub (12.19)

There will be exceptions to Eq. (12.19) for certain collector configurations, when the working fluid
itself comes in contact with the collector covers which are losing heat.

12.6 ITERATIVE PROCEDURE FOR CALCULATING U t

It is straight forward to calculate U b as per Eq. (12.17). In order to estimate U t , given the operating

temperature of the absorber (plate) T p , the temperatures Tc1 and Tc 2 ,which, are a priori unknown, are

required to estimate radiative and covective heat transfer coefficients. Thus, it becomes necessary to guess
say, Tc1 and correct according to certain criterion. Of course, the ambient temperature Ta is known
meteorological information.

It is presumed that the relations needed to estimate the convective heat transfer coefficients, h p c1 ,

hc1c 2 and hrc 2a are known. The information, basically, the heat transfer coefficient between parallel plates,

is available in any standard text book on Heat Transfer or Hand Book compilations. Of course, the relations

for the wind heat heat loss coefficient hw are given by Eqs. (12.8) or Eq. (12.9).

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The Radiative heat transfer coefficients hr ,c1c 2 and hr ,c 2a can be estimated only if the temperatures

Tc1 and Tc 2 are known. Tc1 and Tc 2 depend on the Radiative and convective heat transfer. But, unless hr ,c1c 2

and hr ,c 2a are known Tc1 and Tc 2 can not be estimated and vice versa.

In other words the calculation of U t is iterative. Even if Tp is assumed as a known operating

condition.

The Iterative Procedure

1. Guess Tc1
1
T
Let it be, c1

2. Calculate
1
qloss ,top  h p  c1 h1
r ,p  c1 T p  T 1
c1  
1
T
3. Estimate c 2 by equating

1
qloss ,top  h 
p c1  h1
r ,p c1 T p  T 1
c1
 hc1c 2  h1
 
r ,c1 c 2
T 1
c1  T 1
c2  
11
4) Estimate qloss ,top from,

11
qloss ,top   hw  hr ,c 2  a  Tc 2  Ta
1
 
In general qloss ,top  qloss ,top
1 11

,top  qloss ,top |

1 11
| qloss
1
 0.05, say,
5) If qloss ,top

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Tc11 and Tc12 are acceptable.

,top  qloss ,top |

1 11
| qloss
1
 0.05, say,
6) If qloss ,top

Change

Tc11 to Tc21 where Tc21  Tc11  T

The choice of  can be made depending on
 1
qloss ,top  q11
loss ,top  
0 or q1
loss ,top qloss ,top  0
11

7) REPEAT UNTIL

,top  qloss ,top |

1 11
| qloss
1
 0.05,
qloss ,top

12.7 CORRELATION FOR Ut

Since the procedure to evaluate Ut is cumbersome involving an iterative procedure, Klein ( Solar
Energy, Vol.17, p.79, 1975 ) developed a correlation for Ut as,

1
 
 

Ut  
N

1

 
 T p ,m  Ta  T p2,m  Ta2

 C  T p ,m  Ta   p  0.00591Nhw 1 
2 N  f  1  0.133 p
e
hw 
N
 T  N  f    g
 p ,m   

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(12.20)
where

N = Number of glass covers

f  1  0.089hw  0.1166hw p 1  0.07866 N  (12.20 a)


C  520 1  0.000051 2  for 0 0    70 0 .

For 70    90, Use   70 0 (12.20 b)

e  0.431  100 T p ,m  (12.20 c)

 = collector tilt, degrees

Ta = ambient temperature ( K )

Tp,m = mean plate temperature ( K )

hw = wind heat transfer coefficient, W/m2C

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