CFD Simulation of the Natural Convection of Pinned Plate Solar Absorber

• Main Author: Mohd Suhaimi, Nur Aqilah
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI PETRONAS 2012
• Subjects: TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/6236/1/NUR%20AQILAH%2012132%20Dissertation%20rev%202.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/6236/

This paper corresponds to the natural convection heat transfer study on Solar Panel technology. Main principle of this study is to increase efficiency of solar panel rate of absorption by studying heat transfer activity on solar absorber plate. Introduction of modification on solar absorber plate induced variance heat transfer activity. The study aims to exhibit effect of these variables modification on natural convection heat transfer activity on solar absorber plate. CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) Simulation is tool to study the fluid flow properties by simulating model with various variables. In this experiment, ANSYS 14 is used for simulation and raw data of temperature and velocity at outlet imported into calculation part which configured earlier. Final result of Nusselt number, Rayleigh number, and Reynolds Number then tabulated in tables and plotted in graphs. These dimensionless numbers represent heat transfer activity, which discussed thoroughly. There are four (4) manipulated variables in this experiment, 1) degree of absorber plate inclination, 2) height of cone-shape pin installed on absorber plate, 3) passage length of absorber plate and 4) solar irradiance input. Finally, all the result then compared with other correlations configured earlier and convection flow properties studied for comprehensive study.