Natural convection heat exchangers for solar water heating systems. Technical progress report, December 31, 1995--January 31, 1996

Abstract

The goals of this project are: (1) to develop guidelines for the design and use of thermosyphon side-arm heat exchangers in solar domestic water heating systems, and (2) to establish appropriate modeling and testing criteria for evaluating the performance of systems using this type of heat exchanger. The tasks for the project are as follows: (1) Develop a model of the thermal performance of thermosyphon heat exchangers in solar water heating applications. A test protocol will be developed which minimizes the number of tests required to adequately account for mixed convection effects. The TRNSYS component model will be fully integrated in a system component model and will use data acquired with the specified test protocol. (2) Conduct a fundamental study to establish friction and heat transfer correlations for conditions and geometries typical of thermosyphon heat exchangers in solar systems. Data will be obtained as a function of a buoyancy parameter based on Grashof and Reynolds numbers. The experimental domain will encompass the ranges expected in solar water heating systems.