SOLAR WATER HEATER COLLECTOR TUBE OPTIMIZED PERMORMANCE ANALYSIS

Abstract

The use of solar energy is increasing rapidly in both industrial and domestic purposes and one of its useful purpose is production of hot water with the help of solar water heater ,wh i c h plays an important role in energy conservation. By ut i l iz ing t he so la r ene r gy ins t ead o f t he usua l e le ct r ic a l e ne r gy t he co st a s we l l a s e le c t r ic ene r gy c an be s aved and a lso its efficiency is comparatively more than the electrical energy conversion. Due to this advantages its implementation is rapidly increasing in domestic. Solar water heater is a very simple device and efficient way to absorb energy from the sun rays and use it. Therefore improvement in their operating condition & geometrical would definitely result in saving conventional fuel and cost. The objective of this study is to suit the best collector tubes design and also to validate the mass flow rate of water inside the collector tube in an natural circulation solar water heater system. The existing solar water heating systems the optimum mass flow rate is 0.1 kg / m2 with circular shape as the collector tube. For this purpose an analysis has been carried out in Ansys fluent software and the results shows that the maximum mass flow rate inside the collector tube is 0.6 kg / m2 ,dynamic pressure of 4.30×105 Pa , flow velocity of 5.91×105 l/m2 & relative temperature of 367° K. for triangle shape collector tube groove.