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Flat-plate collector construction and system configuration to optimize the thermosiphonic effect

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  • Kalogirou, Soteris A.

Abstract

Thermosiphon systems heat potable water or heat transfer fluid and use natural convection to transport it from the collector to storage. This type of technology is applied extensively in countries with good sunshine potential. One such example is Cyprus, which is currently the leading country in the world with respect to the application of solar water heaters for domestic applications, with more than 93% of the houses equipped with such a system. The performance of such a system depends on many factors including the collector construction and the arrangement of the system, mainly with respect to the distance between the top of the solar collector and the bottom of the storage tank and the solar collector slope, which affects both the energy collected and the hydrostatic pressure of the system. A typical system in Cyprus uses 3 m2 of collectors, 160 l storage, its collectors are usually inclined at 45° from horizontal and has 15 mm copper riser tubes and header tubes with a diameter of 28 mm. The collector absorber plate is also made from copper. The main objective of this paper is to investigate through modeling and simulation possible configurations, which will optimize the performance of the system. For this purpose, a number of riser and header tube diameters were considered ranging from 6 mm to 35 mm, slopes from 20° to 90° and distances between the top of the collector to the bottom side of the storage tank ranging from ±15 cm. The system is modeled using TRNSYS and simulated with the Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) of Nicosia, Cyprus. The results showed that the best-optimized system is obtained for small header and riser pipe diameters and very close performance is obtained for various combinations. Therefore, the decision on the optimum system should depend on cost issues, which are currently very important because of the increased price of copper and operational problems depending on the hardness of the water in the area of installation, which could cause scale deposits that could clog the riser pipes. The optimum slope is found to be equal to the latitude plus 10°, i.e., 45°, although a smaller slope does not affect the performance a lot, and the optimum distance between the top of the collector and the bottom of the storage tank is −15 cm. These findings should prove valuable for the collector and systems designers and manufacturers.

Suggested Citation

  • Kalogirou, Soteris A., 2014. "Flat-plate collector construction and system configuration to optimize the thermosiphonic effect," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 202-206.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:67:y:2014:i:c:p:202-206
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2013.11.021
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    Cited by:

    1. Sheikhnejad, Yahya & Gandjalikhan Nassab, Seyed Abdolreza, 2021. "Enhancement of solar chimney performance by passive vortex generator," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 437-450.
    2. Gunjo, Dawit Gudeta & Jena, Smruti Ranjan & Mahanta, Pinakeswar & Robi, P.S., 2018. "Melting enhancement of a latent heat storage with dispersed Cu, CuO and Al2O3 nanoparticles for solar thermal application," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 652-665.
    3. Dimitrios N. Korres & Theodoros Papingiotis & Irene Koronaki & Christos Tzivanidis, 2023. "Thermal and Optical Analyses of a Hybrid Solar Photovoltaic/Thermal (PV/T) Collector with Asymmetric Reflector: Numerical Modeling and Validation with Experimental Results," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-22, June.
    4. Zhao, Bin & Liu, Jie & Hu, Mingke & Ao, Xianze & Li, Lanxin & Xuan, Qingdong & Pei, Gang, 2023. "Performance analysis of a broadband selective absorber/emitter for hybrid utilization of solar thermal and radiative cooling," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 763-771.
    5. Rajput, Usman Jamil & Alhadrami, Hani & Al-Hazmi, Faten & Guo, Quiquan & Yang, Jun, 2017. "Initial investigations of a combined photo-assisted water cleaner and thermal collector," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 235-247.
    6. Evangelisti, Luca & De Lieto Vollaro, Roberto & Asdrubali, Francesco, 2019. "Latest advances on solar thermal collectors: A comprehensive review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1-1.
    7. Balaji, K. & Ganesh Kumar, P. & Sakthivadivel, D. & Vigneswaran, V.S. & Iniyan, S., 2019. "Experimental investigation on flat plate solar collector using frictionally engaged thermal performance enhancer in the absorber tube," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 62-72.
    8. Korres, Dimitrios & Tzivanidis, Christos, 2018. "A new mini-CPC with a U-type evacuated tube under thermal and optical investigation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 128(PB), pages 529-540.
    9. Abd-ur-Rehman, Hafiz M. & Al-Sulaiman, Fahad A., 2016. "Optimum selection of solar water heating (SWH) systems based on their comparative techno-economic feasibility study for the domestic sector of Saudi Arabia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 336-349.
    10. Sakhaei, Seyed Ali & Valipour, Mohammad Sadegh, 2019. "Performance enhancement analysis of The flat plate collectors: A comprehensive review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 186-204.
    11. Gunjo, Dawit Gudeta & Mahanta, Pinakeswar & Robi, P.S., 2017. "CFD and experimental investigation of flat plate solar water heating system under steady state condition," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 24-36.

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