Flat Plate Research Articles

Towards a Reduction of Emissions and Cost-Savings in Homes: Techno-Economic and Environmental Impact of Two Different Solar Water Heaters

South Africa currently has the highest carbon emission intensity per kilowatt of electricity generation globally, and its government intends to reduce it. Some of the measures taken by the government include a reduction of emissions in the building sector using solar water heating (SWH) systems. However, there is currently no study in the country that comprehensively assesses the technical, economic, and environmental impact of SWH systems across the country. This study therefore used the System Advisor Model (SAM) to model two different technologies of SWH systems (i.e., flat plate (FPC) and evacuated tube (EPC) SWH) at five different locations (i.e., Pretoria, Upington, Kimberley, Durban, and Cape Town) strategically selected across the country. According to the study, the optimum azimuth for both the evacuated tube and flat plate SWH system in South Africa is 0o. Installing FPC and EPC at the different locations would yield payback periods of 3.2 to 4.4 years and 3.5 to 4.3 years, respectively. Comparably, levelized cost of energy for the FPC and EPC will range from 7.47 to 9.62 cents/kWh and 7.66 to 9.24 cents/kWh, respectively, based on where the SWH system is located. Depending on where the facility is located, the annual cost savings for the FPC system would be between $486 and $625, while the EPC system would save between $529 and $638. Using SWHs can reduce CO2 emissions by 75%–77% for the evacuated tube system and 69%–76% for the flat plate system annually, depending on the location.

Experimentally thermal management of low-concentrated photovoltaic via new configurations of dimple/trapezoidal heat spreaders of different sizes

ABSTRACT This study experimentally investigates the influence of dimple (DHS), flat plate (FHS), and trapezoidal heat spreader (THS) cooling systems on thermal regulation of low concentrated solar cell (LCPV). It is performed at 1.5 and 2 HS/PV area ratio and HS thicknesses 1 and 2 cm under 3100 W/m2 solar irradiance. Results reveal that using DHS outperforms other cooling systems in terms of cell temperature and electric performance. Increasing HS area ratio and thickness significantly enhances PV performance. DHS, PHS, and THS achieve maximum PV temperature reduction of 44.4, 43.2, and 41°C and PV efficiency improvement of 16.89%, 14.87%, and 13.9%, respectively.

Second-order water wave properties over Roseau’s three-parameter bottom topography

Summary In his book Asymptotic Wave Theory (North-Holland 1976), Roseau develops the only known exact solution for linear wave propagation over a shoal. Remarkably, almost half a century later, the only properties of that solution which appear to have been used to validate more wide-ranging models are the limiting values of wave height in the far field. The primary aim of this work is to remedy this situation by providing a robust computational setting where the solution may be fully evaluated randomly both on the surface and the interior, speedily and to a high degree of accuracy. Such ‘benchmark’ solutions will facilitate a much more rigorous approach to validation of more general alternative approximation models. One such has some of its numerical results here examined and subsequently largely vindicated by the present calculations. Computation of the absolutely convergent solution integrals is supported by cubic spline approximation of an integrand component which satisfies a certain difference equation and the work is extended to cover bottom profiles with overhang including the extreme case where the overhang degenerates to a semi-infinite flat plate. The further development of solutions at second-order reveals details of mean Eulerian current and the attendant Stokes drift enabling mass transport computations; all illustrated through the entire depth with a range of contouring and arrows plots. The force field that drives a second harmonic component is calculated and shows excellent agreement with its equivalent in the more general modal expansion model applied to a non-identical but somewhat similar profile. This further validates the modelling approach and application described in that work.

Theoretical modeling of a bottom-raised oscillating surge wave energy converter structural loadings and power performances

This study presents theoretical formulations to evaluate the fundamental parameters and performance characteristics of a bottom-raised oscillating surge wave energy converter (OSWEC) device. Employing a flat plate assumption and potential flow formulation in elliptical coordinates, closed-form equations for the added mass, radiation damping, and excitation forces/torques in the relevant pitch-pitch and surge-pitch directions of motion are developed and used to calculate the system's response amplitude operator and the forces and moments acting on the foundation. The model is benchmarked against numerical simulations using WAMIT and WEC-Sim, showcasing excellent agreement. The sensitivity of plate thickness on the analytical hydrodynamic solutions is investigated over several thickness-to-width ratios ranging from 1:80 to 1:10. The results show that as the thickness of the benchmark OSWEC increases, the deviation of the analytical hydrodynamic coefficients from the numerical solutions grows from 3 % to 25 %. Differences in the excitation forces and torques, however, are contained within 12 %. While the flat plate assumption is a limitation of the proposed analytical model, the error is within a reasonable margin for use in the design space exploration phase before a higher-fidelity (and thus more computationally expensive) model is employed. A parametric study demonstrates the ability of the analytical model to quickly sweep over a domain of OSWEC dimensions, illustrating the analytical model's utility in the early phases of design.

Heat and mass transfer analysis of Casson-based hybrid nanofluid flow in the presence of an aligned magnetic field: An application toward mechanical engineering

This examination explores the flow of a hybridized nanofluid (HyNf) containing silica and tin oxide nanoparticles mixed with engine oil (EO/SnO2-SiO2). The flowing occurs via a permeable material constrained by a semi-infinite flat plate. The study takes into account various factors such as convective heat and mass transference, chemical reactions, the Dufour effect, the Lorentz force, thermal radiative fluxing, and radiative absorbing. The research involves converting the managing formulas of the flowing model into a dimensionless form and applying the regular perturbation procedure to find solutions for the rate of fluid flow, temperature, and species diffusion. The surface frictional factor, Nusselt quantity, and Sherwood quantity reflect the shearing stress, rates of heat transference, and rates of mass transport at the plate, respectively. An analysis is conducted on the impact of several factors, including the suction variable, magnetic variable, radiation-absorbing factor, Casson parameter, and Dufour number, on the flow and related quantities. This analysis is based on an examination of graphs and tables. The findings suggest that the heat transference rate in the Casson hybridized nanofluid is better than that in the mono nanofluid. It is exposed that the temperature reduces at the plate having improved frequency of oscillation and also fluid velocity declines for improving values of aligned magnetized field [Formula: see text], but it shows the reverse phenomenon with Gr1 and Gc1.

Proposal for a New Differential High-Sensitivity Refractometer for the Simultaneous Measurement of Two Refractive Indices and Their Differences

The refractive index of a liquid serves as a fundamental parameter reflecting its composition, thereby enabling the determination of component concentrations in various fields such as chemical research, the food industry, and environmental monitoring. Traditional methods for refractive index (RI) measurement rely on light deflection angles at interfaces between the liquid and a material with a known refractive index. In this paper, the authors present a new differential refractometer for the highly sensitive measurement of RI differences between two liquid samples. Using a configuration with two cells equipped with flat parallel plates as measuring elements, the instrument facilitates accurate analysis. Namely, the sensor signals from both the solution and the solvent cuvette are generated simultaneously with one laser pulse, reducing the possible fluctuations in the laser radiation intensity. Our evaluation shows the high sensitivity of RI measurements < 7 × 10−6, so this differential refractometer can be proposed not only as a high-sensitivity sensing tool that can be used for mobile detection of nanoparticles in solution samples but also to determine the level of environmental nano-pollution using water (including rain, snow) samples from various natural as well as industrial sources, thus helping to solve some important environmental problems.

Comparison Analysis of Punching Buildings With Flat Plate Under Static and Seismic Loads

The structures with the same frame system (flat plate), but with different spans (6 m and 7 m) and slab thicknesses (20 cm, 22 cm, 25 cm and 40 cm), static and seismic calculation was carried out by the finite element method using “LIRA SAPR”and “ETABS” software packages. Design of structure in accordance with Armenian building codes were implemented. In order to analyze the results of calculations, comparative graphs and tables with a number of variables were built. From the results of the analysis it became clear that the average value of punching shear is 14,58 %, and the average difference of the shear reinforcement area is 38,7%. Consequently, the anchorage length also should be checked by the American building standards for structure design.

Characteristics of Laminar Separation Bubble With Varying Leading-Edge Shapes and Deflections of the Trailing-Edge Flap

Abstract A series of implicit large eddy simulations (ILES) is carried out to examine the characteristics of a leading edge (LE) separation bubble. The test case comprises a flat plate with an elliptic leading edge (ELE), which is equipped with a trailing edge flap. Simulations are carried out (a) at three different flap angles (20 deg, 30 deg, 90 deg) and (b) using two different geometries of ELE where the ratio of the semimajor to semiminor axis is set to either 2:1 or 4:1. The flap is modeled using the immersed boundary method, which is computationally economical as it avoids regenerating the grid for varying flap angles. The results show that (a) the flow separates at lower flap deflection angles with a decrease in the aspect ratio of the ELE from 4:1 to 2:1 (b) an increase in the flap angle promotes separation at the LE due to an increase in the blockage in the bottom passage and a subsequent increase in the flow incidence at the leading edge. Simulations are also carried out using the γ−Reθ transition model and comparisons are drawn against ILES and experiments. Although the qualitative trends predicted using both ILES and Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) agree with the experiments, both approaches predict relatively shorter separation bubbles. This is attributed to the excess flow blockage in experiments due to the support plates, which are not modeled in the simulations. Nevertheless, the results demonstrate the superior accuracy of ILES over the RANS model.

Influences of black nickel coating thickness on thermal behaviour of flat plate solar collector: performance evaluation

Influences of black nickel coating thickness on thermal behaviour of flat plate solar collector: performance evaluation

Unsteady flow of a ternary hybrid nanofluid over an inclined flat plate when Ohmic heating and quadratic thermal radiation are significant: couple stress model with shape factor analysis

Unsteady flow of a ternary hybrid nanofluid over an inclined flat plate when Ohmic heating and quadratic thermal radiation are significant: couple stress model with shape factor analysis

The Impact of Volume Fraction and Nanoparticles in the Flow of Nanofluids along the Boundary Layer Over a Flat Plate

Introduction: The forced convective, steady, viscous, nonlinear boundary layer flow of a two-dimensional problem over a flat plate with heat transfer nanofluids. The flow is laminar. Two different types of nanoparticles, namely, Titanium dioxide () and Silver are used to prepare nanofluids with base fluid is chosen as water. Nanofluids has a large number of applications in the area of biomedical, cooling and tribological applications. Objectives: To study about the effect different nanoparticles and their volume fraction in the flow of nanofluids along the boundary layer over a flat plate. Analyse the changes in the viscosity, density, specific heat capacity, thermal conductivity, Prandtl number, skin friction coefficient and Nusselt number. Methods: The flow of the fluid that are governed by the PDEs that are nonlinear are transformed into the ODEs that are nonlinear by employing similarity transformations, which then solved by the use of MATLAB bvp5c solution procedure. Results: Both thermal conductivity and heat transfer coefficient increases with the increase in the volume fraction of the corresponding nanoparticle. Also, Silver-water nanofluid has the high thermal conductivity and heat transfer rate when compared with Titanium dioxide-water nanofluid. Conclusions: Silver water nanofluid surpasses titanium dioxide water nanofluid in terms of thermal conductivity and heat transfer rate. Moreover, the physical attributes like viscosity, density, and thermal conductivity of nanofluids escalate proportionally with the volume fraction of nanoparticles. Conversely, specific heat capacity and Prandtl number exhibit an inverse relationship with the volume fraction of nanoparticles, decreasing as it increases.

On the extension of a Riemann solver for RANS simulations

Purpose Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) models often perform poorly in shock/turbulence interaction regions, resulting in excessive wall heat load and incorrect representation of the separation length in shockwave/turbulent boundary layer interactions. The authors suggest that this can be traced back to inadequate numerical treatment of the inviscid fluxes. The purpose of this study is an extension to the well-known Harten, Lax, van Leer, Einfeldt (HLLE) Riemann solver to overcome this issue. Design/methodology/approach It explicitly takes into account the broadening of waves due to the averaging procedure, which adds numerical dissipation and reduces excessive turbulence production across shocks. The scheme is derived based on the HLLE equations, and it is tested against three numerical experiments. Findings Sod’s shock tube case shows that the scheme succeeds in reducing turbulence amplification across shocks. A shock-free turbulent flat plate boundary layer indicates that smooth flow at moderate turbulence intensity is largely unaffected by the scheme. A shock/turbulent boundary layer interaction case with higher turbulence intensity shows that the added numerical dissipation can, however, impair the wall heat flux distribution. Originality/value The proposed scheme is motivated by implicit large eddy simulations that use numerical dissipation as subgrid-scale model. Introducing physical aspects of turbulence into the numerical treatment for RANS simulations is a novel approach.

Experimental investigation of metal foam embedded surface thermal characteristics using air-jet impingement with different orifice geometry

Experimental investigation of metal foam embedded surface thermal characteristics using air-jet impingement with different orifice geometry

Thermal performance enhancement of gas filled double glazed flat plate solar collectors

The aim of this investigation is to study the effect of using two different trapped gasses at the same time within two glazing and absorber plate in which the inner layer adjacent to the absorber plate was filled with Helium and the outer layer was filled with Argon to augment the heat gain and prevent heat missing that lead to 12.39 % enhancement in the performance of Gas Filled Double Glazed Flat Plate Solar Collector (GFDGFPSC) in comparison to Air Filled DGFPSC. As Collectors have to be installed at the best angle to gain the maximum irradiation, variation of DGFPSC's angle and both optical thicknesses were evaluated. On the basis of findings, AFDGFPSC's efficiency increased to more than 37 % when the angle was 60° while it was about 31 % at the angle of 30°. Efficiency of the Gas Filled DGFPSC increased a bit lower from 46.7 % to 49.6 % as the angle increased from 30 to 60°. Variations of both inner and outer optical thicknesses were examined at the angle of 60° where growth of the outer optical thickness made low effect on GFDGFPSC performance whereas inner optical thickness increment boosted the useful energy reservation and thus thermal efficiency up to 53.44 %.

Contact acoustic nonlinearity and damping properties of completely free vibrating curved and delaminated CFRP plates

This study reports an experimental investigation on the effect of plate curvature and circular inter-ply delamination on the completely free vibration properties of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) plates. Impact tests on wire suspended plates were performed and variations in measured natural frequencies and modal damping are reported. Delamination clapping type contact acoustic nonlinearity (CAN) was observed in the presence of a series of higher harmonics in the vibration spectrum. These higher harmonics consisted of five to seven equally distanced peaks grouped in a frequency range of around the double of odd mode M (5,0). Modal damping was highly sensitive to delamination which caused a 33% average increase in damping loss factors. Odd mode M (3,0) was the most affected with an average increase of 51% in damping loss factor, explained by the delamination location relative to the wavelength of that mode shape. Natural frequencies were less sensitive to delamination, on average decreasing 1.0% in flat plates and increasing 3.1% in curved plates. The modal frequencies calculated from embedded fiber optic sensor (FOS) or electrical resistance strain gauge signals agreed with finite element modeling (FEM) to within a 3.1% difference for all modes considered. The damping loss factors deducted from suspended plate tests were consistent with complementary results from dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). The measured delamination clapping CAN and its related influence on damping can serve to enhance structural health monitoring (SHM) methods.

Flexural Capacity of the Normal Sections of Concrete Beams Strengthened with Corrugated Steel Plates

To explore the law of load-carrying performance enhancement of concrete beams reinforced with corrugated steel plates (CSPs), three groups of controlled bending tests were conducted on five beam specimens. The load-bearing capacity of concrete members commensurately increased with the thickness of reinforcing flat and corrugated steel plates. Additionally, for the same amount of steel, the load-bearing capacity of concrete beams improved more with CSP reinforcement than with reinforcement with flat steel plates. Accordingly, a theoretical formula for the moment of inertia of the combined section of a CSP-reinforced concrete beam was derived. Comparison verification showed that the calculation results for the beams reinforced with CSPs of different thicknesses were highly accurate. Finally, based on the damage mode of the CSP-reinforced concrete beam specimens, a formula for calculating the flexural bearing capacity of the positive cross-section of the beam with corrugated steel reinforcement was established. The calculated values agreed with the experimental values, which validated the flexural load capacity theory pertaining to positive sections and the flexural capacity model for reinforced beams.

Feasibility Study of Scanning Spectral Imaging Based on a Birefringence Flat Plate.

Hyper-spectral imaging (HSI) systems can be divided into two main types as follows: a group of systems that includes a dedicated dispersion/filtering component whose role is to physically separate the different wavelengths and a group of systems that sample all wavelengths in parallel, so that the separation into wavelengths is performed by signal processing (interferometric method). There is a significant advantage to systems of the second type in terms of the integration time required to obtain a signal with a high signal-to-noise ratio since the signal-to-noise ratio of methods based on scanning interferometry (Windowing method) is better compared to methods based on dispersion. The current research deals with the feasibility study of a new concept for an HSI system that is based on scanning interferometry using the "push-broom" method. In this study, we investigated the viability of incorporating a simple birefringent plate into a scanning optical system. By exploiting the motion of the platform on which the system is mounted, we extracted the spectral information of the scanned region. This approach combines the benefits of scanning interferometry with the simplicity of the setup. According to the theory, a chirped cosine-shaped interferogram is obtained for each wavelength due to the nonlinear behavior of the optical path difference of light in the birefringent plate as a function of the angle. An algorithm converts the signal from a superposition of chirped cosine signals to a scaled interferogram such that Fourier transforming (FT) the interferogram retrieves the spectral information. This innovative idea can turn a simple monochrome camera into a hyperspectral camera by adding a relief lens and a birefringent plate.

Design, Simulation and Optimization of a Novel Transpired Tubular Solar Air Heater

In this paper, a novel tubular solar air heater is introduced. In this air heater, the hot boundary layer is drawn into the absorber tube and can provide thermal energy at moderate temperatures. Several different cases were simulated and a correlation was proposed to predict the collector’s effectiveness as a function Rayleigh number and Reynolds number. An equation was derived to find the effectiveness of this collector. Finally, a real case was studied with non-uniform solar flux distribution, as well as radiation heat loss. Good agreement was found between the results and those derived by the proposed analytical method. For different suction values, the first-law and the second-law efficiencies were calculated. Based on the exergy analysis, exergy destruction in absorption is the dominant factor that is unavoidable in low-temperature collectors. It was shown that there is an optimum suction value at which the second-law efficiency is maximized. At the optimum point, temperature rise can reach 54 K, which is hardly possible with a flat plate collector. Based on the exergy analysis, the relation between tube wall temperature and air outlet temperature in their dimensionless forms at the optimum working condition was derived, and it was shown that effectiveness at the optimum working condition is around 0.5. This means that the air temperature rise shall be half of the temperature difference between collector wall and the ambient temperatures. A high outlet temperature besides the low cost of construction and maintenance are the main advantages of this air heater. With such a high temperature rise, this type of collector can increase the use of solar energy in domestic applications.

Modeling of a Solar Thermal Plant to Produce Hot Water and Steam for a Brewery Factory

The environmental impact caused by the intensive exploitation of fossil fuels to generate heat and electricity has already reached a critical level. Also, as the industrial sector is the largest energy consumer, mainly in the form of heat, it has then become compulsive to implement the use of renewable solar heat in industrial processes, such as those found in the food processing and beverages industries, which do not require high temperatures. Consequently, this study examines the viability of supplying heat as hot water at 80 °C and saturated steam at 160 °C to a medium-sized brewery factory through a hybrid solar plant composed of flat plate and parabolic trough collectors and sensible thermal energy storage. The study was conducted numerically using the meteorological conditions of a city different from that where the factory is located because it benefits from higher insolation levels. The mean annual solar fractions achieved were 49.9% for hot water production and 37.3% for steam generation, at a levelized cost of heat of 0.032 USD/kWh, which can be considered competitive if compared against the values reported in other similar solar projects. Also, the decrease in fossil fuel consumption allowed an annual reduction of 252 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Acoustic tones generated by impinging jets: Differences between laminar and highly-disturbed nozzle-exit boundary layers

The differences between the acoustic tones generated by impinging jets with laminar and highly-disturbed nozzle-exit boundary layers are investigated. For that, jets at Mach numbers between 0.6 and 1.3 impinging on a flat plate at a distance of 8 nozzle radii from the nozzle exit are computed using large-eddy simulations. The amplitudes of the tones generated by the jets through feedback loops establishing between the nozzle and the plate are found to be significantly affected by the exit turbulent disturbances. In the present study, overall, they are lower for the initially laminar jets than for the initially disturbed ones. The level decrease varies from a few dB up to 15 dB, depending on the tones, which can change the frequencies of the dominant tones and the numbers and azimuthal structures of their associated feedback modes. For Mach numbers 0.75 and 0.8, for instance, the dominant tone frequencies are approximately two times lower for the initially laminar jets than for the other ones, yielding a better agreement with experiments of the literature in the former case. For a Mach number of 1.1, as a second example, the dominant tone is associated with the axisymmetric third feedback mode in the laminar case but with the helical fifth feedback mode in the disturbed case. The differences in the tone amplitude are finally discussed by estimating the power gains of the shear-layer instability waves between the nozzle and the plate using linear stability analysis for the axisymmetric mode. In most cases, at the frequency of a specific tone, the higher the gain, the stronger the acoustic tone.