Effects of various parameters on thermal performance of a SWHS-LHS system: A numerical study

摘要

A solar water heater (SWH) system integrated with latent heat storage (LHS) unit was presented and the effects of various design and operating parameters on the thermal performance of the novel SWH-LHS system were numerically studied in this article. The numerical results showed that the thinner the LHS panel, the shorter melting/solidification time and the higher thermal storage capacity. The increase in inlet water flow velocity results in a shorter melting/solidification time. However, once the flow velocity exceeds 0.03 m/s (0.0984ft/s) during the charging period or exceeds 0.01 m/s (0.0328ft/s) during the discharging period, it has little impact on the thermal performance of the SWH-LHS system. In addition, a high latent heat capacity is recommended to maximize the thermal performance of the proposed system.