Solar Thermal Energy Collector Design

SET - Sustainable Energy and Transport

Final Year Project

2021-22

By

(Student)

(10100)

Programme: Mechanical Engineering

Supervisor(s):

University

Date: 11/04/2022 22:34:43

Mechanical, Biomedical and Design Engineering

School of Engineering and Technology

College of Engineering and Physical Sciences

Research Project No: SET18

Table of Contents
Acknowledgement......................................................................................................................5
Abstract......................................................................................................................................6
List of Figures / Drawings..........................................................................................................7
List of Tables..............................................................................................................................8
List of Abbreviations..................................................................................................................9
Chapter 1 – Introduction..........................................................................................................10
Chapter 2 - Aim and Objectives...............................................................................................10
2.1 Aims.....................................................................................................................................10

2.2 Objectives............................................................................................................................11

2.3 Potential issues.....................................................................................................................11

Chapter 3 - Literature review...................................................................................................11

3.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................11

3.2 Review of Solar Collector Technologies.............................................................................12

3.2.1 Flat Plate Collector.......................................................................................................12

3.3 Solar Thermal Air Collector................................................................................................15

3.4 Evacuated-tube Panel...........................................................................................................16

3.5 Solar Thermal Bowl Collector.............................................................................................18

3.6 Thermodynamic Panel.........................................................................................................21

3.7 Suitability for UK................................................................................................................24

3.8 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................26

3.9 In-depth research.................................................................................................................29

3.9.1 Heat pipes.....................................................................................................................29

3.9.2 Evacuated tube literature review..................................................................................30

Chapter 4 - Research methodology..........................................................................................34

4.1 PVT unit description............................................................................................................34
 4.2 Design Calculations.............................................................................................................35

4.3 Solidworks Modeling...........................................................................................................40

4.3.1 Flat plate collector:.......................................................................................................40

4.3.2 Tempered glass:............................................................................................................41

4.3.3 Tubes:...........................................................................................................................41

4.3.4 Insulator:.......................................................................................................................41

4.4 Thermal Analysis:................................................................................................................41

4.5 Costing:................................................................................................................................42

4.5.1 Material costs:...............................................................................................................42

4.5.2 Manufacturing cost:......................................................................................................42

4.6 Design Features...................................................................................................................43

4.6.1 Easy to use....................................................................................................................43

4.6.2 Economic......................................................................................................................43

4.6.3 Environment friendly....................................................................................................43

Chapter 5 - Research Findings.................................................................................................43

Chapter 6 – Discussion and Conclusion...............................................................................50
Future Recommendation............................................................................................................50

References...............................................................................................................................51
Appendix..................................................................................................................................57
Appendix A:...............................................................................................................................57

Appendix B................................................................................................................................62

Appendix C................................................................................................................................72

Appendix D................................................................................................................................73
 Acknowledgement
I would like to acknowledge and give sincere gratefulness to Mr. for his passionate devotion,
passion, encouragement, wisdom and time on both teaching and project supervision.

I am sincerely appreciative of his informative knowledge and honest feedbacks, besides his
encouragement and believe that I can defeat setbacks and achieve my highest potential.

I would like to express sincere thanks to him for devoting his holiday time in giving me advice
and detailed informative feedback. His teachings, expertise, and advice has been adopted in this
study.
 Abstract
This research based study is performed to determine the optimized design of solar plate collector
for typical cold weather conditions in United Kingdom. Different types of solar collectors are
commonly used for domestic and commercial applications. Flat plate collector is chosen as a
base design with 25 tubes under solar radiations of 101 kWh/m 2 (GHI) and 12 degC average
environmental temperature. Analytical and computational methods are used to determine and
validate the performance of flat plate collector along with other design complexities. This design
is chosen because of its simplicity, it is easy manufacture, materials are easily available and it is
also eco-friendly. It fulfils the small household energy needs quite easily. 330 kWh energy is
generated by this solar collector which is solely used for water heating in heat pipes because
conventional system is a failure in these type of cold and humid weather conditions where most
of heat loss happens due to corrosion and thermal resistance of pipe material. Flow simulation
module of Solidworks is used to carry out the computational fluid dynamics analysis (also called
thermal analysis involving both fluid and solid along with solar radiation). Heat pipe tubes are
used to heat up the fluid while aluminum foil of 5 microns is used as radiation receiver at top of
C-Si cells surface. A unique heat flux gradient is observed over the horizontal plane in tubes and
solar collector simultaneously. Temperature of fluid in central tubes is higher than the side tubes
because of the relatively lower velocity than the side tubes where the inlet and outlet walls are
situated hence the pressure and velocity values vary inversely proportional to each other as a
result of temperature gradient in fluid inside the tubes. Pressure and velocity values are almost
constant at central tubes while variable at side tubes possibly due to existence of inlet and outlet
boundaries have their effect along with the hot and cold fluid effect which is also very small and
negligible.

Keywords:

Solar collector, Heat pipe, Thermal analysis, Solidworks modelling

 List of Figures / Drawings
Figure 1: A diagrammatic representation of flat plate collector and its heat transfer phenomena (Dobriyal et al., 2020) 15

Figure 2: diagram for the corrugated glazed solar air collector for domestic application 16

Figure 3: schematic of the solar collector system 16

Figure 4: evacuated solar collector with heat pipe 18

Figure 5: Schematic parabolic-dish solar collector (Ghadi, 2020) 20

Figure 6: Pictorial depiction of (a) the flat concentrator collector (b) Compound parabolic concentration technique (c) parabolic
trough collector (d) actual heliostat field collector (e) actual linear Fresnel collector (f) actual parabolic dish collector (Sabiha et
al., 2015) 22

Figure 7: Cross section of and schematic of PV/T module and its absorber plate (Charalambous et al., 2007) 23

Figure 8: Average daily annual sunshine hours and converted solar irradiance over the baseline time period. (Burnett, Barbour
and Harrison, 2014) 26

Figure 9: GHI Data for UK for 2017 (Dhimish et al., 2018) 26

Figure 10: Geographical distribution of the yearly average in England (Dhimish et al., 2018) 27

Figure 11: Schematic working of heat pipe (Dobson and Laubscher, 2013) 31

Figure 12: Temperature of collector plate [K] 45

Figure 13: Temperature of fluid [K] 46

Figure 14: Temperature contour [K] 47

Figure 15: Pressure collector in water [Pa] 47

Figure 16: Heat transfer rate [W/m2] 48

Figure 17: Velocity contour of water [m/s] 48

Figure 18: Pressure plot along length of tube [Pa] (data from table 5) 49

Figure 19: Temperature plot along length of tube [K] 49

Figure 20: Temperature plot along diameter of tube [K] 50

Figure 21: Velocity plot along length of tube [m/s] 51

Figure 22: Orthographic drawing of tempered glass model 58

Figure 23: Orthographic drawing of solar collector model 59

Figure 24: Orthographic drawing of insulator model 60

Figure 25: Orthographic drawing of heat pipe model 61

Figure 26: Orthographic drawing of assembly 62

Figure 27: Setup of thermal analysis 73

Figure 28: 3D model of collector 74

 List of Tables
Table. 1: Potential issues and mitigation actions 11

Table. 2: Comparative results of simulation (ZONDAG, 2008) 24

Table. 3: Weighted decision matrix 27

Table. 4: Performance of Stationary collectors (Sabiha et al., 2015) 28

Table. 5: some significant previous work in the domain on ESTC 32

Table. 6: some significant previous work in the domain on ESTC 42

Table. 7: Temperature along diameter of tube 62

Table. 8: Temperature of fluid along length of tube 63

Table. 9: Pressure along length of tube 66

Table. 10: Velocity along length of tube 68

 List of Abbreviations
A – Area, [m2]

Cp – Specific heat capacity, [kJ∙kg-1∙K-1]

D – Diameter, [m]

Gb – Solar beam radiation, [W∙ m-2]

hw – water-receiver convection coefficient, [W∙m-2∙K-1]

L – Tube length, [m]

m – Mass flow rate, [kg∙s-1]

Q – Heat flux, [W]

T – Temperature, [degC]

PV -- Photovoltaic

GHI – Global horizontal index

3D – 3 dimensional

CFD – computational fluid dynamics

Chapter 1 – Introduction
Solar energy is the main source of energy of our planet which supplies in the form of heat and
light continuously all over the planet during the day. More than 95% of this useful and free
energy go to waste on daily basis. Only a fraction of solar energy is used by plants and other
living on the earth to go on with their daily life needs. Researchers have worked in many ways to
determine most useful ways to utilize this free energy as an alternative to costly source of
energies i.e. hydel power, nuclear power and coal power. To further add to the list of these
efforts, this research is carried out to design a most efficient and cost effective solar collector
system to fulfil the needs of small household in UK keeping in view the average conditions in
the region. Solar irradiance varies at different locations and at different time of the day and year.
Average irradiance is taken in to account to use for the study and design a most useful system.
100 W/m2 GHI is considered for the calculations in this study to account for any disruptions due
to extreme or unusual weather conditions in the region. A heat pipe system is chosen for the
transport of heat from collector plate to the working fluid bearing in mind that the average
energy obtained in UK annually is relatively considered to be low and huge heat losses in
conventional piping system is not as efficient as heat pipe. Therefore, heat pipe made of copper
(Zohuri, B., 2016) is used as a heat transfer agent from collector to water in a heat exchanger.
Analytical calculations are done to estimate the heat transfer from collector plate to heat pipes in
the system and to validate the results using simulation results obtained from thermal analysis by
CFD modeling. Solidworks is used as a 3D modeling software to prepare the prototype 3D
model and for the CFD modeling as well. 3D model of solar collector design proposed is shown
in appendix along with their orthographic drawings.
Chapter 2 - Aim and Objectives
 Yearly costs for providing hot water are expensive overall? Lack of hot water can affect
all people
 Trying to lead a green and sustainable life for house owners.
 Producing an alternative to reduce the cost of gas and energy to heat hot water
2.1 Aims
 Produce
Produce alternative to reduce the cost of gas and energy used to heat water by reviewing
diverse types of solar thermal collectors and associated systems.

 Conceive, design and test

Conceive, design and test a suitable solar thermal energy collector for domestic use. Ideally a
proof of principle prototype will be built and tested. (Yan, S.R., Golzar, A., Sharifpur, M., Meyer,
J.P., Liu, D.H. and Afrand, M., 2020)

 Lead
Lead a green and sustainable life.

2.2 Objectives
 Research
 Product Design Specification (PDS). (Mousa, O.B., Taylor, R.A. and Shirazi, A., 2019)
 Concept design.
 Product prototype using CAD
 Compare project results with results obtained from existing authors.
 Proof of principle prototype – Thermal analysis (Solid Works)
2.3 Potential issues
Table. 1: Potential issues and mitigation actions

Potential issues Mitigation actions

Material sourcing and costs. Find different sources of materials and have
backups – Proof of principle prototype being as
simple as possible.

CAD licensing. Make sure to have access to multiple CAD

 resources (more than one device/university).

Couldn’t build a prototype. Best management of time and make

early deadlines.

Solid works thermal analysis: Potential software Using VDL.

problems – going into lockdown

CAD and drawings accurate measurements. Base measurements on accurate calculations

and data.

Chapter 3 - Literature review

3.1 Introduction
Sun is the main source of energy for the earth in form of light and heat. Fossil fuels are
extensively used in energy production for both industrial and domestic use. Energy consumption
has increased over the years owing to the population increase, increase in the use of technology,
and the advent of new technology. Solar energy is converted into electrical energy through
photovoltaic solar cells. Other than electrical energy, solar energy can also be directly converted
to thermal energy in a manner that can be useful. Thermal energy is required for domestic space
and water heating.

Generally, solar collectors are the preliminary step in converting sunlight into energy. Therefore,
they must be designed in accordance to efficient focusing of light while minimizing manufacture,
installation, and operational expenses (Kumar and Mullick, 2010). Collectors that can generate
high concentrations of sunlight at a low cost can immediately improve the receiver's efficiency.

The job of a solar heat collector is to collect the radiant heat of the sun in a manner that can be
used to raise the temperature of some substance to produce either work or useful heat energy.
These can be of different types based on the working fluid such as air and water. Furthermore,
these can be divided based on the type of mechanism used for the movement of fluid i.e., forced
or natural. Classification can also be based on whether the incident energy is concentrated or not
before absorbing (Khamis Mansour, 2013).
In this regard, it is important to understand the concept of irradiance, which is the amount of
light energy incident from that hits a square meter of surface (under study) each second. The
working principle of the solar collector is based on idea on catching/absorbing the heat energy
from the packets of lights called a photon (Akhtar and Mullick, 2012). Hence, the energy
converted by a solar collector is directly proportional to the area of collector. However, due to
immense research and development in the field, it is possible to obtain amplified energy outputs
from solar collectors. This study reviews some of the commonly found solar collector for
technological simplicity, manufacturability and costs for domestic heating application.

3.2 Review of Solar Collector Technologies

3.2.1 Flat Plate Collector
These are the most common type of solar collectors. Components for a flat plate type collector
usually include a basic absorber plate and its shield. This shield can be further divided into two
parts. First is the top cover that is transparent and it allows the sunlight to reach the absorber
plate. The second is the base and side cover. Its job is to provide structural support and minimize
the heat loss from the absorber plate back into the environment. These flat-plate collectors gather
heat from direct solar radiation as well as from diffused radiation.

Based on the functionality of these individual components, the material is selected for
manufacturing these components accordingly. Due to the need for the absorber plate to absorb
the maximum amount of solar energy, the material with high thermal conductivity is selected.
Metals (aluminum, copper, steel) are the preferred material type (Bhowmik and Amin, 2017).
The absorber plate also includes tubes that will carry the fluid to be heated. For domestic water
heating applications, these tubes carry water. These tubes can be either made into the absorber
plate or can be manufactured separately and attached afterward. Properties of the Surface of the
absorber plate are enhanced in a manner conducive to increasing the absorption of solar energy.
The surface can be either coated or painted to enhance solar energy absorption.

The top cover of the absorbing plate is transparent and hence it lets sunlight through. It also
works as a shield and stops the cool air outside from moving inside (Chen, Gu and Peng, 2010).
Despite the transparent nature of this top cover, it stops some sunlight from reaching the absorber
plate.
If there is no flow of liquid inside the tubes, the temperature inside the flat plate collector can
rise significantly. This necessitates the use of materials that have sound structural properties at
high temperatures. The housing of the flat plate collector is can be made of metals, some form of
plastic, or even wood (Chen, Gu and Peng, 2010). The top cover is often made of glass. Sealing
must be done in a manner that no heat is allowed to escape through leakage of air. Some heat is
radiated out due to temperature differences. The same goes for heat transfer through convection.
Sealing further helps in protecting itself from dirt and other environmental elements.

Insulation at the side and back of the absorber plate helps in protecting against heat loss. In flat
plate type collectors, the area of the absorber plate is equal to the incident area of sunlight. For
efficient operation of the flat plate collector, it is necessary that the maximum amount of energy
is absorbed from the sun, energy absorbed from the sun is used efficiently to raise the
temperature of the working fluid, and energy losses from the absorber plate are minimized.

Coatings used for the surface of the absorber plate help in absorbing the sunlight having a short
wavelength. Typical absorptivity values for such coated, painted, or plated surfaces reach up to
95%. The tradeoff that must be kept in mind is that coatings that are used for enhancing
absorption of short-wavelength radiation also enhance the emittance of long-wavelength
radiation. Hence, an ideal coating will be one that increases the absorption of the radiation but
minimizes the emittance of radiation (Beikircher et al., 2015). To transfer absorbed heat from the
absorber plate to the fluid being used for heat transfer, conduction acts as the mechanism to
increase the temperature of the tubes. Inside the tube due to the bulk motion of fluid, convection
is the main mode of heat transfer. Tube spacing and their diameter are important factors that
must be considered during the design of the flat plate collector given the specifications of the
application (Del Col et al., 2013). Due to the presence of air between the absorber plate and the
top plate, there is always heat transfer due to convection happening. This heat transfer aids in the
heat transfer from the surface to the surrounding air at ambient temperature.

The Figure 1 shows a diagrammatic representation of flat plate collector and its heat transfer
phenomena. As depicted in figure, solar radiation passes through the transparent cover and
transmits heat to the absorber plate. Modes of heat transfer out of absorber plate such as
convection and radiation are also discussed.
 Figure 1: A diagrammatic representation of flat plate collector and its heat transfer phenomena (Dobriyal et al., 2020)

The flat plate type collector discussed so far uses a top cover, also known as glazing, for
insulation of the absorber plate. A simplistic version of a flat plate collector, known as a non-
glazed flat plate collector, consists of just an absorber plate with tubes attached for the flow of
liquid, as shown in figure 2. The absorber plate is often painted black to maximize energy
absorption. But due to a lack of insulating measures energy losses are higher than the glazed type
flat plate collector. But owing to its simplistic configuration, higher losses, and ease of
manufacturing, it is widely used for low temperature (i.e., up to 30 °C) heating applications
(Beikircher et al., 2015).

Flat plate collectors are cheap due to their simple construction as tracking the sun is not a
requirement for these systems to work. However, applications of these collectors are limited due
to the limited increase in temperature of the fluid possible. The diameter of tubes must be chosen
carefully to reduce pressure losses. The rate of heat transfer from the absorber plate to the
working fluid is highly dependent on the attachment technique between tubes and plate. The life
expectancy of flat plate collectors varies from 10 to 25 years with minimum maintenance
requirements.

3.3 Solar Thermal Air Collector

The operation of these collectors is similar to that of flat plate collectors. The only difference is
that the working fluid is air instead of water. These systems are mostly used for space heating.
Air gets heated slowly as compared to liquids due to its low heat transfer coefficient. Owing to
this fact, to increase the heat transfer between air and absorber plate contact area must be
maximized. Fins are extended surfaces that are used for increment in the surface area.

Figure 2: diagram for the corrugated glazed solar air collector for domestic application

Another technique that can be employed to increase the heat transfer rate is to create turbulence
in flow by means of corrugated structures of absorber plate as shown in figure 3. Air flow is
obstructed by means of a corrugated plate, and consequently turbulence is produced that
increases heat transfer.

Flow of air can be natural as well as forced. Forced convection increases the heat transfer rate,
Figure 3: schematic of the solar collector system
but it also requires an additional component i.e., fan for airflow (Evangelisti, De Lieto Vollaro
and Asdrubali, 2019).
As these systems are similar to flat plate collectors sans the working fluid being used, estimated
manufacturing costs and life expectancy figures are of the same order. However, temperatures
being produced are low on the account of low heat transfer rates of air.

On the other hand, literature indicates that the conventional thermal air collectors can be
integrated with phase change materials (PCMs) as a storage material; this ensures latent heat
storage rather sensible heat storage. This supposedly provides better thermal performance of
solar air heater by offering high latent heat and larger surface area for energy transfer thus
reducing the energy losses and reducing the overall costs (Mettawee and Assassa, 2006).

3.4 Evacuated-tube Panel

Flat Plate Collectors (FPC) are widely used in sunny areas. However, a significant drop in
performance occurs during unfavorable conditions. There are certain aspects of the FPC design
that can be improved. One of these is the heat transfer through convection between the absorber
section and the covering due to the presence of air. Furthermore, there is also leakage of air that
causes heat loss. This leakage also exposes the internal structure of the FPC to the environmental
elements that cause a significant decrease in the life of the FPC (Chaudhary and Namjoshi,
2018).

Evacuated Tube Collectors (ETC) are made of sealed glass tubes that enclose heat pipes. These
tubes are vacuum sealed. ETC collects both diffuse and incident radiation similar to FPC. Due to
reduced conduction and convection inside these tubes, their performance is enhanced as they can
achieve a higher temperature than FPC. A simpler version of these ETC uses absorber tubes in
which working fluid is directly heated from the energy collected. The thermal conductivity value
of the working fluid acts as a bottleneck as it is directly responsible for gathering heat from the
absorber section.

In the modified and enhanced version of the ETC, the inclusion of heat pipes greatly improves
heat transfer efficiency. Heat pipes have very high values of thermal conductivity. This provides
them with the ability to transfer heat with low thermal resistance. In such evacuated tube
collectors, as shown in figure 4, heat pipe is enclosed inside the glass tube with one end
absorbing the heat and other end transferring it to the working fluid. Heat pipe is High
conductivity values of the heat pipes are attributed to the use of phase change materials (Hayek,
Assaf and Lteif, 2011.The Evacuated Tube Collectors utilize the liquid-vapor phase change
materials in order to initiate the high efficiency heat transfer. The ETC features a characteristic
heat pipe which is a highly efficient thermal conductor usually placed inside a vacuum-sealed
tube. The sealed copper pipe is attached to the black fins at the absorber plate; the fins fill the
copper tube. Whereas, the part of the sealed tube with metal protrusions acts as the condenser.
Generally, the ETC collectors use methanol or other highly volatile fluid as the working fluid,
which is subjected to an evaporating-condensing cycle;
the cycle causes the liquid to evaporate causing the vapors to move towards the heat sink which
results in latent heat rejection through condensation. The condensed fluid then travels back to the
solar collector and the process is repeated. The heated liquid circulates through another heat
exchanger, giving off the heat to water that is being stored in a solar tank (Hayek, Assaf and
Lteif, 2011). Moreover, the ETC has a characteristic self-limiting temperature control since it
provides freezing/overheating protection by ensuring no evaporation/condensation over the
phase-change operation.

Generally, ETCs are available with different variations in the market. Many manufacturers have
commercialized Evacuated tubes with CPC-reflectors, all-glass low-cost versions and Dewar
tube version; the later featuring these two concentric glass tubes with partial vacuum. However,
the all-glass version is most cost-effective relevant to the thermal efficiency compared to other
versions. Furthermore, ICPC is another version recently developed by the researchers; the
integrated compound parabolic collector (ICPC) is an ETC featuring a reflective substance
placed at the bottom of the glass tube (Kalogirou, 2004). The vacuum insulation and non-
imaging stationary concentration are combined into a single unit in the collector. Another
concept is a tracking ICPC that is ideal for high temperature applications.

3.5 Solar Thermal Bowl Collector

Increased energy distribution temperatures can be achieved by reducing the surface by which the
energy losses occur. Temperatures significantly attained by FPC outstretch to a specific level if
great amount of solar energy is concentrated on small collection region. This is performed by
sandwiching an optical device between both the source of radiation as well as the energy
absorbing barrier. Concentrating solar arrays provide some advantages over traditional flat-plate
collectors (Murtuza et al., 2017). The most important are:

1. When comparing it with a flat-plate structure with the same thermal energy collecting at
the surface, the working fluid in a concentrator system can reach higher temperatures.
This indicates that greater thermodynamic efficiency is possible.
2. A concentrator system can provide a thermodynamic fit among temperature level and
task. The task could include operating thermionic, thermodynamic, and other high-
temperature machines.
3. The thermodynamic efficiency is higher because to the tiny heat loss area in comparison
to the recipient area.
4. Reflective surfaces use less material and have a simpler structural design than FPC. As a
result, overall cost of the product of solar gathering surface for a concentrated collector is
below that of an FPC.
5. As, the receiver region of obtained solar energy is very modest, specific surface treatment
and vacuum encapsulation to reduce losses and increase collector efficiency are
financially sustainable.

Their disadvantages are as follows:

1. Contingent upon concentration ratio, concentrator systems gather minimal diffuse

radiation.
2. A tracking mechanism is necessary to allow collector to track the sun.
3. Photovoltaic reflecting surfaces lose reflectivity with time and will need to be cleaned
and refurbished on a regular basis.

Different designs for consolidating collectors have been considered. Concentrators could be
reflectors as well as refractors, circular or parabolic, continuous, or divided. Receivers can also
be domed, plain, circular, or concave, either covered with glass or not. Concentration levels, or
the percentage of aperture and absorber area, can differ by many orders of magnitude, ranging
from one to ten thousand. Increasing rates mean higher temperatures during which energy may
be provided, but these collectors also have higher needs for accuracy in sharpness and optical
system location (García et al., 2010).
 Figure 5: Schematic parabolic-dish solar collector (Ghadi,
2020)

As, the sun appears to move throughout, the traditional focusing collectors should observe the
sun's regular journey on the sky. The motion of the sun can be easily tracked in two ways. The
altazimuth technique, for example, requires the tracking device to rotate for either, allowing the
concentrator to precisely track the sun when executed correctly. Paraboloidal solar arrays often
employ this technology. The second type of tracking is one-axis, wherein the collector only
monitors the sun in one direction, whether east to west or north to south. This system is
frequently employed by parabolic trough collectors (PTC) (García et al., 2010). To accommodate
the variations in the sun's orientation, such systems require constant and precise adjustment. The
CPC is another form of collector that is categorized as a concentrator. It is previously described
under static collectors. This might be fixed or moving based on the incident angle. As shown in
figure 5, concentrator shell present on the dish focuses sunlight on the mirror. This focused
energy is used for heating the working fluid.

When monitoring is utilized, it is usually highly uneven or abrupt since the portion is so small
and energy can be absorbed and focused by one or more reflections on the curvatures.

As aforementioned, one disadvantage of concentrating photovoltaics is that they can only utilize
the direct component of sunlight at low amounts because most varieties cannot concentrate the
diffuse component. However, an additional factor of concentrating solar collector appears to be
that, in the summer, when the sun is at the top of the north of the east–west line, the solar
radiation, with its own axis-oriented north–south, could indeed start to accept specific sunlight
before such a set, south-facing surface can obtain anything other than disperse radiation from the
part of the sky that it faces. As a result, the focused collector may capture more energy per unit
of the field of vision than an FPC in clear conditions (Wu et al., 2015).

Sunlight is visually concentrated in focusing collectors before even being transformed into
energy. Solar radiation can be concentrated by reflecting or diffracting it with mirrors or lenses.
The light that is reflected or refracted is condensed into a specific region, increasing energy flow
in the receptive object. Concentrating collectors are further classed as non-imaging or imaging-
based on whether the image of the sun is centered at the receiver or not. The CPC concentrator
falls within the first group, whereas all other concentrators fall into the imaging category.
Collectors in this category include Parabolic trough collector, Linear Fresnel reflector (LFR),
Parabolic dish, Linear Fresnel reflector (LFR), Central receiver, etc. (Babu, Raj and Valan
Arasu, 2019) as shown in Figure 6.

A brief explanation of these types is provided in the following paragraphs.

a) Flat concentrator collector: these collectors consist of flat plates and surrounding
reflectors as shown in figure 6a.
b) Compound parabolic concentration: in this type parabolic shaped sheet is used to capture
the sunlight that would be wasted otherwise as shown in figure 6b.
c) Parabolic trough collector: in this configuration, as the name suggests, the concentrator is
of parabolic shape, and a tube is used as a collector. This tube is placed at the parabola’s
focus as shown in figure 6c. The concentrated sunlight is used to heat the working fluid
present inside the tube.
 d) Heliostat field collector: the reflectors have the ability to follow the sun and concentrate
the sunlight towards a central solar collector tower as shown in figure 6d.
e) Linear Fresnel collector: as the name suggests reflectors and collector/receiver are linear.
Reflectors are aligned in a manner that is conducive to reflecting the sunlight to the
collector throughout the day as shown in figure 6e.
f) Parabolic dish collector: a geometry similar to satellite antennas that has the ability to
converge the incident sunlight at a single point (focal point) where the receiver is placed
(as shown in figure 5 and 6f)

Figure 6: Pictorial depiction of (a) the flat concentrator collector (b) Compound parabolic concentration technique (c) parabolic
trough collector (d) actual heliostat field collector (e) actual linear Fresnel collector (f) actual parabolic dish collector (Sabiha et
al., 2015)

3.6 Thermodynamic Panel

The Hybrid photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) panels are devices that carry out the simultaneous
conversion of solar energy into heat and electricity. A typical PV/T device features a heat
extraction absorber plate on a PV module; the PV module fetches the radiation from absorber
plate and converts it to electrical energy. The peak frequencies usually range from 5–20%. It is
important to note that the absorber plate plays dual role i.e., cooling the PV module in order to
enhance its electrical efficiency and prevent the loss of thermal energy produced inside the unit
(Coventry, 2005). This waste heat recovery is ideal for domestic hot water application for
washing and showers etc. However, the study presented by Zondag et al. concludes that the
efficiency of a PV/T module is relatively less than a sperate PV module and separate
conventional thermal collectors (ZONDAG, 2008). It also indicated that regardless of lesser
efficiency, PV/T modules still have wide application for applications where larger surface area
for absorbing solar radiation is crucial, since they offer higher energy per unit surface area ratio
than the separate modules. The diagrams in the Figure 6 below indicate cross section of and
schematic of PV/T module and it’s an absorber plate respectively (Charalambous et al., 2007).
Glass cover protects the tubes from direct exposure to ambient air and alloqs sunlight to pass
through that incidents of abosber plate.

Figure 7: Cross section of and schematic of PV/T module and its absorber plate (Charalambous et al., 2007)

Furthermore, there are three primary types of PV/T viz. flat plate PV/T collector; concentrating
PV/T collectors which provide amplified solar irradiance at a point although the cost-energy
ratio is relatively higher; and the water/air type PV/T collector which are usually distinguished
by the direction and flow of water/air above or below the absorber in single and in double pass.

Furthermore, Zondag et al. developed numerical model for analyzing the performance of a PV/T
concentrator with respect to separate modules (i.e., PV module and conventional flat plate
collector). The simulations were performed to an accuracy of about 0.05, and the comparative
results of simulation are presented in Table 1 as follows:
Table. 2: Comparative results of simulation (ZONDAG, 2008)

Efficiency Single Pass Double Pass

Conventioanl Thermal Collector 24-28% 32-34%
PV Module 6-7% 8-9%
Combined PV/T Module 30-35% 40-45%

3.7 Suitability for UK

UK is seeing a sharp shift towards the use of solar energy for provision of heat energy and
electricity generation. The shift is expected to get sharper over the years because of fact that
solar technologies are becoming more affordable and readily available for people in the country.
This trend is further encouraged by government’s low carbon legislation viz. RHI and FiTs (i.e.,
Renewable Heat Incentive and Feed in Tariffs supporting solar energy deployment respectively).

However, United Kingdom is predominantly a mild-temperature country with average

temperatures ranging from 14-6 °C and annual precipitation ranging up to 1017mm (in 2021)
(Current Results Weather, 2022) (Statista, 2022). Therefore, it is essential to figure appropriate
geo locations that receive adequate direct solar irradiance to run the solar systems. The figures
below indicate the map for irradiance distribution across UK and Ireland. It is evident that south
and south-west of the country receives highest horizontal irradiance (irradiance indicates the flux
of radiant energy per unit area) and the value of GHI decreasing towards the north of the country.
The Average daily annual sunshine hours and converted solar irradiance map is shown in Figure
7 as follows:
 Figure 8: Average daily annual sunshine hours and converted solar irradiance over the baseline time period.
(Burnett, Barbour and Harrison, 2014)

The city Plymouth located in south-west of the country receives highest horizontal irradiation
(i.e., 101 kWh/m2 in 2017) and highest average temperatures (i.e., 12.1°C). Therefore, it is most
viable for setting up solar power projects and testing the scope of solar energy in UK to the
fullest. The Figure 8 below average irradiance, DNI, DHI and temperatures in major cities of UK
(for 2017), followed by a map classifying the cities in irradiance ranges by color coding in
Figure 9.
 Figure 9: GHI Data for UK for 2017 (Dhimish et al., 2018)

Figure 10: Geographical distribution of the yearly average in England (Dhimish et al., 2018)

3.8 Conclusion
The study focusses on reviewing the common solar collection technologies, producing facts and
evidences from literature. Furthermore, the literature review enabled analyzing the technologies
according to Pugh Matrix; the decision matrix that utilizes criteria scoring to determine the most

Suitable technology for the project as per the fundamentals of engineering design and
manufacturing, coupled with cost, economics and optimization. The decision matrix is shown as
follows:

The most important factor in the decision matrix is the efficiency of the system. Systems with
higher energy conversion efficiency perform better. Another important factor is the
manufacturing and installation cost. Devices that require complex manufacturing techniques cost
more. That is a limitation that must be kept in mind while designing devices for domestic use.
The longevity of devices is a major concern as well. Devices that have a longer life span provide
a better return for the money invested. Safety concerns must also be considered while choosing
the device in general and for household use in particular. Devices that use toxic working fluid
must be evaluated carefully before choosing for any application.

The Evacuated Tube panel soar collector has the highest weighted score, maxing the score for
energy conversion efficiency too. The selection of ETC collector can further be justified by the
factors highlighted as follows:

Table. 3: Weighted decision matrix

Weighted Decision Matrix

Operate & Ease of

Operational Costs to Energy
Technical Design
Durability Manufacture Conversion
KEY Risks & Total
of Lifespan & Install Efficiency
Prevention Manufacture

Importance 3 2 3 4 5
Low = 1 Flat Plate
Collector 3 4 5 5 2 62
Solar Thermal
Medium = 3 Air Collector 4 4 4 3 2 54
Evacuated Tube
Panel 4 4 3 4 5 70
Solar Thermal
High = 5 Bowl Collector 5 4 4 4 3 66

Thermodynami
c Panel 3 4 2 2 4 51

Advantages of ETC collector:

 Can be utilized in extreme climates i.e., extremely cold to extremely hot weather.
 Since, operational performance is based on the level of vacuum in ETC, it requires less
space and is easier to install
  The tubular design enables the device to absorb solar radiation from multiple angles.
 CNot affected by windy, dusty or low-temperature weathers.
 The tube breakage only reduces energy conversion efficiency but the device keeps on
operating.
 No corrosion problem unlike the flat plate/air thermal collectors, since the tube are
sealed.

The disadvantages are:

 High initial capital investment

 Complicated construction and requires specialized handling of apparatus.
 Probability of thermal shock due to absence of cooling water jacket leasing to cracks in
the tube.

It is important to note that evacuated tube solar collectors are suited for utilization of medium-
high temperature differential; they are more efficient than flat plate collectors in the temperature
range of 50-200 °C. Since, a vacuum is formed between the tubes, this sort of collector is quite
frequent and effective in cooler climates. Moreover, it is more efficient than concentric varieties
of solar collectors because it has the capacity to harvest both diffuse and beam and radiations.
Overall, the technological advantages of the ETC collector outweighs its downsides, which make
feasible for domestic and industrial applications.

Table. 4: Performance of Stationary collectors (Sabiha et al., 2015)

Efficiency
Temperature range Efficiency (%) at
Sr No Name (%) at 1000
(Degree Celsius) 500 W/m2
W/m2
Flat Plate
1 30-80 71-75 72-75
Collector
Evacuated Tube
2 50-200 44-82 62-82
Collector
Compound
3 Parabolic 60-240 45-73 58-72
Collector
3.9 In-depth research
3.9.1 Heat pipes
Heat pipes are devices that are used to transportation of thermal energy from one point to another
point in an efficient manner. These devices have high thermal conductivity values, which means
that these devices can transfer thermal energy from one point to another with a relatively low-
temperature difference. Heat pipes can be of different types. The ones have a cylindrical cross-
section with one end working as the condenser and the other end working as the evaporator.
Working fluid changes its phase to carry the maximum amount of thermal energy with a
minimum change in temperature. Working fluid evaporates in the evaporator and absorbs energy.
These vapors travel in the central portion of the tube from evaporator to condenser as show in
Figure 10. The condenser is the low-temperature area and vapors change their phase to liquid and
provide latent heat to the condenser. This cooled liquid then travels by means of capillary action
in the outer wick of the cylindrical heat pipe from the condenser to the evaporator where it again
absorbs heat. A distinguishing factor of these heat pipes is the fact that these are passive devices
and require no active moving parts for heat transfer, which significantly increases their longevity
and decreases their need for maintenance. Thermal conductivity values for heat pipes are in the
range of 10000 to 100000 W/m K. These values are significantly higher than those of the best
metallic conductors i.e. copper has a thermal conductivity value of approximately 400 W/m K.
working fluid in the heat pipes and tube material is selected based on the application. Some
common working fluid and tube material pairings include copper and water, aluminum, nickel,
and steel with ammonia.

Heat pipes can be used for cryogenic applications, low-temperature applications, and high-
temperature applications. The difference lies in their operating temperature ranges. Material and
working fluid depend on the choice of temperature ranges. High-temperature applications for
heat pipes include a heat exchanger, solar technology, nuclear reactors, etc. Heat exchangers
with heat pipes embedded in them have superior performance as compared to their conventional
counterparts (Meisel et al., 2015).

The selection of working fluid for high-temperature heat pipes needs careful consideration.
Factors that must be considered while selecting the working fluid include wick properties,
properties of the internal wall of the tube, thermal conductivity, boiling and melting point of the
 Figure 11: Schematic working of heat pipe (Dobson and Laubscher, 2013)
working fluid, conductivity values, and latent heat of the fluid. The viscosity of the working
material is also important. Low viscosity fluid reduces friction and as a consequence pressure
losses in the heat pipe. The surface tension of the fluid is an important parameter for the wetting
of pipe walls as well as the wick. These factors also influence the movement of the working fluid
in the wick by means of capillary action (Dobson and Laubscher, 2013).

If a working material has a higher capacity for absorbing the heat that means that less amount of
the fluid is required for transferring the required amount of heat. Less amount of fluid results in
reduced pressure losses (Zhang et al., 2016).

There are some limitations on the performance of heat pipes as well. These include the
requirement for continuous flow limit, capillary flow limit, and boiling point limit as well. One
of the biggest causes of damage to high-temperature heat pipes is the phenomenon of corrosion.
If the working fluid and the tube material are not compatible, that can cause corrosion. Gases are
produced due to the incompatibility of the material at high temperatures. These gases not only
affect the performance of the heat pipe in terms of heat transfer, but it also acts as a catalyst for
corrosion that drastically reduces the life of the heat pipe. Apart from material incompatibility,
non-condensable gases can also be produced due to irregular manufacturing processes. That’s
why it is advised that at the time of charging the heat pipe, a high vacuum value must be
produced.

3.9.2 Evacuated tube literature review

The earliest work on solar collectors can be dated back to 1963. That work constituted a
specially modified absorber for high solar energy absorption. That study also proposed the
implementation of a vacuum around the absorber to reduce thermal losses by means of
convective heat transfer. During subsequent research, improvement was made in the process of
heat transfer from the absorber to the working fluid. For that purpose, the specific study under
discussion proposed, creating passages inside the absorber for efficient heat transfer. Working
fluid moved through those passages and absorbed heat. That working fluid evaporated and
transferred heat to the manifold. Albert et al. worked towards the establishment of a basic model
of heat collector, which is known as an evacuated tube heat collector. They used two concentric
tubes with a vacuum between these two tubes. The outer tube was made of glass to let the
sunlight pass through. The inner tube contained working fluid and was selectively coated to
prevent the breakage due concentration of sunlight on just one side of the tube (Zhiqiang,
Harding and Window, 1984).

The next development came in the form of increased capillary action inside the heat pipe by
means of using a glass tube. Increased capillary action resulted in better heat transfer from the
fluid to the storage tank. Another technique used for the increased heat transfer was the
involvement of small glass particles inside the heat pipe. Further investigations were conducted
regarding the effect of using different working fluids on heat transfer under a variety of
applications. The authors concluded that convective heat transfer is more useful for water as a
working fluid for heat transfer from tube to manifold in domestic applications for various
temperatures (Ezekwe, 1990).

Researchers after performing experimentation and analysis determined that the heat transfer ratio
was an important parameter. Nashar et al. studied how the exposure of the glass tube to the dust
due to environmental elements affected the collector’s performance. The Control group was
cleaned after regular intervals, and the other group was not. At the end of the study, it was
determined that there was a 60 % decrease in performance due to dust collection on the glass
tube (El-Nashar, 1994).

In another study, the performance of an evacuated tube heat collector was compared with that of
a flat plate solar collector. It was determined that the evacuated tube showed a 15.9 % increment
in performance when compared with the flat plate solar collector. Benz and Beikircher created a
flat plate collector with an evacuated shell to reduce thermal losses caused by gas convection and
conduction and to generate steam. At vacuum pressure, they placed air, argon, krypton, and
xenon between the transparent cover and absorber plate. They discovered that a flat plate
collector may produce steam at 150 °C with 50% efficiency. Mills et al. employed a reflector and
an n+1 absorber to achieve maximum irradiation absorbance. This invention was connected to
 the functionalization of reflectors and absorbers in order to redirect the amount of solar radiation
toward absorbers. The absorber was of the evacuated tube variety, which converts solar light into
thermal energy with minimal losses (Mills and Morrison, 2000b). Mills et al. employed a Fresnel
lens to focus solar radiation for large-scale heat energy in a small amount of space. They
utilized reflectors on a tower house and discovered that a big amount of heat may be utilized to
generate power at a low cost (Mills and Morrison, 2000). Rakesh et al. used the energy from an
evacuated tube collector to heat up a cooker. They discovered that 8 kg of water at room
temperature in Delhi can be evaporated in 100 minutes using 12 tubes of 1.8 m in length and
63.5 mm in diameter and that the higher the load, the greater the efficiency of the system (Kumar
et al., 2001).

Yogev and Epstein developed a solar system with main and secondary reflectors that have high
reflectivity in a certain wavelength range. Primary reflectors direct radiation from the sun toward
the secondary reflector, while secondary reflectors direct solar radiation toward the absorber.
Esen et al. transferred heat to a cooker using various working fluids in an evacuated heat pipe.
He tested R-134a, R-407C, R-22, and water as refrigerants in an evacuated tube and discovered
that R-407C performed the worst. He discovered that the effectiveness of the evacuated heat pipe
solar collector is affected by both meteorological circumstances and the thermophysical
parameters of the refrigerant used for the heat pipe (Esen, 2004).

Table. 5: some significant previous work in the domain on ESTC

Author Study type Working Type of Tube Temperatu Findings

fluid Evacuate materi re (Degree
d Tube al Celsius)
Solar
Collector
(ESTC)
Hazami et al., Experimenta Water Heat Pipe Glass 92 ESTC has an
2013 l ESTC energy generation
advantage of
approx. 9% over
FPC.
Gao et al., 2013 Experimenta Antifreeze Water in Glass 100 Efficiency of
l fluid Glass WPETSC >
(40% ETSC and Efficiency of
glycol by U Pipe WGETSC.
volume) ETSC
Ayompe and Analytical Water Heat Pipe Glass 70 HP ESTC is more
Duffy, 2013 ETSC on the efficient than FPC.
evapora
tor end
of the
heat
pipe
Ma et al., 2010 Analytical Water Glass Glass 87 Reduced heat loss,
evacuated and increased heat
tube (with extraction but
U shaped maintaining
absorber vacuum is a
tube) challenge.
Yamaguchi et Experimenta R744 CO2 U Pipe Glass 55 Collector
al., 2010 l ETSC tube Efficiency=66%
(workin
g fluid
moves
inside
the
alumin
um
tube)
Rittidech, Experimenta R-134a Circular Glass 55 Collector
Donmaung and l tube Efficiency=76%
Kumsombut, collector Challenges include
2009 maintaining the
vacuum and
production of non-
condensable gases.
Morrison, Experimenta Water Water in Glass 27 Water circulation
Budihardjo and l and Glass rate is affected by
Behnia, 2005 numerical ETSC the inlet conditions
and radiation
intensity incident
on the absorber.

Chapter 4 - Research methodology

From the ongoing research in different corners of the world, it is learned that there are many
designs of plate collector with ongoing research in different institutions all around the world.
Countless research papers have been published till date, regarding the performance and
optimization of different types of plate collectors with varying parameters. Talking about the
shape, flat plate with straight tubes is the most common design while in the past years massive
research on curved plate with spiral tubes has been done to in order to compare their
performance and cost. Both plates have shown relatively equal attributes in terms of performance
but when adding concentrating glass it performs exceptionally well and exhibits remarkable
thermal and optical efficiency but cost goes considerably high because of additional
manufacturing efforts and material costs. Due to this fact, flat plate solar collector is chosen for
design to fulfil the domestic requirements of energy in summers.

4.1 PVT unit description

A PV unit consists of two components one is PV module and other is solar collector. Solar
Collector is combination of glazing, rise water tubes, thermal absorbers and insulation layer. In
previous studies modeling was employed for the whole PV module but in this scenario
conditions are applied separately to each layer instead of using global equations to find different
temperatures along PV module.

Following are parts of PV collector.

  PVT Collector Cross Section.
 PVT Layers.
 Tampered Glass
 EPA encapsulating Film
 C-Si cells
 EVA encapsulating film
 Adhesive Plus back sheet
 Aluminum absorber Plate plus thermal collector.
 Insulating layer.

4.2 Design Calculations

Energy Balance for glass cover is calculated by the formula which is the energy balance for the
heat that reaches plate through sky and the heat that reaches the panel through wind, they are
related to heat that is transferred to photovoltaic cell plus the heat transfer to the air gap.

q̇ sky A PV + q̇wind A PV =q̇ rPV A PV + q̇ag A PV

First heat transfer flux from right side is calculated by following formula.

4 4
q̇ sky =❑g (T g−T sky )

Where temperature of sky is related to temperature of air by the following relation.

1.5
T sly=0.055T a

The temperature of air in winter normally has average of 6 degree Celsius in normal conditions.
Here Ta is taken as temperature of air which is normal temperature of air at the selected place.

0
T sly=0.7671 ❑C

Temperature of glass which is incident to solar radiations is considered 380C for our calculations
which calculated heat transfer from sky as.

W
q̇ sky =0.1049 2
m

Whereas the second term on LHS heat transfer if wind can be calculated as
 q̇ wind =hwind (T g −T a)

There exist numerous methods and techniques for the calculation of ‘ h wind’. All these expression
do not differ by a wide margin so an intermediate value is selected for calculation of ‘ h wind’. The
formula for calculation of h windis given below.

h wind=4.5+2.9 v wind

h wind=18.42

The speed of wind considered for calculation is 5 m/s. Speed is not uniform throughout so the
average between forced convection and conduction coefficient is taken.

Putting that values back in equation for heat transfer of wind yields to calculate heat transfer that
occurs through wind.

W
q̇ wind =221.04 2
m

Then energy balance is applied to the right side of equation which heat transfer rate from glass to
PV laminate film. It is described by the following formula. The temperature for PV cell was
considered 58 degree Celsius under this condition and temperature of glass was taken to be 35
degree Celsius.

4 4
(T PV −T g)
q̇ rPV =
1 1
+ −1
❑PV ❑g

W
q̇ rPV =0.1508 2
m

Heat transfer from glass plate through air gap to the PV module can take place in two ways
which are either conduction transfer or convection transfer. The convection heat transfer is
dependent on Nusselt Number ( ratio of convective heat transfer to conductive heat transfer at
boundary of fluid) which is further dependent on the value of Grashoff Number (ratio of
buoyancy to viscous forces) for a plate of very small thickness is also very small when it is
compared with Nusselt number. It is very small in magnitude so heat transfer due to convection
can be neglected and it is considered during calculations that heat transfer occurs solely through
conduction.

That heat transfer due to conduction can be found out as

k air
q̇ ag= (T −Ṫ g)
e eg P

W
q̇ ag=220.9941 2
m

After energy balance of glass cover, energy balance below for PV laminate after glass cover can
be given as

( ατ )PV J A PV ( 1−ηel ) =( q̇ ¿ ¿ rPV + q̇ag + q̇ ca ) A PV ¿

The transmittance-absorbance product is calculated by the following formula

τα
( ατ )PV =
1−( 1−α ) p

Here,

τ = transmittance of material of photovoltaic cell whose value indicates that how much radiations
are transmitted i.e. are passed for the material.

α = absorbance of material of photovoltaic cell, indicates the amount of radiations absorbed by

the substances.

By research various values of transmittance and absorbance were studied and we considered
value of transmissivity to be 0.2 and absorptance to be 0.61 and value of ‘p’ as 0.19.

That product then yields the value of

( ατ )PV =¿ 0.13176

The J in balancing equation is total irradiance (radiant flux received by some area of material) on
the surface which is inclined at any particular angle under normal condition at desired place. We
considered its value to be 100 watt per square meter. The angle is selected so as to achieve
maximum amount of irradiation reaching PV module but that can vary from location to location.
The efficiency depends on temperature of PV module where temperature of reference of
Photovoltaic is selected 23 degrees and the value of beta is taken as 0.0041, it is selected by
manufacturer generally for designing different solar panels. It is known as temperature
coefficient for photovoltaic modules.

η el=η PVref ¿

Here,

η PVref = reference efficiency of photovoltaic panel.

It is the efficiency described by manufacturer under normal operation conditions where a specific
temperature is selected for calculations.

T PVref = reference temperature of PV module

It describes the temperature at which reference efficiency is existing.

Efficiency of PV considered here is 42 percent which is taken as reference, β is taken as 0.004

and reference temperature of PV module under normal conditions is considered as 23 degree
Celsius.

It is designed efficiency of solar panel that is calculated and analyzed based on our working
conditions.

η el=35.973 %

The heat transfer from PV module to the absorber plate as described from the energy balance is
found out by.

q ca=G ca (T ¿ ¿ PV −T ab )¿

A PV laminate is made of up of some layers a C-Si layer whose value of conductivity is 149
W/m K and is therefore neglected in our calculations and other layers are considered. A second
layer is of glue which is 45 micrometer thick and has conductance of 0.85 W/m K, the other
layer EVA layer of thickness 4mm and conductance of 0. 36 and the third layer is PE-AL which
is 1mm and having a conductance of 0.20.

All these factors constitute the heat conductance of whole solar panel plate which is as under.
 −1
Gca =(R EVA + R ted + R glue )

2
Gca =600.94 W /m K

Further, it can be seen that

It is considered that temperature transferred to absorber layer is 56 degree Celsius further the
heat transferred to absorber plate is divided into two components. One heat transfer occurs of the
heat that is used for the heating of water and the other heat transfer is loss that take place to the
environment through the back layer of absorber.

Heat transfer q ca that take place and is present at the PV plate at absorber is calculated as

q ca=1200.8 W /m2

q ca is then divided in to following two heat transfers.

q̇ ca= q̇bi + q̇ w

Where heat flux loss to the environment through backside flux insulation is.

q bi =Gbi (T ¿ ¿ ab−T a )¿

The heat transfer conductance between the absorber and the environment through the backside
layer insulation is found as,

−1
Gbi =(Ri + Rair )

Here the value of h for air is taken at 0m/s of wind speed which is due to fact that on the inner
side of PV module no air can pass so its speed is taken as 0.

Further, the heat transfer that takes place from absorber layer to the water that enters for heating
is found by the difference of temperature of absorber plate and the temperature of water that is
entering below absorber layer for the purpose of heating.

Heat transfer to water is given by

q w =h (T ¿ ¿ ab−T bw )¿
The temperature reaching absorber layer is known and average temperature of water that enters
the system is known too. It is considered that almost 2kg/s of water is needed every time then
calculation yield.

Taking the temperature of water that is supplied to be 12 degree Celsius the heat transfer to water
produces.

q w =253.2 W /m 2

Balancing the above equation produces

q bi=797.6W / m 2

In order to calculate convective heat transfer coefficient of the water hw that flows into pipes
there is always a need for the setup of boundary conditions and the nature of flow conditions. In
calculation it is made sure that energy transfer takes place where the value of Reynolds Number
is less than 3000. It should always lie under this range for the purpose of calculations to remain
under laminar working conditions.

Now, we will give out power output that we need to obtain from PV module that is needed for
smooth operation of PV which can be calculated from

P PV =J A PV η el

It is considered that power requirement monthly from the solar panel is 2.5 kWh, which is then
scheduled for a day and the power requirement for a day is 83 Wh. This is rough estimate and is
not the actual amount of power that might be required. Also it is considered that sunlight remains
6 hours a day and panel is imposed to radiations.

Thus, for required power the area of plate is determined to be 1.013 meter square.

2
A PV =1.013 m

This is required area of the panel that should meet out performance demands. A panel of above
mentioned area is required for meeting requirements of power for having hot water. Installing
this panel at designated location according to requirements will meet demand for having a hot
shower for one person.
4.3 Solidworks Modeling
Solidworks is mainly a 3D modeling software mostly used by mechanical engineers to design
machine parts and components. Solidworks has many more features like 3D to 2D projection
feature along with CFD and FEA modules. Solidworks is a comprehensive software that is used
for many purposes. CFD module in Solidworks is known as flow simulation with built-in solar
radiation heat source and it also offers steady and transient simulations like any other CFD
package (Bellos, E., Tzivanidis, C., Korres, D. and Antonopoulos, K.A., 2015).

A 1 m2 flat plate solar panel is selected as found for current domestic requirements using
average irradiance of 101 (W/m2) in United Kingdom as described in details below.

4.3.1 Flat plate collector:

1 meter square flat tube is designed using two different types of materials i.e. Aluminum and
Silicon carbide. Multi-thickness plates modeled in Solidworks to account for both of the
surfaces. 5 microns aluminum foil directly receives radiations from sun and then convert into
heat transferring through the silicon carbide sheet below.

4.3.2 Tempered glass:

A 5 mm tempered glass is used above aluminum foil while leaving 10 mm gap allowing air to
transfer heat using convective heat transfer and tempered glass also acts as a protection to the
plate and whole panel.

4.3.3 Tubes:
8 mm diameter tubes are used to transfer heat from collector sheet to the working fluid i.e. water.
A total of 25 tubes are used to pass cold water and let it absorb heat from collector through
conduction in solids and then convection from tube walls to fluid in the tubes. 2 mm thickness is
applied to wall using the shell feature in the software. Fluid enters from bottom tube and passes
through the tubes for maximum amount of time to absorb as much heat as possible.

4.3.4 Insulator:
Wool or some other type of almost perfect insulator is used to wrap around the collector sheet
and water tubes to minimize the convection to the surrounding air and reducing the heat loss
minimum as the fluid pass through the tubes as can be seen in the figures below.
4.4 Thermal Analysis:
Flow simulation module in Solidworks is used to determine heat transfer from solar radiation to
solar collector and collector plate to tube walls and inside fluid i.e. water. Several different
parameters are set to solve this problem. Internal fluid flow problem is chosen with conduction
and solid and solar radiation turned on. Water is selected as fluid and mass flow inlet is defined
with magnitude of 0.01 kg/s in normal to boundary direction while the input temperature of
water is assumed to be 10-15 oC. Outlet boundary is chosen to be pressure outlet with pressure
equal to environmental pressure 101325 Pa.

All default outer walls are selected to be adiabatic because a perfectly insulated environment is
assumed and it exhibits more similar properties to real life.

Solar radiations are exerted on the aluminum sheet normal to the collector surface and magnitude
is taken from annual average irradiance in United Kingdom i.e. 80 W/m2

A very fine and high quality local mesh was generated to maximize the accuracy of the results
generated. Half a million cells were generated to solve this problem. Calculations are solved for
4 travels and high convergence criteria to ensure minimum error possible. Results obtained from
this analysis is discussed in detail in result section.

4.5 Costing:
There are different types of costs involved in making a product or prototype. Most prominent of
them are discussed here in the coat breakup.

4.5.1 Material costs:

As the name suggests, material costs involve purchasing of materials for the product.

Table. 6: some significant previous work in the domain on ESTC

Material Name Price per kg (GBP) Cost per assembly (GBP)

Aluminum sheet 6.45 19
Silicon Carbide sheet 1.79 7.16
Tempered glass sheet 40 80
Wool/Insulation 1 0.05
Heat pipe tubes 40 100
Total - 206.21
4.5.2 Manufacturing cost:
Processes and factors involved in making a product is called manufacturing cost for example
machine depreciation cost, tooling cost, labour cost and electricity cost.

Following processes are included in the manufacturing:

- Cutting
- Pipe cutting
- Bending
- Blanking
- Welding
- Gluing
- Tempering
- Heat treatment

A few variable costs are also applicable to the overall cost of the product i.e. overheads,
transportation and profit.

4.6 Design Features

This design of solar panel which provides hot water in summers to fulfill the domestic needs of 3
persons small house hold. This solar panel gives at least 35% efficiency over 6 hours of sun light
and flat plate collector. This design greatly shows economic and environmental friendly
attributes and help tackle the energy crises in developing areas ( Evins, R., 2013). Few of them are
discussed below in detail.

4.6.1 Easy to use

Design of collector is very simple and easy to understand with simple things and easy to
understand manual.
4.6.2 Economic
The selected product design is very cheap, readily available, easy to manufacture, environment
friendly and yet according to industry standards which fulfills all of your requirements. Simply
put, the estimated cost worth it.

4.6.3 Environment friendly

Solar collector design affects greatly on environment by reducing CO2 production by 40-60%
for the produced energy in the house. Decrease in CO2 production helps in lowering the overall
outside temperature.

Chapter 5 - Research Findings

From the calculations done in the PV description part, it is concluded that the area of solar
collector required to fulfill energy needs in cold weather of a small house hold in United
Kingdom is 1 meter square. The design under study is able to fulfill the needs of 3 person’s
house while for a bigger house hold, more than one panel might be required according to the
consumption mentioned in the domestic needs survey carried out locally in the United Kingdom.
A prototype is also made to verify the design attributes and to take the design study on to a next
level, computational fluid dynamics simulation is carried out on 3D model of prototype in
SolidWorks using Flow simulation module. Thermal analysis is carried out along with the heat
transfer in fluid as a result of solar radiation absorption in the collector sheet. When the solar
rays strike the collector, it starts to heat up quickly because of its higher thermal conductivity and
starts to transport from high temperature to lower temperature (collector to fluid tubes). As the
temperature of tubes rises, due to the convection heat transfer, temperature of the cold water
starts to increase and the cold fluid convert in to hot fluid as a result of heat transfer within solids
and fluid.

In this study, there are total two three types of heat transfers happening at the same moment i.e.
radiation, conduction and convection. Solar energy absorption in to the collector surface made of
aluminum and silicon carbide radiation and collector to heat pipe tubes heat transfer is simulated
as conduction by enabling the heat conduction in solids module in Solidworks. Lastly, heated
heat pipe tube walls also transfers heat in to the fluid as convection which is basic function in
computational fluid dynamics.
 Figure 12: Temperature of collector plate [degC]

During the simulation (thermal analysis), it was assumed that the solar radiations are exactly
normal to the plate surface at the time of analysis which means the power generation is also at
peak or maximum. Therefore, a uniform temperature distribution is observed throughout the
surface of the plate except the side walls where the temperature of collector surface is relatively
higher as compared to the center of the solar collector. This effect is observed due to the fact that
most of the fluid tubes are located at the center of the plate collector that is why, at the center
heat transfer is higher as compared to the sides hence temperature at the center is higher while it
is lower at the sides of the solar collector.

Figure 13: Temperature of fluid [degC]

Same behavior is observed while looking at the temperature contour of the fluid, temperature at
the center tubes is relatively lower while at the corner or side tubes heat transfer is observed to be
lower. Another interesting reason is noted here which might be a root cause for this unique
phenomenon, heat transfer is considerably lower when the fluid is going downwards in tube
because that is only area where the velocity of the fluid is higher and pressure difference can be
observed. A total of 10 degree temperature increment is observed after passing through the tubes
under absorption tube also known as thermal collector. Temperature of water at inlet is given 12
degC while at the outlet it is somewhere around 22 degC. Around 40% increase in total
temperature is observed which means with a 35% thermal efficiency and 40% temperature
increment, this design lies somewhat around 50% overall efficiency. This huge temperature
difference or thermal efficiency is achieved by this simple but a comprehensively high
performing design using same old technique of flat thermal collector and low thermal resistance
of heat pipes (Chien, K.H., Lin, Y.T., Chen, Y.R., Yang, K.S. and Wang, C.C., 2012).

Figure 3 shows combined view of temperature at thermal collector and tubes beneath the
collector. From this view it is further much cleared how the unique temperature gradient at the
solar collector is formed and how considerable temperature difference is observed over two
different but adjacent bodies. It is also noted that the heat transfer near the tube bends is
maximum because the velocity suddenly goes down and turbulence increases as a result.

Figure 14: Temperature contour [degC]

Difference in temperatures between inlet and outlet of tubes tells the success of this design itself.
 Figure 15: Pressure collector in water [Pa]

Pressure gradient along the tubes displacement can be seen in the figure 4, static pressure is
observed to be maximum at the inlet while it is minimum at the outlet of the tubes due to the fact
that hot fluid has higher kinetic energy hence moves fast. Therefore, this very little change in hot
and cold fluid velocity results in very little (negligible) change in pressure. At the outlet, velocity
is slightly increased hence pressure is slightly decreased proving the continuity equation right.

Figure 16: Heat transfer rate [W/m2]

In this view, heat flux inside the water tubes can be observed more clearly. Heat flux near the
bends is maximum and this flux value from collector to heat pipe fluid is approximately equal to
analytical value of 303 W/m2. Hence, it is concluded that the design is validated.
 Figure 17: Velocity contour of water [m/s]

Velocity magnitude is maximum at the downward direction of flow due to gravity and minimum
at the upward flow of the fluid. While velocity magnitude is almost constant at the bends of the
tubes. This same phenomenon is seen and discussed in temperature contour of figure 3.

160000

140000

120000

100000
Pressure [Pa]

80000

60000

40000

20000

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Length [m]

Figure 18: Pressure plot along length of tube [Pa]

In this plot 1, pressure magnitude along the length of tube at the center is plotted. As can be
clearly seen from the graph that the pressure is decreasing constantly from inlet to outlet.
 temperature along length of tube
25

20
Temperature [°C]

15

10

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Length [m]

Figure 19: Temperature plot along length of tube [degC]

Temperature curve along length of the tube is observed to be very interesting as heat transfer is
observed to be maximum at the upward flow of the tube while as the tube goes down with the
high temperature already, the curve becomes parabolic and eventually goes downward like it
reached its critical temperature and then suddenly temperature dropped down.

Plot 3 is drawn temperature vs diameter of tube, temperature of the side attached to the solar
collector has highest temperature while the tube wall opposite to the solar collector has lower
temperature. Temperature difference along diameter of the tube is almost constant just a fraction
of change is occurred along the diameter, hence it is proved that the heat transfer and
temperature distribution is even and uniform along the diameter and length of the pipe upon
exiting the solar PV system.
 Temperature along diameter
25

20
Temperature [°C]
15
Outlet
Inlet
10

0
0 0.0010.0020.0030.0040.0050.0060.0070.0080.009
Length [m]

Figure 20: Temperature plot along diameter of tube [degC]

 0.7

0.65

0.6
Velocity [m/s]

0.55

0.5

0.45
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Length [m]

Figure 21: Velocity plot along length of tube [m/s]

Velocity magnitude along the length of the tube is fluctuating continuously in same way in each
tube due to the fact that gravity is playing its role which increases fluid velocity downwards and
decreases when going upwards while it remains almost constant in curved bends.

Chapter 6 – Discussion and Conclusion

Given the environmental conditions of Plymouth UK (average temperature = 12.1 °C and GHI
value of 101 W/m2), the best choice is to use heat pipe based evacuated tube solar collector. The
reason for this choice is that owing to the low ambient average temperature as compared to more
hotter and humid parts of the world, conventional solar heat collectors will fail to raise
temperature to significant level. However, due to high thermal conductivity and low thermal
resistance of heat pipes, heat pipe will effectively transfer heat from solar radiation to the
working fluid. Due to the presence of heat pipe inside an evacuated tube, heat loss due to
convection will be reduced. Heat pipe will also solve the issue of overheating. Corrosion
associated with the solar collectors is also resolved as environmental elements only directly act
on glass evacuated tube. Using the flat plate solar collector, 10 degC rise in temperature is
observed hence the design under study is suitable for these specific conditions.
Future Recommendation
Many researches have been published in this field of study varying different parameters and
conditions to optimize the design applications of plate collector. Some scholars have proposed
flat plate while other proposed dish plate according to their chosen condition to attain the
maximum efficiency from optical and solar setups used in some cases and then heat exchanger
and tubes efficiency.

For this study based on UK weather conditions, heat losses are the main problem for such low
solar irradiance. This research incorporates with these heat losses in conventional tubing system
by replacing them with evacuated tube heat pipe. But, as it is understood that these heat pipes are
very expensive and not easy to replace therefore it might not be as much cost effective option for
long term usage. Although, heat pipes are made of copper and are also corrosion resistant which
offer minimum thermal resistance but due to relatively high cost, it is recommended that for
these small scale solar collectors a cheap alternative must be discovered to be used instead of
these expensive heat pipes. Future study shall incorporate with less costly tubing system along
with less heat losses due to low energy gain in these conditions.
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 Appendix
Appendix A:
Orthographic drawings of Solidworks 3D model are shown here. (a) Top view (b) side view (c)
Front view

Figure 22: Orthographic drawing of tempered glass model

Figure 23: Orthographic drawing of solar collector model
Figure 24: Orthographic drawing of insulator model
Figure 25: Orthographic drawing of heat pipe model
Figure 26: Orthographic drawing of assembly
Appendix B
Data extracted from Solidworks Flow simulation module to plot different graphs mentioned in
the results section.

Table. 7: Temperature along diameter of tube

Outlet
Length [m] Temperature [°C]
0 21.19806311

0.000105038 21.19806459

0.001477293 21.19825249

0.001934711 21.1983393

0.003306966 21.19867227

0.004 21.19886224

0.004501779 21.19899978

0.005003558 21.1991309

0.006508895 21.19944248

0.008 21.19957309

Inlet
Length [m] Temperature [°C]

0 12.37955161

0.000105038 12.37955174

0.001706002 12.37991712

0.003306966 12.38035897

0.004 12.38071122

0.004907931 12.3811727

0.006508895 12.38160755

0.00700593 12.38162497

0.008 12.38168473
Table. 8: Temperature of fluid along length of tube
Length [m] Temperature [°C]
0 21.19884954
0.313189769 20.82744989
0.626379539 20.84806206
0.939569308 20.84748137
1.252759078 20.61032702
1.565948847 20.73918844
1.879138617 20.86706934
2.192328386 20.95239341
2.505518156 21.01608047
2.818707925 21.05828263

3.131897695 21.09334353
3.445087464 21.1085027
3.758277234 21.11175182
4.071467003 21.11979346
4.384656772 21.12119345
4.697846542 21.12097822
5.011036311 20.64989575
5.324226081 20.47151949
5.63741585 20.47722794
5.95060562 20.48953965
6.263795389 20.50950462
6.576985159 20.53265504
6.890174928 20.56802609
7.203364698 20.60488829
7.516554467 20.63696737
7.829744237 20.67490913
8.142934006 20.72205948
8.456123775 20.76396138
8.769313545 20.81594772
9.082503314 20.86504301
9.395693084 20.91048196
9.708882853 20.94422132
10.02207262 20.98840567
10.33526239 21.03356856
10.64845216 21.08460293
10.96164193 21.15929657
11.2748317 21.1994992
11.58802147 21.23894615
11.90121124 21.26603765
12.21440101 20.74756643
12.52759078 20.75789756
12.84078055 20.77334467
13.15397032 20.79198425
13.46716009 20.79465459
13.78034986 20.79071848
14.09353963 20.79408342
14.4067294 20.7949118
14.71991916 20.80691822
15.03310893 20.56459516
15.3462987 20.56512388
15.65948847 20.64904473
15.97267824 20.75318284
16.28586801 20.83375415
16.59905778 20.8774499
16.91224755 20.90049301
17.22543732 20.91462752
17.53862709 20.91153911
17.85181686 20.9066679
18.16500663 20.92498612
18.4781964 20.97619448
18.79138617 21.07355606
19.10457594 20.73181216
19.41776571 20.84531878
19.73095548 20.88575191
20.04414525 20.89546461
20.35733502 20.90258647
20.67052478 20.9096802
20.98371455 20.93428488
21.29690432 20.99481472
21.61009409 21.09065702
21.92328386 21.14529121
22.23647363 20.80444659
22.5496634 20.85849003
22.86285317 20.88852665
23.17604294 20.89383702
23.48923271 20.90202616
23.80242248 20.90341402
24.11561225 20.90950323
24.42880202 20.90767178
24.74199179 20.89469374
25.05518156 20.47440998
25.36837133 20.28971355
25.6815611 20.10492456
25.99475087 19.70963071
26.30794063 19.15593967
26.6211304 18.46696632
26.93432017 17.61712752
27.24750994 16.67594301
27.56069971 15.83038665
27.87388948 15.04088085
28.18707925 14.34810143
28.50026902 13.82747305
28.81345879 13.44086112
29.12664856 13.21704249
29.43983833 13.00906704
29.7530281 12.86799234
30.06621787 12.34099534
30.37940764 12.1179314
30.69259741 12.06010274
31.00578718 12.38071122
Table. 9: Pressure along length of tube

Length [m] Pressure [Pa]

0.00254 101549.9292
0.315678456 102019.9539
0.628816913 102481.7195
0.941955369 102976.704
1.255093825 103517.479
1.568232282 104149.0154
1.881370738 104780.1417
2.194509194 105218.1771
2.507647651 105669.4662
2.820786107 106128.8152

3.133924563 106389.5159
3.44706302 106813.6089
3.760201476 107274.4376
4.073339932 107570.5182
4.386478389 107999.5854
4.699616845 108425.4326
5.012755301 108712.7424
5.325893758 109145.316
5.639032214 109594.1129
5.95217067 110040.6867
6.265309127 110313.1888
6.578447583 110733.7068
6.891586039 111178.7018
7.204724496 111450.9519
7.517862952 111944.1999
7.831001408 112450.516
8.144139865 112829.1327
8.457278321 113283.9529
8.770416777 113755.7012
9.083555234 114161.7557
9.39669369 114610.2707
9.709832146 115054.9093
10.0229706 115369.3757
10.33610906 115791.5566
10.64924752 116244.5963
10.96238597 116712.9681
11.27552443 116977.2057
11.58866288 117427.0576
11.90180134 117884.4065
12.2149398 118204.9773
12.52807825 118676.4435
12.84121671 119154.8536
13.15435517 119533.0469
13.46749362 119947.0232
13.78063208 120356.6084
14.09377053 120624.6056
14.40690899 121066.1331
14.72004745 121493.4445
15.0331859 121774.7956
15.34632436 122217.8312
15.65946282 122657.3139
15.97260127 123110.2628
16.28573973 123378.3926
16.59887819 123820.855
16.91201664 124270.237
17.2251551 124533.3501
17.53829355 124976.3447
17.85143201 125446.5554
18.16457047 125744.8017
18.47770892 126375.9602
18.79084738 127006.165
19.10398584 127656.7458
19.41712429 128283.4124
19.73026275 128904.4217
20.04340121 129402.2002
20.35653966 130021.7094
20.66967812 130631.2387
20.98281657 131284.428
21.29595503 131824.6669
21.60909349 132440.555
21.92223194 133055.649
22.2353704 133544.9856
22.54850886 134167.6406
22.86164731 134789.7568
23.17478577 135246.9297
23.48792422 135706.9692
23.80106268 136181.0214
24.11420114 136463.1174
24.42733959 136886.8278
24.74047805 137358.5198
25.05361651 137647.6989
25.36675496 138079.9002
25.67989342 138521.9685
 25.99303188 138991.4923
26.30617033 139265.2542
26.61930879 139708.6585
26.93244724 140208.9545
27.2455857 140521.7302
27.55872416 141009.5684
27.87186261 141504.4811
28.18500107 141872.0988
28.49813953 142350.356
28.81127798 142844.253
29.12441644 143184.2348
29.4375549 143747.0498
29.75069335 144329.8249
30.06383181 144818.8085
30.37697026 145356.0632
30.69010872 145898.4817
31.00324718 146530.3818

Table. 10: Velocity along length of tube

Length [m] Velocity [m/s]

0.00254 0.45988262
0.315678456 0.610791747
0.628816913 0.587122379
0.941955369 0.671581465
1.255093825 0.678675301
1.568232282 0.678656253
1.881370738 0.677510806
2.194509194 0.617979257
2.507647651 0.612407308
2.820786107 0.583787918

3.133924563 0.599710068
3.44706302 0.611478852
3.760201476 0.591003945
4.073339932 0.592547818
4.386478389 0.591387912
4.699616845 0.597475582
5.012755301 0.581507266
5.325893758 0.58682601
5.639032214 0.584052474
5.95217067 0.528420827
6.265309127 0.580142
6.578447583 0.581247855
6.891586039 0.55158658
7.204724496 0.591820267
7.517862952 0.591284446
7.831001408 0.597740809
8.144139865 0.556150429
8.457278321 0.560431765
8.770416777 0.567607627
9.083555234 0.546880904
9.39669369 0.551216663
9.709832146 0.550914348
10.0229706 0.548846454
10.33610906 0.548610012
10.64924752 0.549782123
10.96238597 0.561443699
11.27552443 0.554013075
11.58866288 0.558002483
11.90180134 0.569965357
12.2149398 0.581134259
12.52807825 0.582963243
12.84121671 0.587464288
13.15435517 0.571089693
13.46749362 0.571798144
13.78063208 0.573266459
14.09377053 0.591302194
14.40690899 0.585272753
14.72004745 0.583784331
15.0331859 0.598922703
15.34632436 0.59769693
15.65946282 0.594165701
15.97260127 0.526108518
16.28573973 0.603371755
16.59887819 0.595360335
16.91201664 0.545867377
17.2251551 0.610667273
17.53829355 0.614239053
17.85143201 0.57219664
18.16457047 0.679686614
18.47770892 0.679684777
18.79084738 0.679635664
19.10398584 0.675020647
19.41712429 0.673886405
19.73026275 0.673781705
20.04340121 0.67202135
20.35653966 0.672123704
20.66967812 0.672885256
20.98281657 0.633939709
21.29595503 0.671552886
21.60909349 0.671067111
21.92223194 0.670296236
22.2353704 0.674681698
22.54850886 0.674673806
22.86164731 0.674607142
23.17478577 0.618451051
23.48792422 0.629471539
23.80106268 0.604451054
24.11420114 0.605320591
24.42733959 0.623777498
24.74047805 0.613883914
25.05361651 0.596159348
25.36675496 0.5974351
25.67989342 0.609174075
25.99303188 0.5309822
26.30617033 0.59847843
26.61930879 0.598500755
26.93244724 0.550217027
27.2455857 0.581444422
27.55872416 0.58292799
27.87186261 0.567626292
28.18500107 0.563008664
28.49813953 0.567045388
28.81127798 0.566033085
29.12441644 0.573897725
29.4375549 0.570022556
29.75069335 0.570204152
30.06383181 0.554652342
30.37697026 0.5500857
30.69010872 0.550790786
31.00324718 0.464104554
Appendix C
Input setup of flow simulation in Solidworks

Figure 27: Setup of thermal analysis

Appendix D
3D model visuals

Figure 28: 3D model of collector