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Optimum design analysis of a solar-assisted Libr/H2O absorption system with

a flat-plate collector

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DOI: 10.18186/thermal.977742

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 J Ther Eng, Vol. 7, No. 5, pp. 1056–1066, July, 2021

Journal of Thermal Engineering

Web page info: https://jten.yildiz.edu.tr
DOI: 10.14744/jten.2021.0002

Research Article

Optimum design analysis of a solar-assisted Libr/H2O

absorption system with a flat-plate collector
Rahul ROY1 , Balaram KUNDU1,*
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India

ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Article history
Received: 07 June 2019 An analytical analysis has been presented to evaluate the performance of a solar-assisted va-
Accepted: 10 October 2019 pour absorption cooling system with a flat-plate absorber plate. The lithium–bromide water
absorption cycle is used to obsstain the cooling effect. The performance parameters, namely
Key words: absorber plate efficiency, collector efficiency factor, heat removal factor, etc. have been deter-
Absorber plate; LiBr/H2O mined with the variation of collector fluid inlet temperature. The cycle coefficient of perfor-
Absorption system; Solar mance (COP), system COP, refrigerating efficiency of the cycle, and refrigerating efficiency of
flat-plate collector; Operating the system are determined analytically. The maximum COP and cooling efficiency for both the
condition; Optimisation cycle and system has been found at an optimal collector fluid inlet temperature. The optimum
design condition for the variation of different design parameters, such as ambient temperature
and thermal conductivity, has also been studied. Finally, the plate material is found to be a
minimum at a particular collector fluid inlet temperature which is an optimum design condi-
tion to run the solar-assisted vapour absorption system.

Cite this article as: Roy R, Kundu B. Optimum design analysis of a solar-assisted Libr/H2O
absorption system with a flat-plate collector. J Ther Eng 2021;7(5):1056–1066.

INTRODUCTION
in energy demands, it is necessary to depend on renewable
The utilisation of solar energy for cooling purposes is an sources of energy for daily needs. Solar energy is an abun-
effective solution for energy savings in residential and com- dant source of renewable energy, which can be harnessed to
mercial buildings. The use of fossils fuels such as coal, oil, provide energy to various applications. Solar cooling sys-
and gas, have led to increasing in greenhouse gases, result- tems are widely developed in areas, which have little access
ing in environmental pollution and global warming. About to electricity and have abundant sunlight throughout the
10% of the total energy produced, is used in commercial year. The simplest way to use solar energy for cooling pur-
buildings for space heating and cooling. Due to the increase poses is the vapour absorption refrigerant system, due to

*Corresponding author.
*E-mail address: bkundu@mech.net.in (Prof. Balaram Kundu)
­Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jadavpur University
This paper was recommended for publication in revised form
by Regional Editor Hatice Mercan

Published by Yıldız Technical University Press, İstanbul, Turkey

Copyright 2021, Yıldız Technical University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
J Ther Eng, Vol. 7, No. 5, pp. 1056–1066, July, 2021 1057

their easy operation and production. A number of absorp- A generalised method to design a flat-plate collector
tion systems have been researched and developed recently, was developed by Kowalski and Foster [5] based on the
which can be powered by solar heat or waste heat generated solar collector theory. This method was developed based
from industrial power plants. on the heat transfer characteristics of the solar collector
In solar-assisted absorption systems, a flat-plate col- rather than its optical properties. Numerous studies have
lector is used as a heat exchanger, to receive the incident been conducted to develop a better solar absorption cooling
solar radiation that falls on it and convert it into the inter- cycle by using different refrigerants such as ammonia-­water,
nal heat energy of the collector fluid. The thermal energy of LiBr-water, and ammonia-sodium thiocyanate. Hattem and
the collector fluid is used to heat the absorbent/­refrigerant Dato [6] designed a solar cooling system with the LiBr-H2O
solution in the generator. The resultant refrigerant vapour absorption cycle. The overall system efficiency of the cool-
is condensed in a condenser and transferred to the evap- ing system was found to be 11% during the whole season.
orator through a throttling device. The cooling occurs in Similar results were obtained during field-testing of a solar
the evaporator as the refrigerant evaporates at a low tem- energised cooling system by Syed et al. [7]. It was concluded
perature. The refrigerant vapour mixes with the weak that the cooling system works best in a dry and hot climates
refrigerant solution in the absorber to form a rich aqueous with changing relative humidity and dry bulb temperature.
refrigerant solution, which passes to the generator through Li and Sumathy [8] modified the absorption system by par-
a pump and a heat exchanger. The low-­pressure vapour titioning a single storage tank into two parts to achieve a
of the evaporator is delivered to high pressure in the con- higher coefficient of performance. The analysis of the LiBr-
denser by the combined action of the generator, collector, H2O absorption cycle was done by Florides et al. [9] to solve
and absorber system. The performance of the solar-assisted the heat and mass transfer equations of the working fluid
cooling system depends both on the collector and vapour with the help of a computer program. The general design
absorption system. The flat-plate collector is an important guidelines of an absorber operating at optimum condi-
part of the solar cooling system to generate low-grade heat tions in a LiBr-H2O absorption cycle has been presented by
energy. The absorber plate in the solar collector is respon- Andberg and Vliet [10]. For the simplicity of design and
sible for the conversion of solar heat to the thermal energy fabrication, RFC has been widely used in p ­ ractical applica-
of the collector fluid. A number of flat-plate collectors tions [11]. A comprehensive study on the LiBr-H2O absorp-
having different profiles have been designed to optimise tion cycle had been presented by Somesh et al. [12].
their performance and increase the thermal conductiv- The results of the performance parameters and the
ity of the absorber plate. A divergent profile shape of the thermal analysis of RFC collectors were determined by
absorber plate is necessary to increase the heat transfer rate Kundu [3]. As the solar energy absorbed by the collector
from the plate to the fluid. So, a concave parabolic profile plates are used to operate the vapour absorption refriger-
of the plate has a maximum heat energy transfer rate than ation cycle, it was necessary to do a combined analysis on
the other profiles having similar volumes [1]. But due to both the systems considered together. Kundu [13] studied
its complex profile, it is very difficult and expensive to fab- the overall system performance of the combined collector
ricate this typical geometry on a large scale. A triangular and absorption cooling cycle of an SFC. The results showed
profile has a similar heat transfer rate to the parabolic pro- that there was a significant impact of the collector fluid inlet
file, but it is impractical to manufacture it due to its zero temperature on the overall performance parameters of the
tip thickness. Therefore, a trapezoidal profile with a small combined system. As RFC is significantly easier to man-
tip thickness is possible to fabricate with the least material. ufacture than SFC, it is widely used in practice. Recently
The easiest profile to manufacture is the rectangular pro- a review paper on vapour absorption systems working on
file and is widely used in flat-plate collectors. Hollands and LiBr/H2O was written by Karimi et al. [14]. Furthermore,
Stedman [2] developed a step-fin flat-plate collector (SFC) the cover material of the flat-plate solar collector and its
to reduce the material and cost of the collector. Their work thickness significantly affects the heat transfer rate through
was modified to find the optimum fin dimensions of the the absorber plate [15–17]. Its performance can be further
step-fin rectangular flat-plate collector by Kundu [3]. It enhanced with nanotechnology [18, 19].
was found that SFC has a better heat transfer rate per unit From the above literature, it is obvious that the research-
volume compared to a rectangular-fin flat-plate collector ers have rarely concentrated on solar-assisted vapour absorp-
(RFC). A new profile shape named a recto-trapezoidal pro- tion cooling system using a simple absorber plate-like RFC
file was developed by Kundu [4]. The thermal analysis and to determine the minimum area required to run the system
performance optimisation of the recto-trapezoidal profile with the variation of collector fluid inlet temperature under
collector (RTC) was carried out with different geometric a constant cooling load application in Mumbai, India. It has
parameters. It was found that the fin efficiency of RTC was been motivated to carry out the present work. The present
comparable to triangular profile absorber plate but lower study is based on the combined analysis of the rectangular
than RFC. But, RTC is better than other profile shapes to flat-plate solar collector and the vapour absorption cycle to
transfer more energy at the identical absorber plate volume. obtain the overall system performance and the optimum
1058 J Ther Eng, Vol. 7, No. 5, pp. 1056–1066, July, 2021

design condition. The thermal analysis of the LiBr-H2O the economizer to preheat the rich aqueous solution
absorption cycle using RFC was used to determine various entering the generator. The strong solution mixes with the
system performance factors with the variation in collec- refrigerant from the evaporator in the absorber. The resul-
tor fluid inlet temperature Tf,i. A mathematical model was tant aqueous solution is cooled with the help of cooling
developed to find the collector performance factors such water from the cooling tower to remove the heat by mix-
as fin efficiency, collector efficiency factor, collector flow ing and absorption processes. The cooling water is reused
factor, heat removal factor, and the instantaneous collector in the condenser to cool the refrigerant. The rich aqueous
efficiency. A simulation technique is used with the variation solution is pumped through a drain heat exchanger and
of collector fluid inlet temperature to determine the opti- an economizer to the generator where it again gets heated
mal Tf,i at which the maximum coefficient of performance by the collector fluid.
(COP) and the cooling efficiency of the cycle and system An absorber plate with the rectangular profile is shown
occurred. The heat transfer rate in various components of in Figure 2. The geometrical construction of the collector
the absorption cycle has also been determined. The optimal plate is symmetric and repetitive about the collector flu-
Tf,i to have a minimum absorber plate surface area and plate id-carrying tube. Hence, only a part of the collector plate
volume has been calculated for achieving the same cooling is presented in the figure. For the present analysis of the
effect. The effect of ambient temperature and thermal con- collector, the following assumptions are made:
ductivity of the material on the plate volume has also been
• The conduction of heat energy occurs at a one-di-
studied in the present analysis.
mensional steady-state.
• The surrounding ambient temperature is uniform.
MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS • The absorber plate material is homogenous, uniform
and has constant thermal conductivity.
Figure 1 shows the schematic of the H2O/LiBr absorp-
• The base temperature of the absorber plate is taken
tion cooling system coupled with a flat-plate collector
constantly.
[19]. A rectangular flat-plate collector (RFC) is used in
• The width of the absorber plate is taken as unity.
the present H2O/LiBr absorption cooling system to col-
• The incident radiation from the sun that falls on the
lect the solar radiation energy that falls on its surface and
absorber plate is taken constantly.
converts it into thermal energy of the transport medium.
• The overall loss coefficient is taken to be uniform over
A collector fluid-carrying tube is attached below the
the surface area of the plate.
absorber plate. The base temperature of the absorber plate
at the tube bond Tb is taken constantly. The hot collec- Kundu [3] has already determined the temperature
tor fluid is supplied to the generator to heat the LiBr-H2O distribution in RFC along the length of the absorber plate.
solution to separate out water vapour. The water vapour Due to the symmetric geometric construction, there is no
acts as the refrigerant in the vapour absorption cycle and resultant heat transfer at the midsection of the absorber
gets cooled in the condenser. It is then passed to the evap- plate. Hence, the maximum plate temperature occurs at the
orator through an expansion valve, which takes heat from middle of the two tubes. An energy balance on a differen-
the cooling space to get evaporated at a lower pressure. tial element of an RFC gives the governing equations for
The strong solution left in the generator passes through the temperature distribution. The temperature distribution
depends on the two parameters, the incident flux absorbed
by the absorber plate (Ia) and the overall loss coefficient
(Uc). Duffie and Beckman [20] and Kundu [13] had given
the necessary equation to determine the values of the two
parameters, which depend upon the geographical location,

Figure 1. Flow diagram for solar-assisted single stage H2O/ Figure 2. Schematic 1-D view of a rectangular flat-plate
LiBr vapour absorption refrigeration system. ­collector.
J Ther Eng, Vol. 7, No. 5, pp. 1056–1066, July, 2021 1059

time, and orientation of the absorber plate. The values of Ia

and Uc are given by the following equations:  
qUT  FR Ac  I a  U c T f , i  Ta  ;
  (8)
Ac  nWL    2  ; FR  m  w c pw AcU c
 1  cos  
I a  I b Rb  b  I d    d
 2  Eq. (8) can be applied to any flat-plate collector to deter-
(1) mine the useful heat gain qUT by the collector as the func-
 1  cos  
 I g     tion of fluid inlet temperature. The hear removal factor FR
 2 
g
is defined as the ratio of the actual useful heat gain by the
collector to the useful heat gain if the whole collector is at
and
collector fluid inlet temperature. FR is used to reduce the
solar heat gain by taking into consideration of the mass flow
U c  U t  U b  U e (2) rate of the collector fluid and the losses that occur in the
collector Uc. The collector flow factor F" is the ratio of the
The fin efficiency for RFC [3] is given by heat removal factor to the collector efficiency factor Fʹ as
given by
  tanh  Z0  Z0 ; Z0  Bi  ;
(3)
Bi  U c t c kc ;  t c L  w c pw   A U F  
FR m
F    1  exp   c c   (9)
F  AcU c F    m 
The total energy transfer rate in the absorber plate per   w c pw  
unit width is given by
It can be seen from Eq. (9) that the collector flow fac-
q tor is the function of dimensionless collector capacitance
Q   Z0 tanh  Z0  (4)

kc Tb  Ta  I a Uc  rate. As the mass flow rate increases, the heat removal fac-
tor FR increases correspondingly, and the temperature rise
The solar energy that is absorbed by the absorber plate throughout the collector decreases. This leads to an increase
is transferred through the rectangular plate to the region in the useful heat gain in the collector qUT. Hence, the col-
above the collector fluid-carrying tube. Then, the useful lector flow factor F" is an important parameter to deter-
heat is transferred from the tube bond to the collector fluid. mine the change in qUT with respect to the mass flow rate
The useful heat gain in the direction of collector fluid per of the collector fluid. The temperature of the absorber plate
unit width is calculated as remains high compared to the fluid temperature. The mean
plate temperature of the absorber plate can be determined

qU  kc F  T f , i  Ta  I a U c  2 Z 2
0 
 Bi   (5)
from the following equation:

The collector efficiency factor Fʹ is given by qUT 1  FR 

Tpm  T f , i  (10)
AcU c FR
 2 Z02  Bi 
F  
2 Z 2
 Bi  

 kc 2 Z02  Bi   The total incident radiation on the inclined absorber
 0
1 (6) plate is found by
 1 ln  do di  1 
     1  cos    1  cos  
 kbond 2 kt  hi di  IT  I b Rb  I d 
2   I g  2  (11)
   
As the thermal energy is conducted from the bond to
the collector fluid, the temperature increases as the fluid From Eqs. (8) and (11), we can determine the instanta-
flow from the inlet to the outlet of the tube. The increase in neous collector efficiency as
temperature in the direction of the flow can be expressed as
qUT
c  (12)
Ta  T f , i Ac IT
 A U F 
  1  exp   c c  (7)
 m 
I a U c  Ta  Tf , i   w c pw  The dimensionless plate volume per unit width of the
absorber plate is written as
The total useful energy gain by the collector fluid is
expressed in terms of surface area of the absorber plate AC U c2V 32
U= = Z 0 Bi (13)
and heat removal factor of the collector FR as kc2
1060 J Ther Eng, Vol. 7, No. 5, pp. 1056–1066, July, 2021

Conservation of mass and energy laws are applied to all  COP cyc   Q e Q g 
the components associated with the H2O/LiBr absorption   
cooling system as shown in Fig. 1. The thermodynamic  COP sys   COP cyc c 
    COP (21)
    
properties of the working fluid are calculated at various  
 co cyc   cyc
COP car 
state points in the absorption cycle. All components are      COP   COP  
assumed to be working under steady-state conditions. The  co sys   sys car 

pump work is neglected and pressure changes are present

only through an expansion valve. The mass and energy Optimisation Analysis of Solar-Assisted H2O/LiBr
­balance gives the following relations where h is the specific Absorption Cooling System
enthalpy; ṁ is the mass flow rate of the working fluid; Q̇ In the present study, water is used as the collector fluid,
is the heat transfer rate in the components; x1 and x6 are which carries the solar energy, absorbed by the rectangu-
the mass fraction of LiBr in the weak solution coming out lar flat-plate collector to heat the generator. Under steady-
of the absorber and strong solution from the generator, state conditions, heat gained by the generator is equal to
respectively. the solar heat absorbed by the collector. The generator
The mass balance on the various components of the temperature Tg can be expressed in terms of the inlet tem-
absorption cycle gives us the following equations: perature of the collector fluid Tf,i and the generator heat
transfer rate Q̇ g as
Evaporator: ṁ9 = ṁ10(14)
Tg  T f , i  Q g m
 1c ps  g (22)
Absorber: ṁ1 = ṁ6 + ṁ10(15) 

Generator: ṁ2 = ṁ4 + ṁ7(16) As the generator temperature is an implicit function,

an iterative method has been adopted to determine its
Condenser: ṁ7 = ṁ8(17) value. Firstly, a generator temperature is assumed to find
all the state points in the absorption cycle according to
The energy balance according to the first law of ther- Eqs. (14)–(21). The heat given to the generator is obtained
modynamics in the absorption refrigeration cycle gives the from Eq. (18). The generator temperature is calculated by
following set of equations: substituting all the parameters in Eq. (22) for a particular
collector fluid inlet temperature Tf,i. This process is iterated
to find the converged value of Tg. The collector loss coeffi-
Q eva  m h m  9 h9  cient and the solar heat gained by the collector are calcu-
    10 10  lated for an assumed value of plate mean temperature and
Qabs  m  10 h10  m 6 h6  m 1h1 
Q   m absorber plate surface area. From the obtained value of Q̇ g,
 7 h7  m 4 h4  m 2 h2  (18)
 gen   
Q con  m 7 h7  m 8 h8 
   m  h  m h  
m h  
m h 
Qeco   2 2 4 4 3 3 5 5

In the absorber, the mass fractions x1 and x6 are the

inputs to the cycle. Hence, the relation between ṁ1 and ṁ6
can be calculated as

ṁ1 x1 = ṁ2 x6(19)

The relations for the solution pump and the expansion

valves in the cycle are obtained as

Expansion valves: h5 = h6; h8 = h9(20)

Pump: h1 = h2 (21)

The coefficient of performance (COP) and the cooling

efficiency (ηco) of the absorption cycle and the overall sys-
tem can be expressed as Figure 3. Flow chart for iteration to determine COP.
J Ther Eng, Vol. 7, No. 5, pp. 1056–1066, July, 2021 1061

the plate mean temperature and absorber surface area is The design parameters to calculate enthalpy, the mass
found from Eqs. (10) and (8), respectively. This process is flow rate of the fluid, pressure, temperature, and mass frac-
repeated to obtain the converged value of Tpm and Ac. The tion of the LiBr solution at various state points from 1 to 10
absorber plate volume can be determined from Eq. (13). in the vapour absorption cycle are presented in Table 2. The
A flow chart for the calculation of process parameters is evaporator temperature is taken above the freezing point of
shown in Figure 3. water as it is used as a refrigerant in the absorption cycle.
Other design parameters are selected properly to obtain the
heat transfer rate in various components of the single-stage
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
LiBr/H2O absorption cycle. The COP and the cooling effi-
Based on the above solar-assisted absorption system ciency are also calculated for both the cycle and the system.
analysis, results have been taken for various system perfor- The operating inlet collector temperature Tf,i for which the
mance parameters as a function of the inlet temperature of surface area of the absorber plate and plate volume becomes
the collector fluid. The above analysis can be applied to the a minimum is also obtained from the present study.
straight rectangular profile-based flat-plate collector. The For the validation of the present study, the results
total solar radiation that falls on the collector plate is used obtained have been compared with the existing available
to heat up the surface area of the plate. This heat is con- results in the literature. However, the results of the overall
ducted from the collector fluid to the generator to operate system performance factors of the RFC coupled with the
the absorption cycle by boiling-off the refrigerant from the LiBr-H2O vapour absorption cooling system are unavail-
solution. able as there are limited research works done in this direc-
In the present study, the condenser, evaporator and tion. Hence, the results of the individual analysis of the
absorber temperature is kept constant for a steady cool- two systems have been calculated and compared with the
ing effect. The evaporator capacity is taken as one ton of existing results. In Figure 4a, the instantaneous collector
refrigeration. The generator temperature is the only vari- efficiency for an RFC absorber plate has been compared
able value, which depends upon the inlet collector fluid with the results obtained by Duffie and Beckman [20]. The
temperature. The generator acts as a counter-flow heat variation of absorber plate inlet temperature on the cycle
exchanger between the collector fluid and the H2O/LiBr COP has been calculated and drawn in Figure 4b along with
solution. The effectiveness of the generator is taken as 0.85. the previous results obtained for the vapour absorption
The data for the calculation of various system performance system by Florides et al. [9]. It can be seen that the results
factors are taken for the location in Bombay, India (Latitude obtained from the present model are exactly matched with
= 18.9o N, Longitude = 72.817o E) on January 10, 2018, at the ­existing results.
09:00 hours (IST). The present study is relevant for any The change in the thermal performance factors of the
region on Earth and at any time. Eqs. (1), (2) and (11) are rectangular flat-plate collector with the increase in the
used to determine the values of total incident radiation IT, inlet temperature of the collector fluid is shown in Fig. 5.
absorbent incident radiation Ia and collector loss coefficient With the increase in Tf,i, the overall heat loss coefficient
Uc from the design specifications given in Table 1. The data Uc increases slightly. The fin efficiency η and collector effi-
was taken from the book ‘Solar engineering of thermal pro- ciency factor Fʹ decreases slightly, due to heat loss from the
cess’ written by Duffie and Beckman [20]. collector plate. The heat removal factor FR depends upon
the overall heat loss coefficient Uc, collector efficiency fac-
tor, and collector surface area. This change leads to a rise in
Table 1. Design specifications for solar flat-plate collector
[20]
Table 2. Design parameters for H2O/LiBr absorption
Specifications Symbol Value ­cooling system [20]
Collector tilt angle β 45o
Ambient temperature Ta 27oC
Design Parameter Symbol Value
Collector plate emittance εp 0.95 Evaporator Capacity Q̇e 3.51 kW
Glass cover emittance εg 0.88 Evaporator temperature T10 6oC
Wind side heat transfer coefficient hw 10 W/m2K Condenser temperature T8 45oC
Ground reflectance ρg 0.6 Absorber temperature T1 26oC
Number of glass cover N 1 Weak solution mass fraction x1 50% LiBr
Back-insulation thickness Lb 0.05 m Strong solution mass fraction x6 52.5% LiBr
Insulation conductivity kb 0.045 W/mK Economizer solution exit T3 65oC
Edge loss coefficient of collector Uc 0.3 W/m2K temperature
1062 J Ther Eng, Vol. 7, No. 5, pp. 1056–1066, July, 2021

heat removal factor FR, reaches a maximum value at Tf,i = Figure 6 shows the effects of Tf,i on the heat transfer rate
72oC, then decreases again with increase in Tf,i. The same in various components of the vapour absorption cycle. The
trend is observed in the collector flow factor, which reaches evaporator capacity is maintained at one ton of refrigeration
the maximum point at Tf,i = 75oC . The collector efficiency at a constant temperature of 6oC. Therefore, the mass flow
ηc decreases significantly with increase in Tf,i, due to the the rate of the refrigerant is maintained at a consistent rate. As
decrease in total solar heat gained by the collector fluid. Tf,i increases, the mass flow rate of the weak LiBr solution
Overall, the changes in η, Fʹ and FR are very insignificant entering the generator decreases, leading to an increase in
with an increase in Tf,i. the generator temperature. Hence, more heat is rejected to

Figure 4. Comparison of the results with the previous available results.

Figure 6. Heat transfer rate in different components of

­absorption system with variation of collector fluid inlet
Figure 5. Collector efficiency factors as a function of Tf,i. temperature.
J Ther Eng, Vol. 7, No. 5, pp. 1056–1066, July, 2021 1063

Figure 7. Coefficient of performance and cooling efficiency Figure 8. Influence of collector fluid inlet and ambient
as a function of collector fluid inlet temperature. ­temperatures on collector area for the same evaporator load.

the cooling water during condensation of the refrigerant to temperature decreases, more surface area of the collec-
keep the condenser temperature constant. The heat trans- tor is required to collect more solar heat. But, there is no
fer in the generator also decreases rapidly with the sudden change in the optimum value of Tf,i with change in ambient
decrease in the mass flow rate of the H2O/LiBr solution. It temperature.
reaches a minimum value and then increases slightly with Figure 9 shows the change in plate volume of the col-
a further increase in Tf,i. This is due to the fact that excess lector plate with respect to an increase in the collector fluid
heat energy is required to increase the generator tempera- inlet temperature Tf,i. It follows the same trend as found in
ture. The optimum value of Tf,i for which the heat transfer Figure 8. The plate volume achieves a minimum value for
in the generator is minimum is the design value to have the Tf,i = 77oC. Hence, it is best to operate at this optimum tem-
maximum coefficient of performance of the cycle. The heat perature to get minimum plate volume for the same refrig-
exchange rate in the absorber follows a similar trend to that erating effect. The effect of change in ambient temperature
of the generator. As shown in the figure, it first decreases, and thermal conductivity on plate volume is shown in
then reaches a minimum value, and then increases slightly. Figures 9a and 9b, respectively. The results show that more
The COP of both the cycle and the system follows a ambient temperature and highly conductive material are
similar trend of increase to reach a maximum value for requisite for less collector plate volume.
a particular Tf,i, and then decrease slightly with further
increase in Tf,i. This is due to the result of a change in heat
CONCLUSION
transfer rate in the generator as discussed in Figure 4. As
presented in Figure 7, the COP and the cooling efficiency In the present study, the thermal performance of an
for the cycle is higher than the system as there is a loss of H2O/LiBr absorption cooling system using a rectangular
heat from the collector to the absorption cycle. The cooling flat-plate collector has been analysed. The effect of the col-
efficiency reaches its maximum value faster than the COP lector inlet fluid temperature on the system performances
as it depends inversely on the Carnot COP, which increases keeping other design parameters constant has been con-
linearly with increase in Tf,i. cluded below:
Figure 8 demonstrates the variation of the surface area
of the rectangular flat-plate collector with increase in Tf,i. 1 The plate efficiency and collector efficiency factor
The results show that the surface area is found to have a of the rectangular profile absorber plate decreases
minimum value for a particular Tf,i. At this collector inlet slightly with Tf,i. The solar collector efficiency also
temperature, the overall system requires a minimum cost decreases with Tf,i.
of the collector plate. As can be seen from the graph, there 2 The heat removal factor and the collector flow fac-
are negligible changes to the surface area when the system tor increase with increase in Tf,i, but fall slightly after
operates at different ambient temperatures. As the ambient reaching a maximum value.
1064 J Ther Eng, Vol. 7, No. 5, pp. 1056–1066, July, 2021

Figure 9. Design conditions for collector fluid temperature with variation of ambient temperature and different plate
materials.

3 The coefficient of performance and the cooling effi- cpw specific heat of collector fluid at constant pressure, kJ/
ciency of the cycle are higher than the system and the kg K
difference amplifies with the increase in Tf,i. COP coefficient of performance
4 The heat transfer rates of the generator and the di inner diameter of collector fluid carrying tube, 0.014m
absorber decreases significantly with increase in Tf,i, do outer diameter of collector fluid carrying tube, 0.016m
but maintains a steady value after reaching a mini-
Fʹ collector efficiency factor
mum point. The heat transfer rate in the condenser
increases slightly. F" collector flow factor
5 A minimum value for the surface area of the rectan- FR heat removal factor
gular flat-plate collector has been found at Tf,i = 77oC. h specific enthalpy, kJ/kg
At this temperature, the overall system requires the hl heat transfer coefficient in the inner side of fluid carrying
minimum cost of the plate. The ambient temperature tube, 300 W/m2K
of the surroundings is insignificant changes on the hw wind side heat transfer coefficient, W/m2K
absorber surface area. I total radiation on horizontal surface, W/m2
6 A similar trend has been found for the collector
Ia incident radiation absorbed in absorber plate, W/m2
plate volume. The absorber plate volume increases
with a decrease in ambient temperature and thermal Ib beam radiation on absorber plate, W/m2
­conductivity of the material. Id diffuse radiation on absorber plate, W/m2
7 Finally, the present study helps a designer to establish IT total radiation on the tilted absorber plate, W/m2
a design condition of solar-assisted vapour ­absorption kb insulation thermal conductivity, W/mK
refrigeration system to run the system economically kbond thermal conductivity of bond, 50 W/mK
under a given cooling load at the evaporator.
kc thermal conductivity of absorber plate, W/mK
kt thermal conductivity of collector fluid carrying tube,
NOMENCLATURE 100 W/mK
L distance, m
Ac absorber plate surface area, m2
Bi Biot number, Uctc/kc Lb back insulation thickness of the collector, m
cps specific heat of LiBr/H2O solution at constant pressure, ṁw mass flow rate of collector fluid, 0.5 kg/s
kJ/kg K ṁ mass flow rate of LiBr solution, kg/s
J Ther Eng, Vol. 7, No. 5, pp. 1056–1066, July, 2021 1065

n number of collector fluid carrying tube AUTHORSHIP CONTRIBUTIONS

N number of glass cover Rahul Roy: Materials; Data; Analysis; Literature search;
q heat transfer rate, W Writing. Balaram Kundu: Concept; Supervision; Analysis;
Q dimensionless heat transfer rate, Critical revision; Physical interpretation; Writing; Proofs
qUT total useful heat gain rate per unit length, W/m checking.
Rb ratio of beam on tilted surface to horizontal surface
Ta ambient temperature, oC DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
Tb Tube bond temperature, oC No new data were created in this study. The published
Tfi collector fluid inlet temperature, oC publication includes all graphics collected or developed
Tfo collector fluid outlet temperature, oC during the study.
Tpm average collector temperature, oC
tt absorber plate thickness, m CONFLICT OF INTEREST
U dimensionless absorber plate volume
Ub bottom loss coefficient of the collector, W/m2K
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest
with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication
Uc overall loss coefficient, W/m2K
of this article.
Ue edge loss coefficient of the collector, W/m2K
Ut top loss coefficient, W/m2K
ETHICS
(UA)edge edge loss coefficient-area product, W/K
V absorber plate volume, m3 There are no ethical issues with the publication of this
W width of absorber plate, 1m manuscript.
x mass fraction of LiBr in the solution
Zo dimensionless fin parameter, Bi ϕ REFERENCES
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