Experimental and numerical analysis of an efficiently optimized evacuated flat plate solar collector under medium temperature

Datong Gao, Guangtao Gao, Jingyu Cao, Shuai Zhong, Xiao Ren, Yousef N. Dabwan, Maobin Hu, Dongsheng Jiao, Trevor Hocksun Kwan and Gang Pei

Applied Energy, 2020, vol. 269, issue C, No S0306261920306413

Abstract: Medium temperature solar thermal systems have a great prospect to be an efficient energy source for practical industrial applications. Although the evacuated flat solar collector is a potential non-concentrating collector for this application, current designs have not fully demonstrated its superiority. In this paper, a medium-scale (50.96 m2) solar thermal system based on an efficiently optimized evacuated flat plate solar collector structure is designed. A systematic four months long real-time experiment under the natural environment is conducted for medium solar thermal applications in a region with four distinct seasons. An annual performance analysis is then conducted in four different locations through a validated numerical model. Experimental results demonstrate that, when the inlet temperature is 123.0 °C, the ambient temperature is 35.7 °C and the solar irradiation is 835.2 W/m2, the thermal efficiency and exergy efficiency can reach 59.67% and 14.35%, respectively. The efficiently optimized evacuated flat plate solar collector can also achieve a stable annual average thermal efficiency at the four studied locations with values reaching up to 50%. Therefore, the superiority of this efficiently optimized evacuated flat plate solar collector design over previous ones is demonstrated.

Keywords: Exergy analysis; Flat plate solar collector; Medium temperature; Vacuum (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115129

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