Numerical Investigation of the Performance of Solar Collectors

Abstract

Solar energy is the most abundant form of energy on this planet. In Europe and other countries with relatively low temperatures, where hot water is one of the basic needs for human beings, solar collectors are used to fulfilling their needs. In this paper performance of the solar collector will be analyzed using ANSYS software. Under specific conditions, different analyses will be performed to evaluate the performance of a solar collector containing water as heat transfer fluid. A Computational Fluid Dynamics, CFD analysis will be performed to check the heat transfer capability of copper (Cu) and aluminum (Al). The surging temperature could cause deformation, so in this paper, ANSYS structural software will be used to analyze the sustainability of structure under solar heat, so the performance of each material in solar energy applications can be estimated. After these analyses, we will be able to predict the maximum output temperature accurately we can obtain at a different time of the day, and each temperature we will analyze the maximum deformation within the structure because the pipes of solar collectors are not usually too thick, so the selection of material for the pipe is crucial. The purpose of this work is to simulate the performance of solar collectors under specific conditions and understand the temperature distribution along with the collector and also analyze the deformation we can obtain at different temperatures.