Energy Analysis of Solar Collector With perforated Absorber Plate

Abstract

The thermal performance of three solar collectors with 3, 6 mm and without perforation absorber plate was assessed experimentally. The experimental tests were implemented in Baghdad during the January and February 2017. Five values of airflow rates range between 0.01 – 0.1 m³/s were used through the test with a constant airflow rate during the test day. The variation of the following parameters air temperature difference, useful energy, absorber plate temperature, and collector efficiency was recorded every 15 minutes. The experimental data reports that the increases  the number of absorber plate perforations with a small diameter is more efficient rather than increasing the hole diameter of the absorber plate with decreasing the perforation numbers. Maximum air temperature difference throughout the solar collector with 3, 6 mm perforations and without perforations are 17, 15, and 12 ^oC, respectively. Also, it can be concluded that the energy gained from the solar collector with 3 mm perforation absorber plate is 28.2 % more than the energy gained from solar collector without holes per day for 0.1 m³/s airflow rate. The maximum values of the thermal performance curves are 0.67, 0.64, and 0.56 for the solar collector with 3, 6 mm, and without perforations, respectively.