Chapter 5

MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF THE EVACATED SOLAR

COLLECTOR

This chapter deals with analytical method of finding out the collector outlet working
fluid temperature. A dynamic model of the solar collector system is prepared to find
out the analytical values of temperature. This model is solved by the finite difference
method. The Set of single order differential equations are formed to predict the
temperature values. The simulated values are compared with experimental values to
validate this model.

5.1 Thermal Model of Solar Collector System

5.1.1 Introduction
A dynamic approach is more interesting in several cases: control strategies, dynamic
testing procedures, coupling with others elements. Particularly, predicting the
behaviour of solar collectors for a time step, a dynamic modelling brings more
information concerning the solar collector. The collector is modelling under hourly
step in order to take into account the variation of the geographical parameters. This
level of description is useful to understand which parameters have a significant
influence on the outlet temperature of the collector. In this model, all physical
phenomena are studied separately to describe the model. The dynamic behaviour of
the model is verified by numerical tests and measures comparisons. The Two
dimensional thermal modeling of a solar evacuated tube is done under transient
conditions. The Variations of fluid mass flow rate, ambient temperature, solar
radiation, and wind speed are accounted. The semi-analytical model relies on energy
conservation equation for small control volumes along the longitudinal axis of the
tube. The first order differential equations obtained for each control volume are
solved by the use of a fully explicit scheme using a fourth order Runge-Kutta
algorithm. An experimental setup has been validated in order to assess the predictions
provided by the model. The comparison between simulated and experimentally
measured outlet air temperature showed a good agreement. In order to bring a solution
to this problem, air is used as the heat transfer fluid instead of water. Using air,

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freezing and overheating problems are avoided. Furthermore, air is free, which could
be used in an open loop system and presents no risk of contamination in case of
leakage of the piping. The Limitation of the air, used as working fluid is, the heat
capacity of air is low as compared to that of liquids. But nevertheless it is worth trying
to design an air-based collector for specific applications despite this drawback.

5.1.2 Thermal Model of Solar ETC System

The airflow is the most important parameter acting on the defined performance
indicators. Higher is the airflow, better is the efficiency and lower is the outlet air
temperature. Figure 5.1 shows the thermal model of the evacuated tube exposed to the
solar radiation.

Fig.5.1Thermal Model of the ETC Exposed to Solar Radiation

The large pressure drop caused by 180°, changes in the direction of the air at the
bottom of evacuated tubes, is observed. Following assumptions are made to solve the
set of Equations,
 Heat transfer is considered one-dimensional along the radial coordinate and
axis symmetric.
 Diffused radiation gained by the actual system is neglected.

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  Finite differential equation is solved for single evacuated tube and uniformity
is consider to all tubes with constant mass flow rate.
 For a given axial position, heat is equally distributed azimuthally on the
receiver and the cover.
 As the walls are thin, the conduction resistances in the glass walls are
considered negligible.
 There is only one temperature that characterizes the inner and outer surface of
glass tubes and the temperature varies axially which is essential because of the
heat gained by the fluid.
 All data for variable thermal properties with air temperature are readily
available to account for such variations.

Because the flow in an evacuated tube collector is completely enclosed, an energy

balance can be applied, to determine the variation in mean temperature of working
fluids. Also the temperature with position along this tube and the total convection heat
transfer is related to the difference in temperatures at the tube inlet and outlet
temperature. For the constant mass flow rate heat gained by the working fluid is given
by following equation,
− (5.1)
+ ={ ( − )}

The evacuated tube is divided in to ‘n’ (180) segments along its longitudinal direction,
the velocity of the working fluid is more as compared to the width of each segment,
and hence change in fluid temperature is negligible. The velocity u of the fluid is
assumed to be constant, thus equation above reduces to,
− (5.2)
={ ( − )}

It is considered that heat transfer coefficient is zero due to convection in between the
inner to outer glass as vacuum is present.
Heat transfer coefficient due to convection between fluid and receiver is calculated by
calculating the Reynolds number and Nusselt number as follows;
(5.3)
=
�
In the case of turbulent flow region (Re > 6000), it recommended to use the
correlation obtained from the relationship of Gnielinsky, (2005)

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 (5.4)

The Darcy’s friction factor for the above tubes may be obtained from:

f = (0.0790 log Re 1.64)-2 (5.5)

and
− (5.6)
=

Heat transfer to the receiver is given by the equation,

− (5.7)
( ) = {�� + � �( − )+ ( − )}

Where the product �� is the transmittance absorptivity of the evacuated tube collector,
� is Emmisivity of the receiver and � is the Stefen Boltzman constant.
Temperature of the receiver tube at the end of length L is calculated as;
(5.8)
= −
+

The outer glass tube temperature is calculated as;

− (5.9)
= {� �( − ) + � �( − )+ ( − )}

Equation (5.9) stats the change in cover temperature which is proportional to the
difference between net heat gain rate by the receiver to the heat losses to the
environment by radiation and convection.
The convective heat transfer coefficient between the atmosphere and the outer glass is
given by the equation;
− (5.10)
= 5.678+ 3.8 v

Where, ‘v’ is ambient air velocity in m/s.

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 Finite difference method was used to solve this system. In this case, the
collector was defined as single fluid channel, which was divided into ‘n’ segments
(n=180). The single order differential equation system was solved for each segment in
the time domain using a 4th order Runge-Kutta method. A MATLAB-14B program
was developed to solve these sets of equations simultaneously. At first iteration
boundary conditions like the glass temperature and air temperature was
considered as the same.
Equation 5.2, 5.7 and 5.9 are solved simultaneously for the first segment (that
is n=0 node). The output of the first segment was passed as an input for the next
segment and so on. The last segment gave the output temperature of the outer glass
tube, inner glass tube and the outlet temperature of the working fluid. Total tube
length was divided in 180 segments.

5.2 SIMULATED COLLECTOR OUTPUT

The Table 5.1 given below the detail about the technical specifications of the
solar ETC system along with their properties. The collector outlet temperature is
calculated by the program for a single evacuated tube and it considered as same for all
the tubes. As all the ten tubes are arranged as parallel to each other, together the mass
flow rate will be increased and temperature output of all tubes will remain the same as
no considerable changes are observed in input parameters to each tube.
The details about the program and its output are shown in Appendix A. The
Tables 5.2 and 5.3 shows the program calculated sample collector outlet temperature
of the working fluid. The variation is observed in the range of 0.932% to 6.36% with
average percentage error in calculated and experimental values are 2.459%.
Table 5.1 Evacuated Tube Solar Collector setup properties
Factor Unit Value
Specific heat of working fluid ( air) J/kg k 1005-1008

Specific heat of glass cover J/kg k 8000-8300

Specific heat of Absorber J/kg k 5000-6000

Absorptivity Coefficient - 0.92

Heat Transfer Coefficient Absorber-Fluid W/m2 k 385-410

Emissivity of inner glass - 0.08

Stefan Boltzmann Constant - 5.67x 10-8

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 Table 5.2 Experimental and Analytical Collector Outlet Temperature
(11/04/2013)
Solar Ambient Collector Collector Outlet
Time Radiation temp Outlet Temp. Temp.(Analytical)
in Hrs (W/m2) ( 0C) (Actual) ( 0C) ( 0C) % Error
9.00 409 23.4 32.1 30.6 4.901961
10.00 649 30.8 52.1 54.5 4.40367
11.00 810 31.6 62.1 65.4 5.04587
12.00 847 32.5 68.2 71.4 4.48179
13.00 920 34.5 73.5 74.6 1.47453
14.00 850 35.8 73.6 74.4 1.07527
15.00 713 34.8 67.9 70.3 3.41394
16.00 530 32.8 63.2 61.9 2.100162
17.00 464 29.8 54.1 57 5.08772
18.00 320 25.6 41.3 44.4 6.98198
Average % error 2.496

80 Exp. Collector
75 temp
70
65 Sim. Collector
60 Temp
Temperature (0C)

55
50 y = -1.8008x2 + 49.352x - 262.76 Ambient temp
45 R² = 0.9575
40
35
30
25
20
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Time (Hrs)

Fig. 5.2 Collector Outlet Temperature Experimentally and Analytically

(11/04/2013)

Figure 5.2 is a plot of the single day collector outlet working fluid temperature
variation. This shows simultaneously the outlet temperature values measured using
accurate measuring instruments and analytically calculated values at the same point.
Last column in Table 5.2 shows the percentage error in individual reading. It is
observed, which is in the range of 1.07 to 6.98 % with the total average percentage
error of 2.496% which is well within the acceptable limit.

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 Table 5.3 Experimental and Analytical Collector Outlet Temperature
(12/04/2013)
Solar Ambient Collector Collector Outlet
Time Radiation temp Outlet Temp. Temp.(Analytical)
2
in Hrs (W/m ) ( 0C) (Actual) ( 0C) ( 0C) % Error
9.00 411 23.5 32.3 31.8 1.572327
10.00 651 29.7 52.3 54.8 4.56204
11.00 809 31.8 62.3 65.4 4.74006
12.00 845 32.8 68.3 71.3 4.20757
13.00 915 34.6 73.8 77.3 4.52781
14.00 880 35.7 73.4 76.1 3.54796
15.00 720 35.1 67.6 71.4 5.32213
16.00 610 33.1 63.4 62.2 1.92926
17.00 490 29.8 54.3 57.2 5.06993
18.00 324 25.4 40.8 43.9 7.0615
Average % error 3.5537

80
Exp. Collector
75
Temp
70
65
"Sim. Collector
60
Temp"
Temperature (0C)

55
50 y = -1.7818x2 + 48.676x - 258.84
R² = 0.9854 Ambient temp.
45
40
35
30
25
20
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Time (Hrs)

Fig. 5.3 Collector Outlet Temperature Experimentally and Analytically

(12/04/2013)

Similar kinds of results were observed for the figure. 5.3, as explained above for the
figure. 5.2 with, the percentage error between experimental and analytical collector
outlet temperature in the range of 1.5% to 7.06 %. The total average percentage error
is 3.55% with R2= 0.985, which is also well within the acceptable limit.

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 Predicted Collector outlet Temperature(0C)
80
75
70
65
y = 1.0238x + 0.2394
60 R² = 0.9844
55
50
45
40 Predicted Vs Actual Collector
temp
35
30
30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80

Actual Collector outlet Temperature(0C)

Fig.5.4 Collector outlet temperature experimentally and theoretically

The above figure 5.4 shows the plot of actual/experimental versus predicted collector
outlet working fluid temperature for a single day. It is observed that the predicted and
experimental values are in good agreement with R2=0.984. Similar kinds of results are
observed in all experimental and predicted values. It indicated that the simulated
mathematical model is accurate.

5.3 RESULT VALIDATION

Figures 5.2 and 5.3 present a comparison of experimental results and predictions for a
bright sunny day. The simulation presented in Figure 5.4 involved results obtained which,
gives a good compromise between the precision of the solution and calculation time. The
Results for several days were compared to assess the validity of the predictions over a
period of entire test time.

Although the model does not exhibit the rapid variations of temperature
(probably caused by the turbulence of the flow), the numerical model follows very
well the experimental behaviour of the tube. The statistical indicators were also
calculated to qualify the difference between the results. The average percentage error
of 2.45% to 3.5% in the temperature was obtained which is acceptable. Moreover, this
could be explained by the assumption that Ta = Tsky in the model which slightly
reduces the heat losses to the environment as well as the diffusion radiation was not
considered in analytical solution.

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 The Flowchart of the program implemented in MATLAB to calculate the
dependent variable that is collector outlet working fluid temperature.

Fig.5.5 Flow chart of MATLAB program to calculate collector outlet

temperature

With a validated model, it is possible to analyze the influence of the

environmental conditions (ambient temperature, wind speed, solar radiation) and
operation (airflow) parameters on the performances of the tube using this transient
model in steady state.

5.4 CONCLUDING REMARKS

The performance of solar evacuated tube collector is studied analytically in this

chapter. A set of single order differential equations are formed to simulate the
performance of the solar collector system. These set of equations are solved
numerically by fourth order Runge-Kutta method. To simulate the flow analysis
certain assumptions are made and collector out let fluid temperature is calculated for a

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single tube, by considering there will not be much variation in physical data like mass
flow rate and solar radiations, among all evacuated tubes. The single tube is divided
into 180 equal segments and all sets of equations are solved for the first segment,
which is at the bottom of tube. Output this segment is passed as an input for the
second segment and so on. At the end of 180th iteration the collector outlet working
fluid (air) temperature is calculated by using MATLAB program. The validation of
the simulated results is done with the experimental values. It is observed that the
average percentage error in the actual collector outlet temperature and simulated or
analytically calculated value is in the range of 2.45% to 4.6% for all experimental
collector outlet temperature. Hence it is concluded that the actual collector outlet
working fluid temperature has good agreement with calculated collector outlet
working fluid temperature.

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