Abstract
This work studies an experimental investigation on a compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) integrated with a solar water heater. The CPC is used to increase the solar radiation concentration on the flat plate collector. Further, the performance of the solar water heater is improved by introducing turbulators in the riser tubes of the solar collector. For this, 1/4th, 1/2, and 3/4th sectional washer has been inserted with various pitch values (25 mm, 50 mm, and 75 mm). Experiments are carried out for different Reynolds numbers, ranging from 4,500 to 14,500. The result shows that the CPC water heater (without insert) has achieved 16% more water temperature than the conventional water heater. Also, studies with inserts show that heat transfer and pressure drop are higher in sectional washer insert-fitted collector as compared to the plain collector. The heat transfer enhancement for sectional washer inserts is 1.65 times higher than for the plain tube collector.
Contents
of Vol.17(1) March 2018 