Effect of Periodic Variation of Sol-air Temperature on the Performance of Integrated Solar Collector Storage System
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Abstract
Parametric study is carried out in the present article to investigate the unsteady performance of solar energy gain and heat retention of two different integrated-collector-storage systems. The systems are the conventional rectangular-shaped storage tank and the modified tank shaped as rectangular cuboid with one semi -circular top. The two systems have the same absorber surface area and volume for water. The heat and fluid flow is assumed to be unsteady, two-dimensional, laminar and incompressible. The performances of the two systems are evaluated based on the maximum temperature in the system during daytime heating period and nighttime cooling period. For comprehensive study, 24 hours simulations for 3 cases with different wall boundary condition impose on the absorber plate are investigated. The simulation results show that the modified system has better heat retain than the conventional system. Periodic variations of both systems are investigated, and it is found that both systems show consistent results on different days. The modified system is able to store most of the thermal energy in the semi-circular top region with higher temperature than that of the conventional system.
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