TAPER SQUARE HEADER PIPES FOR FLAT PLATE SOLAR COLLECTOR TO IMPROVE FLOW DISTRIBUTION AND WATER HEATING EFFICIENCY

摘要

The emerging trends of Solar power has become a source of renewable energy and solar energy applications should be enhanced. The flat plate solar collector (FPSC) is mechanically and technically simpler than the evacuated tube solar collector in transforming solar radiant energy into heating a passing fluid. Solar water heating system was a practical application to replace the using of electrical water heater. In the proposed work an attempt has been made to compare the flow maldistribution for two set of cases namely Circular header and Square header (tapper) with Riser tubes of E-I, E-H, E-III .The riser tube in the flat plate collector and headers pipes are preferred as copper material .The newly designed flat plate solar water heaters were studied using commercially available software C.F.D Fluent 6.3.26 Version. The results reveal that proposed new design attaining improved flow maldistribution for E-II case has very good flow maldistribution for Square header with tapper.