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EFFICIENCY EVALUATION AND COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT TURBULATOR
SHAPES IN SOLAR WATER HEATING COLLECTOR SYSTEM
ROHIT KHARGOTRA
1
, SUNIL DHINGRA
2
, RANCHAN CHAUHAN
3
DEEPAK BATRA
4
& MAYANK BHARDWAJ
5
1,3,4.5
Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Shoolini University, Solan, Himachal Pradesh India
2
Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, Haryana, India
ABSTRACT
Solar flat plate collector is mostly used for the heating purposes like heating of water or any fluid and also used
for heating the space or drying purpose. The solar flat plate collector is one of the best methods for the utilization of
renewable source of energy. The main component which we use for the fabrication of solar flat plate collector is Absorber
tubes (whether it may be aluminium, copper or any other material depending upon the thermal conductivity of material),
Glazing, Insulation, wooden box or housing enclosing whole assembly. The absorber tubes used high thermal
conductivity materials made of copper material for absorbing the maximum solar radiation. The absorber sheet/plate is
also placed inside the wooden box and is coated with black paint and make it black body for the absorption of maximum
solar radiation. The glass (thickness 5mm) is also used for reducing the loss of solar radiation from the wooden box/whole
assembly. One interesting point here is that we install turbulator inside the absorber tubes for converting the laminar flow
to turbulance flow. Here we use the two turbulators, first one is coil-spring turbulator and other one is Twisted tape
turbulator. Now vary the length and twist/turn of turbulator and is installed in the absorber tubes for destructing the
boundary layer inside the tubes. The objective of the present study is to evaluate the performance of flat plate collector
with different geometric absorber configuration. It is expected that with the same collector space higher thermal
efficiency or higher water temperature can be obtained. A testing setup is fabricated and performing the experiment
taking a different parameter to study the heat enhancement of flat plate collector.
KEYWORDS: Flat Collector, Solar Energy, Renewable Energy & Natural Circulation
Received: Dec 02, 2017; Accepted: Dec 22, 2017; Published: Jan 19, 2018; Paper Id.: IJMPERDFEB201876
INTRODUCTION
Solar energy is one of the most renewable energies available at no cost. Solar radiation falls on the surface
of earth and can be used for the benefit of human resources. One of the most popular devices called a solar water
heater, which also works by utilization of solar energy. There are many types of equipment which are used for
replenishment of solar energy; solar water is one of them. In a single family 20% of electricity is consumed for
heating water that is very expensive. In industries, cost of heating water is very high that too is done by burning
fossil fuels which lead to a man cause of environmental pollution. Then solar water heater is a best alternate for
heating water and producing steam. Although its initial cost is very high, but that gets negotiated with them.
Solar radiation falls on flat plate collector which converts solar energy into heat that can be used for
heating water up to 60 to 70 degree. Solar water heater is very effective in developing countries like India as we
borrow fossil fuels from gulf countries which prove very costly. In industries huge solar heater can be installed for
Original Article
International Journal of Mechanical and Production
Engineering Research and Development (IJMPERD)
ISSN (P): 2249-6890; ISSN (E): 2249-8001
Vol. 8, Issue 1, Feb 2018, 697-702
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