Solar thermal

systems
Solar thermal systems
Introduction
• Sun is the source of all energy sources.
• In sun the energy produced by thermonuclear fusion reaction.
• The energy produced & radiated by the sun that reaches the earth is called as
“solar energy.”
• It is received in the form of radiation

• Drawbacks-
• 1. intermittent & variable
• 2. large area required to collect the energy
Structure of sun
• Radius – 695,800 km
• Estimated values of temperature –
• 1. inner most core - 8 x 106 k to 40 x 106 k
• 2. outer surface – 5762 k

• Estimated values of density –

• 1. inner most point – 105 kg/m3
• 2. outer most point - 10-6 kg/m3
• 1. core –
• Source of all suns energy
• Energy production rate is almost constant
• Temp. – 8 to 40 million K.
• Most of the matter available in PLASMA state.

• 2. Radiation zone –
• Energy produced in the core transmitted towards this region through
radiation
• Temp. - 1.3 x 105 K
• Density - 7 x 104 kg/m3
• Radiation takes place through intact atoms
• It is absorbed by one atom & radiated to next atom
• This process of heat transfer is very low
• It takes 1,70,000 years for the radiation to finally come out of
the radiation zone
• 3. Convection zone –
• Temp. – 7000K
• Density - 10-5 kg/m3
• since there is low temp. , density & also temp. difference between
radiation & conduction zone. Thus the heat transfers in the form of
convection.
• Heated atoms are light they goes up & cooler atoms goes down
• This is totally in plasma state
• Also sunspot activity occurs due to convection.
Sunspot
• 4. photosphere –
• It is visible sphere of sun (surface of sun)
• No solid surface but thick layer of gasses makes impossible to see
through after certain depth
• Temp. – 5800K
• 5. Reversing layer –
• Temp. starts rising.
• This region extends several hundred kilometres
• Temp. again starts rising in this region hence it is called as “reversing
layer”
• 6. Chromosphere –
• About 2000 km in thickness & reddish colour
• Hydrogen atoms of this layer absorbs the energy emitted by
photosphere & emits them again as red light

• 7. Transition layer –
• Thin layer about 200 km in thickness
• Temp. of outermost surface of chromosphere is 20000K from this temp.
suddenly rises to about 2 million K.
• 8. Corona –
• Outer most layer of sun
• Temp. - 2 x 106 K
• Source of extreme UV rays & X-rays radiation
• 9. Solar prominence –
• A prominence is a large, bright, gaseous feature extending outward
from the Sun's surface, often in a loop shape. Prominences are
anchored to the Sun's surface in the photosphere, and extend
outwards into the Sun's corona.
Composition of sun
Sun-Earth Relationship
• Sun is located at a mean astronomical distance of 149,600,000 km
from earth.
• but because of eccentricity of earth the distance varies by 1.7%
• At this distance an angle of 32’ on earth.
Solar potential
• Nearly 174 PW (petawatts) of energy comes in from solar radiation
on earth surface (1 PW = 1015 W)
• Almost 1/3rd is reflected back to space
• The rest 3,850,000 exajoules (EJ) every year absorbed by earth
surface (1 EJ = 1018 J)
• Here are some other interesting solar comparison –
• 1. one year worth of solar energy reaching the surface of earth would
be twice that of the amount energy produced by all non-conventional
resource. (fossil fuels, uranium)
• 2. the solar energy hits the earth surface in every second is equivalent
to 4 trillion 100 watts bulb.
• 3. the solar energy hits one square mile in a year is equivalent to 4
million barrels of oil
• 4. in 6 months of sunlight produces the same amount of energy as all
available resources extracted from earth.
• 5. in 1 hour of sunlight produces the more energy than world would
use in 1 year.
• But unfortunately 100% utilization of solar energy is not possible
because –
• It affected by weather
• Affected by day-night cycle
• Large area required to produce energy
• Cost of equipment's of solar energy conversion is high
Solar radiation spectrum
• Suns radiation consists of a range of wavelengths. This is called
“spectrum of solar radiation.”
• The intensity of each wavelength is different
• Following graph is plotted against the intensity Vs. wavelength
• Spectrum of sun radiation is close to that of black body with temp. of
5800k
• Sun emits electromagnetic radiations
• Although, it emits “gamma rays”
• Sun does also emits X-rays, UV rays, visible light, infrared rays even radio
waves
• The electromagnetic spectrum striking earth surface in a range of 100nm
to 1mm.
• This band of radiation spectrum is divided into five regions in increasing
order of wavelength as follows -
• 1. Ultraviolet C or UVC –
• Range – 100 to 280nm
• Very little amount is reached as it is absorbed by atmosphere

• 2. Ultraviolet B or UVB –
• Range – 280 to 315 nm
• Also greatly absorbed by atmosphere
• 3. Ultraviolet A or UVA –
• Range – 315 to 400nm

• 4. Visible range or light –

• Range – 380 to 780 nm
• Visible by naked eye
• 5. Infrared –
• Range – 700 nm to 1,000,000 nm (1 mm)
• Further classified as-
1. Infrared A – 700 nm to 1400 nm
2. Infrared B – 1400 nm to 3000 nm
3. Infrared C – 3000 nm to 1 mm
• Percentage composition of spectrum is –
• Ultraviolet light(invisible range) – 8%
• Visible light – 46%
• Infrared light(invisible range) – 46%
Solar constant
• Radius of sun – 695,800 km
• Earth diameter – 1.27 x 104 km
• Mean distance between sun & earth - 149,600,000 km
• At this distance an angle of 32’ on earth.
• Thus beam radiations received from the sun on the earth surface is almost
parallel
• It reaches to earth purely by radiations only.
• By applying heat transfer relations & geometrical shape, the average
radiation from sun reaching the earth could be worked out. This is called as
“solar constant”.
• Definition – solar constant is defined as the energy received from the
sun per unit time on a unit area of surfaces , perpendicular to the
direction of propagation of the radiation at the earth mean distance
from sun outside the atmosphere.
• It is denoted by Isc
• the standard value of Isc is 1353 w/m2
• This value is discovered by National Aeronautics & Space
Administration (NASA)
• World Radiation Centre (WRC) is 1367 w/m2
Variation of solar constant
• The
  solar constant varies with time of the year
• As earth closet to the sun in the summer & farthest away from the sun
in winter & also variations in radiations reaching on earth surface
• An approximate equation relating the variation of sinusoidal solar
constant with time of year is as given below –
•=
• Where,
• = actual sinusoidal radiation measured on the plane normal to the radiation
• = solar constant
• n = day of the year
Suns radiations
• The
  radiated beam reaching on earth is of two types –
• 1. Beam radiation/direct radiation –
• Sun rays travel in straight parallel lines.
• These are received at earth surface without any change in direction.
• 2. Diffuse radiation/scattered radiations –
• There is a phenomenon of absorption & scattering due to earths atmosphere
• Due to water vapour, ozone & gasses like ,
• Part of this radiations reaches earth surface & Some part are goes back into
space.
• 3. Global radiation –
• Global radiations = Beam radiations + Diffused radiations
• The radiation received by a collector surface are always global
radiations.
•  4. Air mass –
• A term called as “air mass(AM)” is the distance travelled by beam
radiation through the atmosphere before reaches any location on the
earth surface.

• Air mass =
• Value of Air mass for –
• A) for extra-terrestrial radiations = 0
• B) In case sun is at Zenith = 1
• C) In case for zenith angle of 60◦ air mass = 2
 Solar radiation geometry or
basic sun-earth angles
•• Following angles are used in solar radiation analysis-
 
• Latitude of location ( ɸl )
• Declination angle (δ)
• Hour angle (ω)
• Altitude angle (α)
• Zenith angle (θz)
• Sunrise/sunset hour angle (ωs)
• Solar azimuth angle (γ0)
• Slope or Tilt angle (s)
• Angle of incidence (θ)
• surface azimuth angle (γ)
• Day length ()
• Local solar time (LST)
1. Angle of latitude ( ɸl )

•  Angle made by the radial line joining the location to the centre of
earth & its projection on an equatorial plane.
• In fig. angle made by “OP” & the projection of “OP’ ” on the
equatorial plane.
• Where,
• Point P = location on earth
• Point O = centre of earth
• It is for a point on equator
• It is for a point on poles
•  When the point is North of equator the angle is positive.
• When the point is south of equator the angle is negative.
• These are represented by or
2. Declination angle (δ)

•  It is the angle between a line extending from the centre of the sun to
the centre of the earth & the projection of this line upon the earths
equatorial plane.
• Due to inclination of earth axis the line joining sun & earth will not lie
on the equatorial plane.
• It varies throughout the year from
• Declination has two max. values
• on June 21
• on Dec 21
•  Declination has two zero values on Sept 22 & march 22.
• This is called as “Equinoxes”. (meaning equal days)
• During equinoxes line joining the centres of earth & sun lie on the
equatorial plane.
• The relationship between δ with the day of the could be
mathematically expressed as,
• δ=
• Where, n= day of the year
3. Hour angle (ω)

•  It represents the angle through which the earth must rotate so that
the meridian at a point comes into alignment with suns rays.
• In other words, it is the angle representing the position of the sun
with respect to clock hour & with reference to suns position at 12
noon.
• It is measured from noon based on local solar time (LST) or local
apparent time.
• It is a constant & equal to
Prime meridian
4. Altitude angle or Solar altitude angle (α)

• Horizontal plane drawn at any place on earth

• Sun moves East to West direction along path has shown
• The path followed by sun projection on the horizontal plane is marked
• This is the angle between the line joining the sun rays & the centre of
the horizontal plane & projection on the horizontal plane
• At sunrise & sunset altitude angle is zero
5. Zenith angle (θz)

•  It is the complimentary angle of suns altitude angle

• It is a vertical angle between the suns rays & a line perpendicular to
the horizontal plane through the point. i.e. angle between the beam
from the sun & the vertical.

• θz

• At sunrise zenith angle is +90◦ & sunset the zenith angle is -90◦
6. Sunrise/sunset hour angle (ωs)
•  The hour angle corresponding to sunrise & sunset on a horizontal
surface is called as sunrise & sunset angles.
• It depends on altitude & declination at the respective place.
• It is given by equation,
7. Solar azimuth angle (γ0)

It is the horizontal angle measured on the plane from north to the

projection of the sun rays on this plane.
8. Slope or Tilt angle (s)
• The angle made by the plane surface with the horizontal.
• This angle is very important because most of the solar devices are
generally inclined to the horizontal surface doing operation.
• It is taken as –
• Positive – for surface slopping towards the South
• Negative – for surface slopping towards the North
9. Angle of incidence (θ)
• It represents the angle between sun rays & a line perpendicular to the
surface.