DESIGN, SIMULATION, CONSTRUCTION AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A THERMOSYPHON SOLAR WATER HEATER

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Mechanical Engineering Department

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ABSTRACT

A thermosyphon solar water heating system which captures and utilises the abundant solar

energy to provide domestic hot water was designed, simulated, constructed and tested. The

system was designed to supply a daily hot water capacity of 0.1m3

at a minimum temperature of

70o

C for domestic use. The design approach was in three parts; firstly, since solar radiation and

weather data which are driving function for solar systems design vary randomly with time, the

monthly average daily solar radiation and weather data obtained from the typical meteorological

year (TMY) solar data of Zaria were used to determine the design month as the month (August)

with the least monthly average daily solar energy ratio. Solar radiation and weather data of the

design month were used to design the system. Secondly, the design month solar radiations and

weather data were used as input into the design equations coded using MATLAB programming

language to determine the system characteristic and components sizes. A parametric study was

also carried out to study the effects and sensitivity of varying some design parameters such as

number of glass covers , collector tube centre to centre distance W, absorber plate thickness

, collector tube internal diameter and collector tilt angle on the design objective function

(the heat removal factor ). Thirdly, based on the values of the system characteristics and

components sizes obtained from the design calculations and the parametric study, a model for the

performance simulation of the system was formulated using the Transient System Simulation

(TRNSYS) software. This model was used to predict the annual hourly performance of the

system for recommended average day of the months using the TMY solar radiation and weather

data of Zaria as input function. The system was then constructed based on the component sizes

adopted for the simulation owing to the satisfactory performance of the system as revealed from

the simulated results. To validate the simulated system performance, system performance tests

were conducted for 3 days and the results were compared with the simulated results. The root

mean square error (RMSE) and the Nash-Sutcliffe Coefficient of Efficiency (NSE) statistical

tools were used to analyse the experimental and simulated results in order to validate the

predictive power of the software. The results of this research led to the conclusion that a

thermosyphon solar system with collector area of 2.24 m2

operated under the weather condition

of Zaria, would be capable of supplying a daily domestic water of 0.1m3

at temperature ranging

from 59o

C for the worst month (August) to 81o

C for the best month (April).The computed Nash-

Sutcliffe Coefficient of Efficiency (NSE) values of 0.663, 0.956 and 0.885 and the low RMSE

values of 8.09o

C, 3.65o

C and 5.31o

C between the modeled tank inlet temperature and the

observed tank inlet temperature for the three days tests conducted indicated that the model

formulated using TRNSYS software was valid and closely agreed, capable of predicting the

performance of the system with a 66.3 %, 95.6% and 88.5 % degree of accuracy for the 3 days

that the experiments were conducted respectively.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ..i

Declaration - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ..ii

Certification - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - .. ..iii

Dedication- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - .. ..iv

Acknowledgements - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ..v

Abstract - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ..vi

Table of Contents- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - viii

List of Figures - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ,- . xii

List of Tables - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - .xv

List of Appendices - - - - - - - - - - - - - - xvi

Nomenclature - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ..xvii

Abbreviation- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - .xxii

1.0 INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1

1.1 Background of the Study - - - - - - - - - - - - .. ..1

1.2 Statement of the Problem. - - - - - - - - - - .- - 3

1.3 The Present Research - - - - - - - - - - - - - ..4

1.4 Aim and Objectives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ..5

1.5 Significance of Research - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - .5

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW - - - - - - - - - - - - 6

2.1 Solar Potential and Resources of a Location - - - - - - - - - .6

2.2 Solar Water Heating Systems - - - - - - - - - - - . ..7

2.2.1 Direct open-loop hot water system - - - - - - - - - - - . ..7

2.2.2 Indirect hot water system - - - - - - - - - - - - ..9

2.3 Solar collector- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - .10

2.3.1 Selective surfaces - - - - - - - - - - - - - - .12

2.3.2 Collector covers- - - - - - - - - - - - - .. 13

2.4 Thermosyphon System - - - - - - - - - - - - 14

2.5 Sizing a Solar Hot Water System- - - - - - - - . - - 15

2.6 Collector Orientation - - - - - - - - - - - - - ..16

2.7 Solar Water Heating System Applications - - - - - - - . - - 17

2.7.1 Service hot water - - - - - - - - - - - - - . 17

2.7.2 Swimming pools - - - - - - - - - - - - - .. 18

2.8 Solar Water Heating System Load - - - - - - - - - - . 19

2.8.1 Average daily hot water consumption and load profile - - - - - - 19

2.8. 2 Hot water load profile - - - - - - - - - - - - 19

2.9 Review of Related Work- - - - - - - - - - - - - 20

2.10 Theoretical Background - - - - - - - - - - - - 24

2.

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