Paper Title
Thermal Performance Optimization Of A Flat Plate Solar Water Heater Collector Using Matlab
Abstract
Solar energy is becoming an alternative for the limited fossil fuel resources. One of the simplest and most direct
applications of this energy is the conversion of solar radiation into heat, which can be used in water heating systems. A
commonly used solar collector is the flat-plate. A lot of research has been conducted in order to analyze the flat-plate
operation and improve its efficiency. This study presents a one-dimensional mathematical model for simulating the transient
processes which occur in liquid flat-plate solar collectors. The proposed model simulates the complete solar collector system
including the flat-plate and the storage tank. The model considers time-dependent thermo-physical properties and heat
transfer coefficients and is based on solving equations which describe the energy conservation for the glass cover, air gap
between cover and absorber, absorber, working fluid, insulation, and the storage tank. The differential equations were solved
using the implicit finite-difference method in an iterative scheme and executed using the MATLAB. In order to verify the
proposed method, an experiment was designed and conducted for several days with variable ambient conditions and flow
rates. The comparison between the computed and measured results of the transient fluid temperature at the collector outlet
showed a satisfactory convergence. The proposed method is an appropriate for the verification of the absorber and glass
cover effectiveness, and to calculate the overall efficiency of the system along with the overall heat loss factor.