Abstract
Various studies to improve the thermal performance of flat plate solar collector (FPSC) solar water heater have been conducted, and more are currently in progress. This study aims to review existing methods on thermal performance enhancement for FPSC and discuss on heat-transfer enhancement using vibration and its potential application for FPSC. Ten methods for improving thermal performance are identified, which include applications of nanofluids, absorber coatings, phase change materials (PCM), thermal performance enhancers, FPSC design modifications, polymer materials, heat loss reduction, mini and micro channel and heat-transfer enhancement using vibration. An examination of heat-transfer enhancement using vibration in low frequency ranges for an evacuated-tube solar collector (ETSC) solar water heater system showed that it can potentially achieve heat-transfer enhancement of up to 78%. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of research on the applications of heat-transfer enhancement using vibration on FPSC to date.
Highlights
Demand for renewable energy such as solar energy has grown steadily due to increasing trend in global energy consumption and depletion of fossil-fuel sources [1,2,3]
Solar collectors are mainly classified into flat plate solar collectors (FPSC), photovoltaic thermal hybrids (HPV/T), evacuated-tube solar collectors (ETSC) and compound parabolic solar collectors (CPSC)
The results showed that absorber coating can enhance thermal performance and reduce the risk of collector overheating during stagnation period, i.e., summer
Summary
Demand for renewable energy such as solar energy has grown steadily due to increasing trend in global energy consumption and depletion of fossil-fuel sources [1,2,3]. One of the most well-known and common applications of solar energy is the solar water heater (SWH) system, due to its viability and economics advantages. Solar collectors are mainly classified into flat plate solar collectors (FPSC), photovoltaic thermal hybrids (HPV/T), evacuated-tube solar collectors (ETSC) and compound parabolic solar collectors (CPSC). They can be further categorized into tracking and non-tracking collectors [4]. Despite having many other new solar collector systems, the favored method in harvesting sunlight as heating sources for heated fluid for household applications is either using low-temperature solar thermal technology or photovoltaic (PV) technology [5,6,7,8]. The electrical efficiency of the system decreases rapidly as the PV module temperature increases [5]
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