Abstract
Conventional flat plate collectors makes use of a large amount of metals such as Copper, Aluminium and Galvanised iron or steel for the collection and transport of solar thermal energy for useful heat gain. Studies on the energy inputs required for the production of these different materials indicate that a large amount of fossil fuel energy is required for their production at different stages. Absorber plate for conventional FPC requires comparatively more metal when compared to other parts of the system. In the present paper it is replaced using cheap material such as concrete reinforced with waste metal fibres. Three metal fibres namely copper (Cu), mild steel (MS) and aluminium (Al) of average size 3 mm have been added with volume fraction varying from 0.0011 to 0.0068. Thermal conductivity of the metal fibre reinforced concrete increase more significantly with addition of copper, when compared to MS and Al. Plate thickness of 25 mm has been fixed based on collector efficiency factor analysis for flat plate collector of size 2 m x 1 m. Experiments conducted revealed that hot water at 50-60oC at 60 kg/hr with daily average efficiency of 55 – 65 % can be supplied from FPC in winter season.
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