THERMAL SCIENCE

International Scientific Journal

Chika Ogbonna Chima Oko

,

Stefen Ndubuisi Nnamchi

HEAT TRANSFER IN A LOW LATITUDE FLAT-PLATE SOLAR COLLECTOR

ABSTRACT
Study of rate of heat transfer in a flat-plate solar collector is the main subject of this paper. Measurements of collector and working fluid temperatures were carried out for one year covering the harmattan and rainy seasons in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, which is situated at the latitude of 4.858oN and longitude of 8.372oE. Energy balance equations for heat exchanger were employed to develop a mathematical model which relates the working fluid temperature with the vital collector geometric and physical design parameters. The exit fluid temperature was used to compute the rate of heat transfer to the working fluid and the efficiency of the transfer. The optimum fluid temperatures obtained for the harmattan, rainy and yearly (or combined) seasons were: 317.4, 314.9 and 316.2 [K], respectively. The corresponding insolation utilized were: 83.23, 76.61 and 79.92 [W/m2], respectively, with the corresponding mean collector efficiency of 0.190, 0.205 and 0.197 [-], respectively. The working fluid flowrate, the collector length and the range of time that gave rise to maximum results were: 0.0093 [kg/s], 2.0 [m] and 12PM - 13.00PM, respectively. There was good agreement between the computed and the measured working fluid temperatures. The results obtained are useful for the optimal design of the solar collector and its operations.
KEYWORDS
heat transfer, insolation, efficiency, low latitude, flat-plate solar collector and working fluid
PAPER SUBMITTED: 2010-04-19
PAPER REVISED: 2010-06-30
PAPER ACCEPTED: 2010-08-04
DOI REFERENCE: https://doi.org/10.2298/TSCI100419075O
CITATION EXPORT: view in browser or download as text file
THERMAL SCIENCE YEAR 2012, VOLUME 16, ISSUE Issue 2, PAGES [583 - 591]
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Heat transfer in a low latitude flat-plate solar collector

© 2024 Society of Thermal Engineers of Serbia. Published by the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International licence