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Estimation of solar radiation on horizontal and inclined surfaces in Sfax,

TUNISIA

Conference Paper · March 2012

DOI: 10.1109/REVET.2012.6195260

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 Estimation of Solar Radiation on
Horizontal and Inclined Surfaces in Sfax, TUNISIA
Ismail BAKLOUTI, Zied DRISS, Mohamed Salah ABID

Laboratory of Electro-Mechanic Systems (LASEM)

National School of Engineers of Sfax (ENIS), University of Sfax (US),
B.P. 1173, Road Soukra km 3.5, 3038 Sfax, TUNISIA,
Email: Baklouti.Ismail@gmail.com, Zied.Driss@enis.rnu.tn

ABSTRACT

This paper has been made to estimate the solar radiation on horizontal and inclined surfaces in Sfax, Tunisia. The model
developed in this communication can be used to estimate the hourly global, diffuse and direct solar radiations for horizontal
surfaces and the total daily solar radiation on inclined and vertical surfaces in the region of Sfax. Moreover, the method
presented here can be used to evaluate the energy production in Sfax of photovoltaic projects like water pumping solar,
on-grid applications and off-grid applications. The estimation method of the hourly and daily solar radiations used the Liu
and Jordon model. In addition, the values of monthly of average daily solar radiation on a horizontal surface are taken from
NASA, Surface meteorology and Solar Energy. The mounting position of solar panel is assumed to be facing towards the
south of Sfax. The present results are comparable with results of the PVGIS (Photovoltaic Geographical Information
System).
Index Terms— Solar Energy, Hourly Solar Radiation, Daily solar radiation, Tilt angle, City: Sfax, TUNISIA.

generally not available for a number of sites especially in

1. INTRODUCTION remote locations.

The sun is the primary source of energy for the
earth's climate system and it releases an enormous
amount of radiant energy into the solar system. The
radiation from the sun moves in the space as
electromagnetic wave. The solar radiation is attenuated,
when it goes through the earth’s atmosphere. The
attenuation of solar radiation is due to scattering and
absorption by air molecules, dust particles and aerosols in
the atmosphere. The radiation received by the earth varies
according to time of year. It is then partially reflected and
absorbed by the atmosphere, so that the sun lights
received on the ground have some direct and some
diffused. Besides, the solar radiation incident on the
surface of the earth is based on many aspects such as
climatology, hydrology, biology, and architecture. Then,
the solar energy incident on a solar collector in various
time scales is a complex function of many factors like the
local radiation climatology, the orientation, the tilt of the
panel and the ground reflection properties. In addition,
sometimes the design of solar energy systems needs the
knowledge of the availability of solar radiation data at the
location. Therefore, several of models and algorithms
have been developed to calculate the solar radiation. In
practice, meteorological measurements of irradiance are
usually registered for the horizontal plane by solarimeters
as the pyranometer which measures the overall direct and
diffuse solar radiation and the pyrheliometer, which
measures only the direct radiation.
The hourly solar radiation data required for solar energy
system design evaluation and performance studies are
2. Meteorological Data
The Meteorological Data correspond at the location of
Sfax such as (latitude: 34.44˚ N, longitude: 10.46˚ E, heating
design temperature: 8.96 and cooling design temperature:
31.96). These results have been collected from NASA,
Surface meteorology and Solar Energy.
3. Basics of solar radiation
First of all, it must be need to know many variables that
will be used in several parts of the model. In the rest of this
section, the equations come from a standard textbook on the
subject (Solar Engineering of Thermal Processes), by Duffie
and Beckman (1991).
3.1. Declination
The declination is the angular position of the sun at
solar noon, with respect to the plan of the equator. An
approximate formula for the declination [1] of the sun is
given by Cooper’s equation as follows:
(1)
Where n is the nth day of the year.
3.2. Solar hour angle the longitude L, and the albedo ρ, we proceed to calculate
the declination δ, the sunset hour angle , the
The solar hour angle is the angular displacement of extraterrestrial radiation H0 and the clearness index .
the sun east or west of the local meridian. It becomes After doing this calculation, we go to initialize the
positive in the morning and negative in the afternoon. The data by specifying the day of the considered month. In the
solar hour angle is equal to zero at solar midday of solar second step, we calculate the monthly average daily diffuse
hour angle is obtained as follows: solar radiation from the monthly of the solar radiation on
(2) a horizontal surface . Then, we calculate the coefficient rt
to determine the hourly global horizontal irradiance H and
the coefficient rd to calculate the hourly diffuse irradiance
3.3. Sunset hour angle
Hd. The direct or beam irradiance Hb is calculated from the
hourly irradiances H and Hd. In the third step, we calculate
The sunset hour angle is the solar hour angle
the global hourly irradiance on tilted surface Ht for all hours
corresponding to the time when the sun sets [2]. It is
of the considered day. This calculation is repeated from the
calculated by the following equation:
sunrise to the sunset of the day, taking into account the
(3) change in the value of the solar hour angle ω throughout the
day. The total daily solar radiation is obtained by
Where is the latitude of the site and it is the summing all values of Ht.
declination of the sun.

3.4. Extraterrestrial radiation

Solar radiation incident outside the earth’s

atmosphere is called extraterrestrial radiation. The
extraterrestrial radiation H0 is given as follows [3]:

(4)

Where is the solar constant equal to 1367 W.m-2 and

all other variables have the same meaning as before.

3.5. Clearness index

The clearness index is the ratio of solar radiation

at the surface of the earth to extraterrestrial radiation.
Therefore, the monthly clearness index is given as follows
[3]:

(5)

Where:
: is the monthly average daily solar radiation on a
horizontal surface.
: is the monthly of the extraterrestrial daily solar
radiation.

3.6. Mathematical formulation

The technique used for determining the distribution
of the solar day uses the analysis of the model of Liu and
Jordan (1960). This theoretical model is developed in
detail as follows.
3.6.1. Method
In the beginning of the algorithm, after reading data
such as the monthly average daily solar radiation on a
horizontal plan , the inclination angle , the latitude φ,
Figure 1.Algorithm of the numerical method
3.6.2. Calculation of Hourly diffuse irradiance
The actual amount of solar radiation that reaches a
particular location on the earth is extremely variable. In
addition, the regular daily variation and annual apparent
motion are due to the sun and also the irregular variations
that are caused by local atmospheric conditions such as
clouds. All these factors can influence of the distribution
of sunshine daily. In particularity, these reasons influence
in the direct and diffuse components of solar radiation.
The direct normal radiation or the beam radiation is the
part of the sunlight that directly reaches the earth’s
surface. The scattered radiation reaching the earth’s
surface is called diffuse radiation. Then a component of
the solar radiation is reflected by the earth’s surface, and
which is called albedo. The algorithm requires the
knowledge of beam and diffuse radiation for every hour
of an average day. The algorithm described in the last
paragraph shows that the monthly average daily diffuse
radiation is calculated from the monthly average daily
global horizontal radiation and is determined by Erbs
and al [3].
, is calculated by the following equation:
(6)
When the sunset hour angle is less than 81.4º, and:
(7)
When the sunset hour angle is greater than 81.4º, in
addition, the ratio of hourly total to daily total diffuse
radiation is given as the following equation:
(8)
For each hour of the average day, the diffuse part is
calculated with [4]:
(9)
3.6.3. Calculation of Hourly Horizontal irradiance
The global hourly irradiance is a measure of the
total hourly solar energy rate incoming in the Earth
surface. The Numerical model for predicting the global
hourly irradiance has been presented in these equations
[5]:
(10)
Where:
(11)
And:
(12)
The equation presented here is a simple approach for
the calculation the global hourly irradiance daily
distribution based on the formula from Collares-Pereira
and Rabl for global irradiance [6]:
(13)
3.6.4. Calculation of Hourly direct or beam irradiance
The hourly direct irradiance Hb is the incident solar
radiation that reaches the earth’s surface without being
significantly scattered and coming from the direction of the
sun. So, Hb is given as follows [7]:
(14)
3.6.5. Calculation of Hourly irradiance in the tilt surface
The methods to estimate the ratio of diffuse solar
radiation on a tilted surface to that of a horizontal are
classified as isotropic and anisotropic models [8]. In addition,
the isotropic models assume that the intensity of diffuse sky
radiation is uniform over the sky dome. Moreover, the
analytical expressions of isotopic models are defined as
follows:
The Liu and Jordan model [4]:
(15)
The Badescu model [9]:
(16)
The Koronakis model [10]:
(17)
The Tian et al. model [11]:
(18)
Where, is the tilt angle?
The correlation procedures that are proposed by Liu
and Jordon [1960], Collares-Pereira and Rabl [1979] to
obtain the hourly irradiance values on the inclined panel
surface are determined as the following ([6], [12] and [13]):
(19)
Where, represents the diffuse reflectance of the ground and
represents the ratio of an average day of the beam
radiation on a tilted surface to that on a horizontal surface,
which can be expressed as [6]:
(20)
Where, is the inclination angle, φ is the latitude and is
the declination.
3.6.6. Calculation of Daily tilted irradiance
The daily total is obtained by summing individual
hours. The expression formula for the daily irradiance is
given as the following [14]:
 ; (t = hour) (21)
The program developed in Matlab using the above
Where, is the time of rise of the sun and is formulas (6) and (7) allows calculating the monthly of
the time of set of the sun. Also, both are determined with average daily direct solar radiation and monthly of
these equations: average daily diffuse solar radiation on horizontal
surfaces. The maximum value of the monthly
average daily diffuse solar radiation equals to 2300 Wh.m-2
(22)
in summer and the minimum value equals to 800
And Wh.m-2 for the month of December. The monthly average
daily direct radiation is the difference between the
(23) monthly of average daily solar radiation on a horizontal
surface and the monthly average daily diffuse
Where, L is the longitude and is the equation of time, radiation . Hence, the value of reaches its maximum in
so, an approximate formula for the equation of time in the month of June and equals to 5250 Wh.m-2.
minutes is given as follows:

(24)

-2
Where, j is the day of the considered month.

Wh.m
4. Results and discussion

Using equations (1) to (4) the daily extraterrestrial

solar radiation is calculated for each month of the year for
the region of Sfax. Using Matlab, we have allowed Months

plotting easily the distribution of the daily extraterrestrial Figure 4.Monthly average daily diffuse radiation:
radiation. The daily extraterrestrial radiation varies from
4800 Wh.m-2 for the winter season and 11500 Wh.m-2 for
the summer months.
-2
Wh.m
-2
Wh.m

Months

Figure 5.Monthly average daily direct radiation:

Days
Figure 2.Daily extraterrestrial radiation on a horizontal
surface : H0.
The values of monthly average daily solar radiation
on a horizontal surface are taken from NASA, Surface
meteorology and Solar Energy for city of Sfax.
-2
The meteorological data is indicated in section two
and providing the monthly average daily diffuse radiation
and the monthly average daily direct radiation on the
horizontal surfaces. Correlation procedures are required to
obtain solar irradiance values on tilted surfaces from
horizontal radiation. The hourly irradiance values on the
inclined panel surface is normally estimated by
individually considering the direct or beam irradiance ,
diffuse irradiance and reflected components of the
radiation on a tilted surface. The albedo is assumed to be 0.2.
The following figures illustrate the variations of the hourly

global irradiance H, the hourly diffuse irradiance and the

Wh.m

hourly direct or beam irradiance for each month of the

year. According to these results, we observe that the
distributions of the hourly irradiances H, and Hb during a
day vary with a sinusoidal form. In addition, the
maximum sunlight is at midday for each day of the year, also
Months is equal to 360 Wh.m-2 in December and 820 Wh.m-2 in June.
Figure 3.Monthly average daily solar radiation on a
horizontal plan:
 -2
Wh.m
-2
Wh.m

Hour Hour
(a) January (f) June

-2
-2

Wh.m
Wh.m

Hour Hour
(b) February (g) July
-2
Wh.m
-2
Wh.m

Hour Hour
(c) March (h) August
-2
Wh.m
-2
Wh.m

(i) September Hour

Hour
(d) April
-2
Wh.m
-2
Wh.m

(e) May Hour Hour

(j) October
 8 255.3778 122.5205 132.8573
9 389.9474 170.5419 219.4055
10 506.3709 207.3900 298.9809
11 585.4096 230.5537 354.8559
-2
Wh.m

12 613.4014 238.4544 374.9470

13 585.4096 230.5537 354.8559
14 506.3709 207.3900 298.9809
15 389.9474 170.5419 219.4055
16 255.3778 122.5205 132.8573
(k) November Hour 17 123.1377 66.5985 56.5392
April
Hours H(kWh.m-2) Hd (kWh.m-2) Hb (kWh.m-2)
6 3.3529 1.8320 1.5209
7 142.6022 66.9509 75.6513
-2
Wh.m

8 307.5030 127.6320 179.8710

9 476.1620 179.7400 296.4220
10 622.5294 219.7240 402.8055
11 722.0745 244.8589 477.2156
12 757.3578 253.4320 503.9259
(l) December Hour 13 722.0745 244.8589 477.2156
14 622.5294 219.7240 402.8055
Figure 6.Hourly components of solar irradiances 15 476.1620 179.7400 296.4220
Therefore, the values of the hourly irradiances H, 16 307.5030 127.6320 179.8710
and Hb for each month are obtained in the following 17 142.6022 66.9509 75.6513
table (1). 18 3.3529 1.8320 1.5209
May
Table 1.Values of the hourly irradiances H, and Hb
Hours H(kWh.m-2) Hd (kWh.m-2) Hb (kWh.m-2)
January 6 102.8942 51.0150 51.8792
Hours H(kWh.m-2) Hd (kWh.m-2) Hb (kWh.m-2) 7 241.4430 107.4489 133.9941
8 95.1034 51.5986 43.5048 8 393.9273 160.0368 233.8904
9 202.2304 96.3912 105.8392 9 542.8669 205.1952 337.6717
10 299.9141 130.7617 169.1524 10 668.4286 239.8463 428.5823
11 368.2026 152.3679 215.8347
11 752.3725 261.6290 490.7435
12 392.7097 159.7374 232.9722
13 368.2026 152.3679 215.8347 12 781.8891 269.0587 512.8304
14 299.9141 130.7617 169.1524 13 752.3725 261.6290 490.7435
15 202.2304 96.3912 105.8392 14 668.4286 239.8463 428.5823
16 95.1034 51.5986 43.5048 15 542.8669 205.1952 337.6717
February 16 393.9273 160.0368 233.8904
Hours H(kWh.m-2) Hd (kWh.m-2) Hb (kWh.m-2) 17 241.4430 107.4489 133.9941
7 55.5940 33.8706 21.7234
18 102.8942 51.0150 51.8792
8 168.8560 89.0811 79.7750
9 288.5143 136.4914 152.0230 June
10 394.3641 172.8706 221.4936 Hours H(kWh.m-2) Hd (kWh.m-2) Hb (kWh.m-2)
11 467.1418 195.7395 271.4023 5 13.6515 6.8857 6.7658
12 493.0662 203.5397 289.5265 6 133.4275 60.2873 73.1402
13 467.1418 195.7395 271.4023 7 277.8336 113.6888 164.1448
14 394.3641 172.8706 221.4936 8 434.5683 163.4512 271.1171
15 288.5143 136.4914 152.0230
9 586.2279 206.1831 380.0448
16 168.8560 89.0811 79.7750
17 55.5940 33.8706 21.7234 10 713.2941 238.9724 474.3218
March 11 797.9248 259.5846 538.3401
Hours H(kWh.m-2) Hd (kWh.m-2) Hb (kWh.m-2) 12 827.6299 266.6151 561.0149
6 10.5146 6.5867 3.9279 13 797.9248 259.5846 538.3401
7 123.1377 66.5985 56.5392 14 713.2941 238.9724 474.3218
 15 586.2279 206.1831 380.0448 16 287.1669 122.2499 164.9170
16 434.5683 163.4512 271.1171 17 137.3859 65.9796 71.4063
17 277.8336 113.6888 164.1448 18 10.0468 5.5941 4.4527
18 133.4275 60.2873 73.1402 October
19 13.6515 6.8857 6.7658 Hours H(kWh.m-2) Hd (kWh.m-2) Hb (kWh.m-2)
July 7 61.7730 32.9402 28.8327
Hours H(kWh.m )
-2
Hd (kWh.m-2) Hb (kWh.m )
-2 8 195.1887 89.9785 105.2101
5.16 2.4947 1.2638 1.2308 9 336.5188 138.9584 197.5604
6 122.1199 55.1414 66.9785 10 461.7332 176.5420 285.1911
7 267.6885 109.0189 158.6696 11 547.8996 200.1681 347.7315
8 426.6886 159.2248 267.4638 12 578.6053 208.2265 370.3788
9 581.2038 202.3376 378.8662 13 547.8996 200.1681 347.7315
10 711.0314 235.4192 475.6122 14 461.7332 176.5420 285.1911
11 797.6513 256.2152 541.4362 15 336.5188 138.9584 197.5604
12 828.0798 263.3083 564.7715 16 195.1887 89.9785 105.2101
13 797.6513 256.2152 541.4362 17 61.7730 32.9402 28.8327
14 711.0314 235.4192 475.6122 November
15 581.2038 202.3376 378.8662 Hours H(kWh.m-2) Hd (kWh.m-2) Hb (kWh.m-2)
16 426.6886 159.2248 267.4638 7 7.8589 4.6422 3.2168
17 267.6885 109.0189 158.6696 8 113.2393 56.4290 56.8103
18 122.1199 55.1414 66.9785 9 229.6698 100.8994 128.7703
19 2.4947 1.2638 1.2308 10 335.2609 135.0228 200.2381
August 11 408.8618 156.4736 252.3882
Hours H(kWh.m-2) Hd (kWh.m-2) Hb (kWh.m )
-2 12 435.2411 163.7901 271.4510
6 77.6123 34.8421 42.7702 13 408.8618 156.4736 252.3882
7 226.8160 90.2976 136.5184 14 335.2609 135.0228 200.2381
8 394.2368 141.9738 252.2630 15 229.6698 100.8994 128.7703
9 559.8582 186.3492 373.5090 16 113.2393 56.4290 56.8103
10 700.6358 220.3996 480.2362 17 7.8589 4.6422 3.2168
11 795.2184 241.8046 553.4138 December
12 828.5534 249.1055 579.4479 Hours H(kWh.m-2) Hd (kWh.m-2) Hb (kWh.m-2)
13 795.2184 241.8046 553.4138 8 78.8440 44.2681 34.5759
14 700.6358 220.3996 480.2362 9 180.1378 88.4418 91.6961
15 559.8582 186.3492 373.5090 10 273.1832 122.3374 150.8458
16 394.2368 141.9738 252.2630 11 338.4838 143.6451 194.8387
17 226.8160 90.2976 136.5184 12 361.9589 150.9128 211.0461
18 77.6123 34.8421 42.7702 13 338.4838 143.6451 194.8387
September 14 273.1832 122.3374 150.8458
Hours H(kWh.m-2) Hd (kWh.m-2) Hb (kWh.m-2) 15 180.1378 88.4418 91.6961
6 10.0468 5.5941 4.4527 16 78.8440 44.2681 34.5759
7 137.3859 65.9796 71.4063
8 287.1669 122.2499 164.9170 Historical studies and the recent research indicate that
9 439.7461 170.5703 269.1758 ground-based measurements of diffuse radiation site are less
10 571.8353 207.6479 364.1874 accurate due to thermodynamic imbalances within some
11 661.5425 230.9558 430.5867 operational techniques that are used in these studies.
Moreover, many important errors appear to be based on
12 693.3180 238.9057 454.4123
cloud fraction suggesting changes in the daily uncertainty.
13 661.5425 230.9558 430.5867 For this reason, several correlations of isotopic models are
14 571.8353 207.6479 364.1874 used to estimate the diffuse radiation. We have used the
15 439.7461 170.5703 269.1758 Matlab program for plotting the equations (15) to (18)
 provide the results of the monthly variation of diffuse surface with Tian model
radiation for tilt angles (0° to 90°) described in these
Therefore, the values of the monthly diffuse irradiance
figures.
of isotopic models for each month are obtained in the
following table (2).

Table 2.Values of the diffuse irradiance with the isotopic

models
-2
Wh.m

The tilt angle equals to 0°

Months Hd (Liu and Hd Hd Hd (Tian)
Jordon) (Badescu) (Koronakis) [kWh.m-2]
[kWh.m-2] [kWh.m-2] [kWh.m-2]
1 1.0323 1.0323 1.0323 1.0323
2 1.4668 1.4668 1.4668 1.4668
Months 3 1.8483 1.8483 1.8483 1.8483
Figure 7.Monthly diffuse irradiance on the each inclined 4 1.9353 1.9353 1.9353 1.9353
surface with Liu and Jordon model 5 2.3318 2.3318 2.3318 2.3318
6 2.3771 2.3703 2.3703 2.3703
7 2.3113 2.3100 2.3100 2.3100
8 2.0887 2.0887 2.0887 2.0887
9 1.8462 1.8462 1.8462 1.8462
-2
Wh.m

10 1.4924 1.4924 1.4924 1.4924

11 1.0717 1.0717 1.0717 1.0717
12 0.9570 0.9570 0.9570 0.9570
The tilt angle equals to 10°
Months Hd (Liu and Hd Hd Hd (Tian)
Jordon) (Badescu) (Koronakis) [kWh.m-2]
Months
[kWh.m-2] [kWh.m-2] [kWh.m-2]
Figure 8.Monthly diffuse irradiance on the each inclined 1 1.0244 1.0167 1.0271 0.9749
surface with Badescu model 2 1.4556 1.4447 1.4594 1.3853
3 1.8343 1.8205 1.8390 1.7456
4 1.9206 1.9061 1.9255 1.9255
5 2.3141 2.2966 2.3200 2.2022
6 2.3522 2.3345 2.3582 2.2386
-2
Wh.m

7 2.2925 2.2752 2.2983 2.1817

8 2.0729 2.0572 2.0781 1.9727
9 1.8321 1.8183 1.8368 1.7436
10 1.4810 1.4699 1.4848 1.4094
11 1.0635 1.0555 1.0662 1.0121
Months 12 0.9497 0.9426 0.9522 0.9038
Figure 9.Monthly diffuse irradiance on the each inclined The tilt angle equals to 20°
surface with Koronakis model Months Hd (Liu and Hd Hd Hd (Tian)
Jordon) (Badescu) (Koronakis) [kWh.m-2]
[kWh.m-2] [kWh.m-2] [kWh.m-2]
1 1.0012 0.9719 1.0115 0.9176
2 1.4226 1.3810 1.4373 1.3038
3 1.7926 1.7402 1.8112 1.6430
-2
Wh.m

4 1.8770 1.8221 1.8964 1.8964

5 2.2615 2.1954 2.2849 2.0727
6 2.2988 2.2316 2.3226 2.1069
7 2.2404 2.1749 2.2636 2.0534
8 2.0257 1.9666 2.0467 1.8566
Months 9 1.7905 1.7382 1.8090 1.6410
Figure 10.Monthly diffuse irradiance on the each inclined
 10 1.4474 1.4051 1.4624 1.3265 Months Hd (Liu and Hd Hd Hd (Tian)
Jordon) (Badescu) (Koronakis) [kWh.m-2]
11 1.0394 1.0090 1.0501 0.9526 [kWh.m-2] [kWh.m-2] [kWh.m-2]
12 0.9281 0.9010 0.9378 0.8507 1 0.7742 0.6452 0.8602 0.6882
The tilt angle equals to 30° 2 1.1001 0.9167 1.2223 0.9779
Months Hd (Liu and Hd Hd Hd (Tian)
3 1.3862 1.1552 1.5403 1.2322
Jordon) (Badescu) (Koronakis) [kWh.m-2]
[kWh.m-2] [kWh.m-2] [kWh.m-2] 4 1.4515 1.2096 1.6128 1.6128
1 0.9631 0.9033 0.9862 0.8602 5 1.7488 1.4574 1.9431 1.5545
2 1.3685 1.2834 1.4013 1.2223 6 1.7777 1.4814 1.9752 1.5802
3 1.7245 1.6173 1.7658 1.5403 7 1.7325 1.4438 1.9250 1.5400
4 1.8057 1.6934 1.8489 1.8489 8 1.5665 1.3054 1.7406 1.3925
5 2.1756 2.0403 2.2276 1.9431 9 1.3846 1.1538 1.5385 1.2308
6 2.2115 2.0740 2.2644 1.9752 10 1.1193 0.9327 1.2436 0.9949
7 2.1553 2.0213 2.2069 1.9250 11 0.8038 0.6698 0.8931 0.7144
8 1.9488 1.8276 1.9954 1.7406 12 0.7178 0.5981 0.7975 0.6380
9 1.7225 1.6154 1.7637 1.5385 The tilt angle equals to 70°
10 1.3924 1.3058 1.4257 1.2436 Months Hd (Liu and Hd Hd Hd (Tian)
Jordon) (Badescu) (Koronakis) [kWh.m-2]
11 0.9999 0.9377 1.0238 0.8931 [kWh.m-2] [kWh.m-2] [kWh.m-2]
12 0.8929 0.8374 0.9143 0.7975 1 0.6927 0.5765 0.8059 0.6308
The tilt angle equals to 40° 2 0.9842 0.8192 1.1451 0.8964
Months Hd (Liu and Hd Hd Hd (Tian) 3 1.2402 1.0323 1.4429 1.1295
Jordon) (Badescu) (Koronakis) [kWh.m-2]
[kWh.m-2] [kWh.m-2] [kWh.m-2] 4 1.2986 1.0809 1.5108 1.5108
1 0.9115 0.8190 0.9518 0.8029 5 1.5646 1.3023 1.8203 1.4250
2 1.2952 1.1638 1.3524 1.1408 6 1.5905 1.3238 1.8504 1.4485
3 1.6321 1.4665 1.7042 1.4376 7 1.5500 1.2901 1.8034 1.4117
4 1.7089 1.5355 1.7844 1.7844 8 1.4016 1.1665 1.6306 1.2764
5 2.0590 1.8501 2.1499 1.8136 9 1.2388 1.0311 1.4412 1.1282
6 2.0930 1.8806 2.1854 1.8435 10 1.0014 0.8335 1.1650 0.9120
7 2.0398 1.8328 2.1299 1.7967 11 0.7191 0.5985 0.8366 0.6549
8 1.8444 1.6572 1.9258 1.6246 12 0.6422 0.5345 0.7471 0.5848
9 1.6302 1.4648 1.7022 1.4359 The tilt angle equals to 80°
10 1.3178 1.1841 1.3760 1.1607 Months Hd (Liu and Hd Hd Hd (Tian)
Jordon) (Badescu) (Koronakis) [kWh.m-2]
11 0.9463 0.8503 0.9881 0.8335 [kWh.m-2] [kWh.m-2] [kWh.m-2]
12 0.8451 0.7593 0.8824 0.7443 1 0.6058 0.5317 0.7479 0.5735
The tilt angle equals to 50° 2 0.8607 0.7555 1.0628 0.8149
Months Hd (Liu and Hd Hd Hd (Tian) 3 1.0846 0.9520 1.3392 1.0268
Jordon) (Badescu) (Koronakis) [kWh.m-2]
[kWh.m-2] [kWh.m-2] [kWh.m-2] 4 1.1357 0.9968 1.4022 1.4022
1 0.8479 0.7294 0.9094 0.7455 5 1.3683 1.2010 1.6895 1.2954
2 1.2048 1.0364 1.2921 1.0593 6 1.3909 1.2209 1.7174 1.3168
3 1.5182 1.3060 1.6282 1.3349 7 1.3556 1.1898 1.6737 1.2833
4 1.5897 1.3675 1.7049 1.7049 8 1.2257 1.0759 1.5134 1.1604
5 1.9153 1.6476 2.0541 1.6841 9 1.0834 0.9509 1.3376 1.0256
6 1.9469 1.6748 2.0880 1.7118 10 0.8757 0.7687 1.0813 0.8291
7 1.8974 1.6322 2.0350 1.6683 11 0.6289 0.5520 0.7765 0.5954
8 1.7157 1.4759 1.8400 1.5085 12 0.5616 0.4929 0.6934 0.5317
9 1.5164 1.3045 1.6263 1.3333 The tilt angle equals to 90°
10 1.2258 1.0545 1.3147 1.0778 Months Hd (Liu and Hd Hd Hd (Tian)
Jordon) (Badescu) (Koronakis) [kWh.m-2]
11 0.8803 0.7572 0.9441 0.7740 [kWh.m-2] [kWh.m-2] [kWh.m-2]
12 0.7861 0.6762 0.8431 0.6912 1 0.5161 0.5161 0.6882 0.5161
The tilt angle equals to 60° 2 0.7334 0.7334 0.9779 0.7334
 3 0.9242 0.9242 1.2322 0.9242 11 2.9691 3.4996 3.9485 4.3021 4.5498
4 0.9677 0.9677 1.2902 1.2902 12 2.5673 3.0814 3.5235 3.8804 4.1411
5 1.1659 1.1659 1.5545 1.1659 Months β=50° β=60° β=70° β=80° β=90°
6 1.1851 1.1851 1.5802 1.1851 1 3.7148 3.7154 3.6261 3.4497 3.1915
7 1.1550 1.1550 1.5400 1.1550 2 4.5799 4.5057 4.3270 4.0495 3.6815
8 1.0444 1.0444 1.3925 1.0444 3 5.0006 4.7476 4.3920 3.9446 3.4192
9 0.9231 0.9231 1.2308 0.9231 4 5.2537 4.8243 4.2939 3.6787 2.9974
10 0.7462 0.7462 0.9949 0.7462 5 5.1947 4.5699 3.8608 3.0889 2.2777
11 0.5358 0.5358 0.7144 0.5358 6 5.2713 4.4853 3.6196 2.7004 1.7556
12 0.4785 0.4785 0.6380 0.4785 7 5.5468 4.7508 3.8654 2.9174 1.9358
The figure 11 shows the results of the monthly 8 5.9166 5.3048 4.5826 3.7718 2.8971
average total radiation on an inclined plan with Liu and 9 5.3122 4.9879 4.5552 4.0272 3.4199
Jordon model for the region of Sfax. According to these 10 5.0977 4.9659 4.7177 4.3606 3.9053
results, it is observed that the importance of solar energy 11 4.6839 4.7004 4.5988 4.3822 4.0571
flux received by the solar panel in the summer months is
related to the effect of direct irradiance. Also, the amount 12 4.2977 4.3455 4.2829 4.1120 3.8378
of the solar energy produced by a solar panel attached to a The Figure 12 shows the tilt angles for each month of
vertical position is due to the effect of diffuse irradiance. the year when the solar panel is fixed at the optimum angle
In addition, we show that the maximum average annual for the region of Sfax. Moreover, we show that the yearly
total radiation corresponds to the angle of inclination that average tilt is found to be 31° and this result in a fixed tilt
equals to 30°. throughout the year. The seasonal average is calculated by
finding the average value of the tilt angle for each season and
this procedure requires that the tilt angle of the collector to
be changed four times a year. Hence, the optimum angle of
the solar panel in winter is 56° and the total seasonal of the
-2

average solar irradiation falling on the collector surface at

Wh.m

this tilt is 4204.56 Wh.m-2. The optimum tilt angle then

decreases during the spring months and equals to 23° which
collects 5754.67 Wh.m-2 of solar energy. Also, the optimum
tilt angle in summer equals to 7° and the total seasonal of the
average solar radiation at this angle is 7202.81 Wh.m-2. In
Months
autumn, the optimum angle should correspond to 45° and the
total seasonal of the average solar irradiation collected
Figure 11.Monthly total solar radiation for each tilt reaches 5060.14 Wh.m-2. The benefit of this procedure that
angles. the total annual of the average solar radiation increases of
5305 Wh.m-2 with β equals to 31° to 5639.36 Wh.m-2 for the
Therefore, the values of the monthly total
seasonal tilt angle.
irradiance on the each inclined surface with Liu and
Jordon model are obtained in the following table (3).
Table 3.Monthly total solar radiations values with each
tilt angles (Liu and Jordon) [kWh.m-2]
Tilt angles

Months β=0° β=10° β=20° β=30° β=40°

1 2.4581 2.8547 3.1877 3.4469 3.6244
2 3.4192 3.8368 4.1703 4.4097 4.5476
3 4.5783 4.8848 5.0847 5.1718 5.1435
4 5.5567 5.7547 5.8235 5.7611 5.5692
5 6.5086 6.5209 6.3895 6.1185 5.7162 Months

6 7.2913 7.1907 6.9281 6.5115 5.9536 Figure 12.Tilt angles for each month of Sfax city
7 7.4723 7.4084 7.1744 6.7773 6.2292
5. Validation
8 6.8133 6.9485 6.9232 6.7383 6.3993
9 5.0913 5.3829 5.5541 5.5997 5.5182 In this section, ours results for each tilt angle which
10 3.9972 4.4351 4.7726 4.9996 5.1091 correspond to the total seasonal and annual solar radiation are
comparable with the results of the PVGIS (Photovoltaic
Ht (Wh.m-2) Our results
Geographical Information System). We observe that the
7000 PVGIS results
difference between these results is referred to the values
of the monthly average daily solar radiation on a 6000
horizontal surface are taken from the NASA, Surface 5000
meteorology and Solar Energy and they are not exactly 4000
similar with the values of of PVGIS. Also, a part of this
3000
difference is due to the estimation algorithm of the
incident hourly irradiance values on tilted surface Ht. The 2000
results of comparison are presented in the following 1000
figures. We show that the difference between ours results 0
and PVGIS results equals to 3%. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Months
Ht (Wh.m-2) Our results
8000 PVGIS results Figure 16.Total irradiance for the tilt angle equals to 40°
7000
6000 Ht (Wh.m-2) Our results
5000 7000 PVGIS results
4000 6000
3000 5000
2000
4000
1000
3000
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 2000
Months 1000
Figure 13.Total irradiance for the tilt angle equals to 5° 0
Ht (Wh.m-2) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Our results Months
8000 PVGIS results
7000 Figure 17.Total irradiance for the tilt angle equals to 50°
6000
5000
6. Conclusion
4000
Today, the high energy use engenders an insufficiency
3000 in the recovery of the energy current for the human needs.
2000 However, facing economic problems due to large increases in
1000 fuel prices, the world has moved gradually towards to the
0 exploitation of new and renewable energies. It is in this
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 context, that we started our work to estimate the hourly
Months global irradiance H, the hourly diffuse irradiance and the
Figure 14.Total irradiance for the tilt angle equals to 20° hourly direct irradiance for each month of the year for the
region of Sfax. We also calculated the monthly diffuse
Ht (Wh.m-2) irradiance of isotopic models for each month. Then, we found
Our results the values of the monthly total irradiance on the each inclined
8000
7000 PVGIS results surface with Liu and Jordon model for the seasonal and
6000 annual tilt angles and they are validated with the PVGIS
5000 results. Specifically, we have considered the model of Liu
4000
and Jordon to determine the distribution of the solar radiation
for each month of the year and to take data as the monthly
3000
average daily solar radiation on a horizontal plan , the tilt
2000
angle β, the latitude φ, the longitude L and the albedo ρ for
1000 the location of Sfax. In perspectives, we propose to continue
0 this work with the development of a numerical interface with
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 the Matlab software to determine the estimations of the solar
Months radiations for all regions of Tunisia. In addition, it uses in
Figure 15.Total irradiance for the annual optimum tilt practical applications such as water pumping solar, on-grid
angle applications and off-grid applications.
 7. References

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Estimation of the Diffuse Radiation Fraction for Hourly,
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[5] Vignola, F. and D. K. Mc Daniels, 1984: Diffuse-
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[10] Koronakis PS, on the choice of the angle of tilt for
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