Design and Development of a High-Efficiency Solar Thermal Collector

  • Authors

    • Rahul Mehta Senior Software Engineer, Wipro Ltd., India Author
    • Priya Kapoor Business Analyst, Accenture, India Author

    DOI:

    https://doi.org/10.67228/30716357/IJMRSE-2021PI9F1M

    Published 01-03-2021

  • Solar Thermal Collector, Renewable Energy, Absorber Plate, Thermal Efficiency, Heat Transfer, Selective Coating

    Issue

    Vol. 4 No. 1 (2021)

    Section

    Articles

    How to Cite

    Design and Development of a High-Efficiency Solar Thermal Collector. (2021). International Journal of Modern Research in Science & Engineering, 4(1), 01-14. https://doi.org/10.67228/30716357/IJMRSE-2021PI9F1M

  • Abstract

    Due to its capability to effectively convert solar radiation into useful thermal energy with a high efficiency and low environmental impact, solar thermal energy has become a very important element in sustainable energy systems. Solar thermal collectors are one of the several solar thermal technologies that are important to the performance of the systems, their reliability, and economic viability. In this paper, the design and development of a high-efficiency solar thermal collector will be discussed in an attempt to enhance the thermal performance besides reducing heat losses when these collectors are irradiated in various operating conditions. The design of the proposed collector includes an optimized absorber plate design, selective surface coating, better insulation design, and better heat transfer fluid flow design. An entire framework of thermal modeling, which is built on energy balance equations, is designed to forecast collector performance. The methodology involves the choice of material, optical analysis, thermal analysis, computational analysis and experimental analysis under standard test conditions. Efficiency indicators that include instantaneous efficiency, useful heat gain, and general heat loss coefficient among others are measured and also compared with other conventional flat-plate collectors. The findings indicate that the thermal efficiency is greatly enhanced especially when the temperature range is in the medium-to-high band, and the proposed design can therefore be utilized in domestic water heating, industrial process heating, and solar-assisted power generation. It was concluded in the study that design optimization on component level in addition to better heat transfer mechanisms can significantly improve solar thermal collector efficiency and longtime operation.

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