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CONV-09. Proceedings of International Symposium on Convective Heat and Mass Transfer in Sustainable Energy
April 26 - May 1, 2009, Hammamet, Tunisia

DOI: 10.1615/ICHMT.2009.CONV


ISBN Print: 978-1-56700-261-4

ISSN Online: 2642-3499

ISSN Flash Drive: 2642-3502

THEORICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF A WATER PHASE CHANGE SOLAR COLLECTOR

page 12
DOI: 10.1615/ICHMT.2009.CONV.890
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ABSTRACT

This work presents the theoretical and experimental study of a water-phase change solar collector. This solar collector is formed of two contiguous sections of which one is filled with paraffin (40−42) °C and the other of water, this type of solar collector uses the combined storage heat by water and paraffin. With a low thermal conductivity, the performances of solid paraffin are improved considerably by its semi-transparency in the vicinity of the melting point(40−42) °C, it becomes transparent in liquid phase and while becoming solid during the night, it limits the thermal losses of stored water, thus water is preserved at the melting point of paraffin (40−42) °C. The experimental results show that the average water temperature reached 48 °C at 5 pm and the thermal efficiency is found to get up 50 % during four operating hours. A one dimensioned mathematical model based on the enthalpy formulation is applied to the system. It correctly describes the performance of the solar collector by predicting the changes of the temperature in paraffin and stored water. This model holds account of the natural convection in molten paraffin. A water phase change solar collector has a rate of recovery of about 10 % to 50 % which is higher than that of a slab of about 10 % to 15 %.

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