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Investigation of Thermosiphoning Operation in Compound Parabolic Concentrating Solar Collector Integrated With Evacuated Flow Through Receiver

Although there are numerous studies to evaluate the performance of various designs of CPCs, there are very few papers to investigate the performance of a CPC collector in a tropical rainforest environment, such as the one experienced in Malaysia, where the proportion of diffuse solar radiation is hi...

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Main Author: Francis Xavier, Jeffry Christopher
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: 2018
Online Access:http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/19230/1/Finalised%20Thesis_19879.pdf
http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/19230/
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spelling my-utp-utpedia.192302019-06-20T08:32:16Z http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/19230/ Investigation of Thermosiphoning Operation in Compound Parabolic Concentrating Solar Collector Integrated With Evacuated Flow Through Receiver Francis Xavier, Jeffry Christopher Although there are numerous studies to evaluate the performance of various designs of CPCs, there are very few papers to investigate the performance of a CPC collector in a tropical rainforest environment, such as the one experienced in Malaysia, where the proportion of diffuse solar radiation is high. Also, another motivation for this research is the lack of research on the incorporation of thermosiphoning as the propulsion energy for the working fluid of CPC collectors. Hence, this study aims to experimentally investigate the performance of a CPC collector in the tropical rainforest climate of Malaysia and the feasibility of using thermosiphoning as the propulsion energy of its working fluid. To achieve these objectives, an experimental test rig of the CPC collector, consisting of 3 evacuated flow through absorbers was set up at the Solar Research site of Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia. The performance of the CPC collector using Therminol-55 oil as the working fluid and the feasibility of employing thermosiphoning as the propulsion energy of its working fluid were determined by recording and analysing various parameters related to heat transfer. From the experimentation, it was determined that the concept of thermosiphoning was feasible to be employed in a CPC collector. Also, the oil outlet temperature in the CPC collector went up to 87.3°C on a day with low intensity of solar radiation and up to 132.7°C on a day with high intensity of solar radiation. Thus, the data collected suggested that the CPC collector can function effectively in the tropical rainforest climate of Malaysia. The expected thermal efficiency of the CPC collector is around 25% and the low efficiency is attributed to the high gap losses in the absorber tube. In addition, a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model was also developed for a single evacuated absorber tube of the CPC. The variation of the oil’s outlet temperature against time generated by the CFD simulation was comparable with the experimental data with Mean Absolute Percentage Error of 6.09 % and thus, the model was validated to estimate the oil temperature in the absorber tubes provided that the radiation data for a particular day is given as the input. 2018-01 Final Year Project NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/19230/1/Finalised%20Thesis_19879.pdf Francis Xavier, Jeffry Christopher (2018) Investigation of Thermosiphoning Operation in Compound Parabolic Concentrating Solar Collector Integrated With Evacuated Flow Through Receiver. UNSPECIFIED.
institution Universiti Teknologi Petronas
building UTP Resource Centre
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Teknologi Petronas
content_source UTP Electronic and Digitized Intellectual Asset
url_provider http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/
language English
description Although there are numerous studies to evaluate the performance of various designs of CPCs, there are very few papers to investigate the performance of a CPC collector in a tropical rainforest environment, such as the one experienced in Malaysia, where the proportion of diffuse solar radiation is high. Also, another motivation for this research is the lack of research on the incorporation of thermosiphoning as the propulsion energy for the working fluid of CPC collectors. Hence, this study aims to experimentally investigate the performance of a CPC collector in the tropical rainforest climate of Malaysia and the feasibility of using thermosiphoning as the propulsion energy of its working fluid. To achieve these objectives, an experimental test rig of the CPC collector, consisting of 3 evacuated flow through absorbers was set up at the Solar Research site of Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia. The performance of the CPC collector using Therminol-55 oil as the working fluid and the feasibility of employing thermosiphoning as the propulsion energy of its working fluid were determined by recording and analysing various parameters related to heat transfer. From the experimentation, it was determined that the concept of thermosiphoning was feasible to be employed in a CPC collector. Also, the oil outlet temperature in the CPC collector went up to 87.3°C on a day with low intensity of solar radiation and up to 132.7°C on a day with high intensity of solar radiation. Thus, the data collected suggested that the CPC collector can function effectively in the tropical rainforest climate of Malaysia. The expected thermal efficiency of the CPC collector is around 25% and the low efficiency is attributed to the high gap losses in the absorber tube. In addition, a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model was also developed for a single evacuated absorber tube of the CPC. The variation of the oil’s outlet temperature against time generated by the CFD simulation was comparable with the experimental data with Mean Absolute Percentage Error of 6.09 % and thus, the model was validated to estimate the oil temperature in the absorber tubes provided that the radiation data for a particular day is given as the input.
format Final Year Project
author Francis Xavier, Jeffry Christopher
spellingShingle Francis Xavier, Jeffry Christopher
Investigation of Thermosiphoning Operation in Compound Parabolic Concentrating Solar Collector Integrated With Evacuated Flow Through Receiver
author_facet Francis Xavier, Jeffry Christopher
author_sort Francis Xavier, Jeffry Christopher
title Investigation of Thermosiphoning Operation in Compound Parabolic Concentrating Solar Collector Integrated With Evacuated Flow Through Receiver
title_short Investigation of Thermosiphoning Operation in Compound Parabolic Concentrating Solar Collector Integrated With Evacuated Flow Through Receiver
title_full Investigation of Thermosiphoning Operation in Compound Parabolic Concentrating Solar Collector Integrated With Evacuated Flow Through Receiver
title_fullStr Investigation of Thermosiphoning Operation in Compound Parabolic Concentrating Solar Collector Integrated With Evacuated Flow Through Receiver
title_full_unstemmed Investigation of Thermosiphoning Operation in Compound Parabolic Concentrating Solar Collector Integrated With Evacuated Flow Through Receiver
title_sort investigation of thermosiphoning operation in compound parabolic concentrating solar collector integrated with evacuated flow through receiver
publishDate 2018
url http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/19230/1/Finalised%20Thesis_19879.pdf
http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/19230/
_version_ 1739832605603266560
score 13.211869

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