Experimental study of a large scale flat plate solar collector with continuous serpentine tubing configuration for building integration
Authors: Wen, Z., Khan, Z. and Camfield, T.
Journal: Energy for Sustainable Development
ISSN: 0973-0826
Abstract:The majority of commercially available solar heat collectors are placed on rooftops as frame-mounted or frame-supported installations without fully utilising the roof area at the same time intruding aesthetics of buildings. Integrating solar heat collector with building envelope is a cost effective approach to create energy-generating buildings at the same time maintaining their architectural values. In this paper, a large scale flat plate solar collector (LSFPSC) with serpentine tubing that utilised metal roof sheets as absorber was studied experimentally with/without glazing to assess its steady state performances. The continuous serpentine tubing underneath the absorber eliminates the presence of welded and fitted joints that are prone to leaks, which greatly enhance the system reliability. The experimental results were employed to validate predictive models for studying the effects of important conditional parameters including specific mass flow rate, wind speed and aperture areas with respects to the length and number of serpentine tubing segments. Five locations across a range of latitudes with diversified solar irradiances, wind speed and ambient temperatures were selected for estimating the monthly and yearly performance of the LSFPSC. These five locations are: Kisangani, New Delhi, Madrid, London and Bechar. The estimation results showed that the glazed LSFPSC is capable of producing good performance in all five locations while the unglazed configuration is heavily seasonal dependent. Both the experimental and predictive results showed great potential of the LSFPSC as an economical renewable energy solution that can be integrated with residential, commercial and industrial building envelope for a wide range of applications across different regions around the world.
http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy-for-sustainable-development/
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