Studies on the effect of internal longitudinal fins and nanoparticles on the performance of solar flat plate collectors

Abstract

Solar energy plays a vital role in energy conservation and has become established towards satisfying the hot water requirements of the world Solar Water Heating SWH is a largely straight forward and competent manner to harness the energy arising from the sun An enhancement in the design construction and operation of a solar water heating system would definitely optimise the investment costs even though the system may have a low average efficiency in the range of 35 60 Among the different kinds of solar water heating systems available the flat plate type is commonly preferred due to its ruggedness and effective generation of hot water The flat plate type successfully eliminates the need of any tracking mechanism within the temperature range of 60 to 900 C newlineHence the current work is focussed on an attempt to improve the efficiency of the existing flat plate system by adopting a replacement of the traditional riser tubes with internallyfinned tubes The replacement of plain copper tubes with internally finned tubes potentially enhances the rate of heat transfer of the existing system newline newline