Investigating the effect of diamond-shape turbulator in optimal design of flat plate solar collector

Operation of flat plate solar collector (FPSC) at the optimal point with maximum efficiency is very significant. Therefore, the optimum design of FPSC considering a diamond-shape turbulator (DST) is investigated. Six design parameters associated with the FPSC as well as two parameters for DST, including cone angle and tail length ratio, are considered as eight decision variables. Then, optimization is performed by selecting thermal efficiency and total annual cost (TAC) as objective functions and their results are assessed with the optimum design of a collector with plain tube. The results show that better thermos-economic results is found by the application of DST compared with a plain tube for an efficiency higher than ۰.۵۵۶۶ while the use of a plain tube is more beneficial for an efficiency lower than ۰.۵۵۶۶. Optimization is also performed for the higher electricity price and results reveal that in some higher electricity prices, the use of tube with DST is not beneficial for the all range of efficiency compared with plain tube. The results showed that the lower thickness of the bottom insulator is necessary for the model of DST in contrast to the plain tube. The higher cone angle and lower tail length ratio lead to the higher collector efficiency.

کلیدواژه ها:

Flat Plate Collector ، Diamond-Shape Turbulator ، Plain Tube ، Thermo-Economic Pptimization ، Pareto Front