Proceedings of the 7th WSEAS International Conference on SYSTEM SCIENCE and SIMULATION in ENGINEERING (ICOSSSE '08)

CFD Analysis of Solar Hot Water Heater with Integrated

Storage System
M. YAHYA, K. SOPIAN, M. SYAHRI, S. ABDULLAH, M.A. ALGHOUL and A. ZAHARIM
Solar Energy Research Institute
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
43600 Bangi Selangor
MALAYSIA

Abstract:-This paper outlines a research project about fluid flow and computational investigations of
flow patterns in a solar water store. Investigations have shown the flow patterns in solar water stores
strongly influences the hot spot position of solar heating system. Mixing caused by water entering the
solar water store will destroy stratification. For increasing the system tilted at 10o from the horizontal
plane the thermal performance increasing. In order to describe the fluid flow behaviour of the water
inside the solar water store, a finite element based on model was generated for the system and was
simulated using the FEMLAB programmed. The goal of the project is to gather knowledge about flow
phenomena occurring in solar hot water stores with different tilted and time. The result of the
simulation could be used as guidance to locate the suitable position of appropriate components such as
helical coils as well as the size of the solar hot water heater system to be built.

Key-Words: CFD Analysis, FEMLAB programmed, solar hot water heater, thermal performance.

1 Introduction water temperature around 70oC. Unglazed,

The use of the renewable especially the solar transpired solar collectors [5-6] have been the
energy is continuously increasing and gaining subject of a number of recent investigations.
popularity because of the price of traditional A knowledge of the fluid flow pattern in
energy resources and serious environmental the storage tank system is necessary to
pollution problem. One of classical way of understand the performance of a solar hot water
using solar energy is to make hot water. system (SHWS). The generation of water flow
Usually, the system should consist of two main in the storage tank is due to the change in
elements, i.e., a solar collector and a storage density, followed by the heat gained from the
tank. solar radiation. Many details of the flow cannot
Studies of thermosyphonic solar hot water be captured by experimental analysis; therefore,
systems with integrated storage tank have been computational fluid dynamic procedures are
conducted by [1-3]. Although many types of needed to have deeper understanding of these
conventional collectors have been processes. In [7] have developed a model to
commercialized, their investment costs are still solve the energy equation in tube under laminar
relatively high. To overcome this problem, we flow regime. The fluid is incompressible and
have developed a low cost solar collector its axial velocity component is assumed to have
system using blackened glass fiber reinforced a parabolic profile. The fluid properties are
polyester (GFRP) as main materials to collect constant and their study was primarily
solar energy. And another attractive way to concerned to analyze axial conduction at the
reduce the cost of the solar heater is to remove tube walls. The studied on the similar laminar
the collector cover [4]. A flat plate solar flow, which focused their attention in
collector does not need collector cover for determining axial conduction at the wall of the

ISSN: 1790-2769 323 ISBN: 978-960-474-027-7

 Proceedings of the 7th WSEAS International Conference on SYSTEM SCIENCE and SIMULATION in ENGINEERING (ICOSSSE '08)

tubes [8]. They assumed a parabolic profile for water system consists of the following main
axial velocity and the properties are considered components:
to be independent on temperature. The ™ The solar collector has half elliptical
developed a method combining the finite shape geometry (absorber plate), which
element method with the superposition is made of glass fiber reinforced
principle to solve simultaneously the polyester (GFRP) using special resin
momentum and energy equations in order to composition. The collector has
analyses axial conduction at the walls was consisted of 19 tubes with of 0.12 m2
conducted by [9]. The properties are also surface area each and has thickness of 3
assumed to be constant in this case. A mm. The absorptivity of the collector
numerical model of the inclined open tubes is about 0.95. The absorber plate
thermosyphon has been developed using a finite can be inserted into the body without
difference algorithm to solve the vorticity any additional fixing or sealing. The
vector potential form of the Navier-Stokes absorber is connected to the storage tank
equations [10]. Fluid flow and heat transfer through two inlet tubes in the lower
inside channels with simple geometry at header and two outlet tubes in the upper
different boundary conditions is one of the header.
fundamental researches in engineering [11]. ™ The storage tank is the bottom part of
Analyses of simpler systems are often useful to the system. Heat is transferred into the
understand some important features of complex store from the collector loop. The
pattern forming processes in various fields of storage tank has a capacity of 329 liters
science and technology. These types of and with 50 mm thickness of
geometry appear in many engineering polyurethane foam as insulation a round
applications as single unit or as a combination. the casing to prevent heat loss. Back up
Theoretical and numerical analysis of second water can be also introduced in the tank
law for flow and heat transfer inside rectangular at the upper section of the tank. A small
duct was developed by [12] outlet at the bottom section of the tank
In the present paper we give the results of can be used for drainage purposes.
a new design of solar hot water system (SHWS) The rise of the water temperature inside the
with integrated storage system, which the fluid absorber due to the absorption of incident solar
flow behaviour of the water inside the system radiation gives rise to water uprising motion
was simulated by the FEMLAB programmed into the storage tank and generates a circulation
[13]. This system operates without a pump, loop through the whole collector.
which makes the system work free from C ollector Pipe
C onnecting pipe
electrical power source. The compact system 18
00

can reduce the cost of SHWS and will remove

aesthetic objections to roof top installation. 18
00

W ater Storage

2 Component of a Solar Hot Water with

Integrated Storage System
Schematics of non-metallic an unglazed Figure: 1 Schematics of non-metallic unglazed
integrated collector-storage type of solar hot collector solar hot water with integrated storage
water system is shown in figure 1. The solar hot system

ISSN: 1790-2769 324 ISBN: 978-960-474-027-7

 Proceedings of the 7th WSEAS International Conference on SYSTEM SCIENCE and SIMULATION in ENGINEERING (ICOSSSE '08)

3 Computational Fluid Dynamic Model a discretization method and the Boussinesq

Defining the domain: approximation is assumed.
The sketch of the inlet pipe on a square box Boundary conditions as well as
arrangement, like the shown in Fig.2. The inlet discretization method (finite difference, finite
pipe length of 5 cm (l). The computational volume, finite element, spectral schemes,
domain is also bounded by the planes x = 0 and boundary element, etc) and coordinate and
x = l. In the drawing, V represents the suction basis vector system need to be specified [15].
velocity or the volumetric rate at which water is The inlet boundary condition is the plane
flow through pipe per unit area. At distance l x = l, Ideally, this plane would be located an
from the square box this water stream is infinite distance from the plate, but any CFD
assumed to be in uniform motion. representation has to place it at a finite distance
of magnitude sufficiently large to realistically
P/2 represent the infinite distance. The following
15 boundary conditions were assumed to apply
z there:
T/2
at x=0, and x = l; u = u∞ , v = 0
l y ∂u
at y = 0 and y = P/2; =0, v = 0
∂y
v x
The governing equations were solved with the
appropriate boundary conditions using
FEMLAB programmable, which a finite
volume-based CFD code.
Figure 2: Sketch of the inlet water pipe Grid design
bounded on a square box arrangement The domain was broken down into a set of
control volumes, with a node at the center of
Governing Equations and Boundary each volume. The total number of nodes N in
Conditions the resulting grid is limited by constraints on
To study fluid motion a fluid can be regarded as the computer memory and also by CPU time.
a continuum in most case of interest. The The approximations introduced in the
relevant governing equations for the water discretization process become more precise as
velocity (u, v) is the equations for the the gird is refined, i.e. as the number of nodal
conservation of mass, momentum, and energy, points N is increased. Grid refinement studies
assuming laminar flow, steady conditions, are used to study the sensitivity of the
constant properties, no external forces and no numerical solution to the size of the grid and
viscous heat dissipation. These are given in then decide what value of N will be used for the
textbooks [14] and will not be repeated here. bulk of the simulations. A grid refinement study
However, The partial differential or integral- is usually carried out by systematically
differential equations are non-linier, couple and increasing the number of nodes. The two
difficult to solve. Usually simplifications are dimensional grid of a inlet water into solar
necessary to reduce the computation time. The water store with a smaller pipe connection to it
simplified equations are approximated by is shown in Fig.3 as follow:
system of the algebraic equations by the use of

ISSN: 1790-2769 325 ISBN: 978-960-474-027-7

 Proceedings of the 7th WSEAS International Conference on SYSTEM SCIENCE and SIMULATION in ENGINEERING (ICOSSSE '08)

in

(c)
Figure 3: The number of nodes of an inlet water
into solar water store Figure 4: Flow profile of water in solar water
4 Result and Discussion store for 1 hr operations (a) θ = 5o; (b) θ = 10o;
Tilted dependence (c) θ = 15o
The typical water flow pattern in solar water
store obtained previously from simulation with Time dependence
certain data, which is given as function of the The flow profile in solar water store for 10o
time for a difference tilted is shown in Fig. 4. It titled at difference time is shown in Fig. 5. At
was clear that at difference tilted were certain times with sufficient solar radiation
performed which showed qualitatively the same absorbed on collectors, the water temperature
behaviour of the fluid flow during the heating out of the collector more high than before.
up process at one hour operation. The hot spot During the first hour (see fig.5a) only in a thin
position at tilted of 10o was slightly better than layer near the wall a remarkable upward
other one. movement of the fluid is observed. In contrast
in the water bulk of the storage tank only a
respective slow downward movement is found.
Heated fluid is transported to the upper surface
and a quite stable flow stratification is
established, continuing the heating up, this
gives buoyancy driven flow along the walls in
the inner store, mainly space above the store.

(a)

(a)
(b)

ISSN: 1790-2769 326 ISBN: 978-960-474-027-7

 Proceedings of the 7th WSEAS International Conference on SYSTEM SCIENCE and SIMULATION in ENGINEERING (ICOSSSE '08)

velocity profile, and fluid layer will start to

develop as the fluid moves along the horizontal
geometry. The velocity in the x-direction is set
to a constant value. We assume slip conditions
at the wall boundaries. Except for the coil wall
is no slip boundary at all. The outlet is
represented by the vertical boundary at the
bottom of the system. Here, we assume
straight-out boundary conditions.
(b)
5 Conclusion
The CFD-results illustrate, how the fluid
motion, by buoyancy convection in the inner
tank, builds up thermal stratification. Further,
the results show how the heat flux from the
solar collector fluid in channel to the inner tank
is dependent on the buoyancy driven flow.
From the above discussion about the
fluid flow and the resulting heat transfer in the
(c) storage tank of the solar hot water system, it is
Figure 5: Flow profile of water in solar water understood that there should be a strong
store for 10o titled (a) t = 1 hr; (b) t = 2 hrs; (c) t relation between the two phenomena in
= 3 hrs controlling themosyphonic action in the
At the second hours the flow fluid at the collector. From the knowledge of heat transfer,
upper part of solar water store the hot spot build it is known that, in natural circulation loops,
more stabiles than the first hour one, it can be which may be employed in a number of similar
seen in fig. 5b. The buoyancy driven flows in applications.
the tank have increased and the thermal For the simulation of the hot water
stratification is building up further. making system a block-oriented approach was
Due to the higher temperature in the top used, modeled and simulated using FEMLAB.
of the mantle the incoming fluid is driven The simulated results achieved so far shows a
downwards by negative buoyancy forces. This good agreement with the measurements.
means that the thermal stratification in the inner
tank is not disturbed by low temperature flow Nomenclature
into the mantle. Ac Effective collection area, m2
The temperature rises until it reaches a b Distance between absorber plate and
plateau where the maximum water temperature horizontal plate (baffle) = 5 mm
of 65oC at time 16:00 can be achieved. At the cp,w Specific heat of water, J/kg⋅K
other positions, the profile of the water cp,a Specific heat of air, J/kg⋅K
temperatures is nearly flatter in general, which FR Efficiency factor
is due to the large volume of the storage tank. F' Collector efficiency factor
To understand well the behaviour of the g Gravitational acceleration, m/s2
distribution water temperature in storage tank I Solar radiation, W/m2
can be shown in fig. 5. The flow will enter at L Length of the absorber channel, m
the middle of storage header with a uniform m Mass, kg

ISSN: 1790-2769 327 ISBN: 978-960-474-027-7

 Proceedings of the 7th WSEAS International Conference on SYSTEM SCIENCE and SIMULATION in ENGINEERING (ICOSSSE '08)

m& Mass flow rate of water in absorber [6] Kutscher C, F., Christensen C, and Barker
channel, kg/s G., (1993) Unglazed transpired solar
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ISSN: 1790-2769 328 ISBN: 978-960-474-027-7