Chapter 1: Introduction: Experimental Study On ETC at Different Tilt Angles With Non-Edible Oil As Heat Transfer Medium
Chapter 1: Introduction: Experimental Study On ETC at Different Tilt Angles With Non-Edible Oil As Heat Transfer Medium
Chapter 1: Introduction: Experimental Study On ETC at Different Tilt Angles With Non-Edible Oil As Heat Transfer Medium
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1. INTRODUCTION
To design and construct an Evacuated Tube solar collector with enhanced performance of
solar collector for drying purpose. The present study comprises of three major parts
namely,
1.2 OBJECTIVES
--To improve the efficiency of the Evacuated Tube Solar Collector by using forced
convection.
-- To design the frame that can change the angle of tubes accordingly.
1.3 SCOPE
It is observed that the evacuated tube collectors are more efficient than the flat plate
collector. The literature gives the information about the effect of tilt angle and its
advantages. Study is extended to carry out the experimental performance with thermal
heat storage material used in ETC system, so that this heat can be utilized in evening
time, when solar radiations are not available so that he evacuated tube solar collector can
be used in cloudy days as well as in winter seasons.
1.4 METHODOLOGY
The objective of the project is to study the thermal performance of an evacuated tube
solar air heating system with one end close and other end open evacuated tubes at
different time, different angles by using engine oil as heat exchanger. The purpose of this
study is to develop an effective, economical and efficient solar collector for drying food
products in rural areas.
The literature study reveals that ETC solar collector gives better performance by
changing tilt angle of the tubes. Experiment comprises of five one end close evacuated
tubes and header. The tubes and the header both filled with engine oil. As the solar
radiation falls on the solar tubes, inner tube of the evacuated tube absorbs the radiation
and heat up the oil present inside the tubes and header and then from oil to the air passing
in the pipe placed inside the heat exchanger.
The report has been organized into five chapters and each chapter has been briefly
described respectively and has been summarized accordingly below,
Chapter-1 Introduction
Chapter-1covers the problem statement of our project. It gives us the basic outline
on work which is to be done. In this chapter, the detail content of objective is also
expressed along with the scope of work and its methodology. All of these are covered in
this chapter.
Chapter-3 Design
Chapter-3 deals with the overall design of the project. It consists of different
points which mainly focus on why we are doing this or the need of such study which will
help the food industry as well as medical industry to carry out the drying processes. The
methodology adopted to carryout the research work, along with overview of the study
which gives the idea of how the project work was carried out. Experimental setup of the
study and its different components like measuring instruments, evacuated tube collectors,
header, frame, different epoxy adhesive, blowing fan, etc. are given along with its figures
used for recording the data with uncertainties in the measurements. The detailed study of
frame building is given in this chapter giving the brief idea of different tools required in
the whole process. The chapter also gives the brief introduction to dimensional
specification of each component along with its quantity in which it is used. The chapter
also includes the design equation of the evacuated tube collector system to find out the
efficiency of the system.
Chapter-4 presents the details of the experimental data and its analysis carried out
for finding the efficiency of the system. The various performance parameters like
ambient temperature, temperatures at inlet and outlet of air passage, oil temperature,
velocity of air, etc. are measured in the experimentation procedure. From all those
reading taken at two different angles are used to find the efficiency of the system. Sample
calculations are also shown in this chapter for clarification of the mathematical design
equations. All the results are shown in the graphical format for better understanding.
Chapter-5 presents the summary of this work, its results, conclusions and
recommendations. The limitations of this research and the issues require further study
have also been addressed in this chapter.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
The following conclusions have been made from the experiment conducted that the outlet
temperature of air changes as solar radiation intensity increases. This experiment is
conducted in normal days between 10:00 am to 3:30 pm where ambient temperature is 28
C-42 C with air flow rate of 15.9 m/s. This experimental setup can be used as an
alternative for many purposes such as air heating, water heating, and purposes related to
it. This is a clean and renewable source of energy. It has many future scopes of utilization
for energy generation.
This paper presents the performance of a solar water heater with evacuated tubes
integrated with phase change materials. The results show that phase change material
integrated inside the inner tubes of evacuated tube solar collectors can effectively store
energy (in the form of latent heat) next to the heat pipes and enable a delayed cooling
after sunset or late evening. The proposed solar collector utilizes two distinct phase
change materials (dual-PCM), namely Tritriacontane and Erythritol with melting temper-
ature 70℃ and 118℃ respectively. The operation of solar water heater with the proposed
solar collector is investigated during both normal and on-demand operation. The
feasibility of this technology is tested via large scale commercial solar water heaters. This
study shows a significant efficiency improvement of dual-PCM solar water heaters for
both normal and stagnation operation, compared with standard solar water heaters that
lack phase change materials.
A.B. Ubale. et al. (2015) In the present study evacuated tube solar collector is designed,
fabricated and its performance is tested in the force convection mode of het transfer. The
solar collector is designed for the grape dryer of capacity 10 kg per batch. Experiments
are carried out in the month of April to produce raisins from Thomson Seedless grapes,
with initial moisture content of 77 % to final moisture content of 19% in 36 hours.
Raisins produced from this system are tested for varies parameters to check its quality
and found satisfactory results. The average collector efficiency is found to be 23.4%.
Husainy (2015) has designed Forced Convection Solar Dryer for grapes and it was
studied experimentally at Miraj, India (16.830N). The Flat Plate Solar Collector System
was used which was connected to drying chamber. The experimental study was carried
out with a batch of 30kg of good quality of grapes. It was observed experimentally that,
in case for Solar Dryer drying time was reduced up to 6 days as compared to Shade
Drying which requires 10-12 days. He reported that solar dried grapes took less time to
reach the Final Safe Moisture Content as compared to Shade Dried grapes with superior
quality of raisins.
The following conclusions have been arrived at, from the experimental investigations
carried out in the present work on solar grape dryer.
1. Dried grape (raisin) production is possible with developed solar dryer in much
shorter time. An indirect type of solar dryer with forced air circulation can be
used to produce superior quality resin acceptable in international market.
2. The drying experiment conducted with grapes and was found that the complete
drying process could be attained with 30 hours, which is very less to open sun
dryer.
3. Mass flow rate of air must be kept as low as possible considering outlet air
temperature so that reduced drying time with increased efficiency can be
obtained.
4. As observed in literature the drying time drastically reduces with pre treatment,
same results are also obtained with this experimentation also.
Panwar et al. (2015) has carried out the thermal performance analysis of ETC solar air
heating system, similar to that of Kumar (2013) done with additional aluminium tubes
which were inserted in each evacuated tube to improve the performance. Various
experiments were carried out with Forced Air Circulation generated by air blower. It was
observed that the thermal efficiency of the system, using reflector with high air flow rate,
was nearly double than the thermal efficiency of system without using reflector and low
air flow rate. It was also recorded that the highest temperature difference between the
inlet and outlet air of 65.8℃ with the use of reflector. This long wave radiation gets
trapped in the systems creating the green house effect. Due to this effect the temperature
inside the chamber can rise up 20℃, more than ambient air temperature. This heated air
inside the drying chamber passes through the trays stacked and evaporates the moisture
of food product. These kinds of systems are suitable for large scale production, with
relatively low drying temperature
D. Mishra et al.(2014) Solar energy can be used as many domestic and industrial
purpose; such as water heating, solar cooking, irrigation purpose, cooling, space heating,
drying purpose for both industrial and domestic sector and also electricity generation
purpose it is used. Active solar technique include use of photovoltaic panels and thermal
collectors and passive solar technique include selecting material with favorable thermal
mass or light collecting characteristics. Due to change in extra terrestrial radiation
received by earth’s surface is subjected to vary. The solar radiation average density above
earth’s atmosphere in a plane perpendicular to the rays is 1353 W/m2.
The evacuated tube solar water heating device is one of the efficient way for house hold
purpose not because of its efficient as compare to other means of water heating devices
but also it is eco-friendly and non polluting device. Its requited only one time investment
the after certain time period it does not require any charges for outcome except maintains
which is almost negligible). It returns your money in 567 sunny days and next 20 years it
will be free. This is step towards reducing pollution free environment.
Al-Tabbkh et al.(2014) The present work deals with experimental study of an evacuated
tube solar collector. The collector consist of 5 evacuated tubes filled with ordinary engine
oil an addition stainless steel pipe is integrated with the tubes to carry the working fluid.
The steel pipe is bent 5 times to form U-shape turn. Each U-turn is immersed in single
evacuated tube. Oil acts as heat transfer medium between tube inner surface and stainless
steel pipe outer surface. Experiments are carried out for several value of water mass flow
rate and under various metrological conditions (irradiance ambient temperature).
Experiments were carried out on a proposed design of an evacuated-tube solar collector
to find out its applicability to produce high temperature water or steam. It was found that
using long and small diameter through-flow pipe results in many operation problems
caused by high frictional losses inside the pipe. To overcome the problems a collector
with larger area and higher mass flow rate should be employed. It was also found that
engine oil is an efficient medium for heat transfer between the evacuated tube inner
surface and the through-flow pipe outer surface. However other fluids may also be used
in place of oil like anti-freeze solutions or fluids with suspended nano-particles. The
effects of changing the collector geometry (pipe length and diameter) on the minimum
mass flow rate necessary to overcome friction and produce steam requires further future
investigations.
Da-Silva et al.(2014) has carried out the comparative drying study of seedless grape
which were dried at low temperature. It was found that models which were chosen have,
a common characteristic, an analytical expression for the derivative of dimensionless
moisture content with respect to time. The results were compared to simulate the drying
kinetics which indicated that, despite Page’s and Silva et al models well represented the
process, the best model was Peleg model. For this model, the statistical indicators of the
Rajagopal et al. (2014) has design and developed Evacuated Tube Solar System with
Forced Air Circulation made by blower. The system was used for drying experimentation
of food products at Coimbatore district Tamilnadu, India. It was found in the literature
that, by using Forced Convection Mode of heat transfer used for ETC solar system
improves the drying of food products, significantly the quality of dried products also
improved. Hence the experimental study was carried out for drying agriculture food
product with forced convection and he compared the performance with Natural
Convection Solar Drying.
In this experimental study, the drying of copra was investigated under the two different
modes as natural and forced convection. The indirect type force convection solar dryer
with evacuated tube collector generates air temperature higher inside the chamber and
enhance drying rate there by reducing drying time required to dry the product. The time
taken by solar dryer with forced convection to reach desired moisture content is less than
time required in natural convection. As solar dryer using evacuated tube collector can
perform better even during cloudy days and winter season. The designed indirect type
solar dryer utilized more solar thermal energy as a result obtained as reducing the time
required to dry the copra and also improves quality of drying product.
Gowda and Ugrasen (2014) stated performance of evacuated tube solar water heaters
with and without heat exchanger for domestic hot water applications has been studied.
One dimensional analytical method was used to analyze the thermal performance of
evacuated tubes. Experimental results indicate that thermal performance of two-phase
closed system is higher than single- phase system. Heat collected by working fluid is less
This study is carried out at preliminary stage to study in depth, the analysis of grape
drying by forcing convection method. The performance of the modified drier is found to
be satisfactory. It is observed that forced convection for grape drying reduces the drying
period. It is also noticed that moisture removal rate is increased by 7% than the
conventional method and due to turbo ventilator fan the night hour drying rate is
increased from 1.8 grams/hrs to 2.1 grams/hrs.
On the other side, a low airflow can conduct to as much as 100 °C of temperature
gain, but the efficiency is then reduced to value as low as 45 %.
This work presents new design of thermal solar collector using air as working fluid
and evacuated tubes open at both ends as basic components. This solar collector is
intended to provide best performances in cold climates. A simple axis symmetric 1D
model of heat exchanges taking place in single evacuated solar tube is presented and
experimental validation of results are provided. A good agreement between
simulations and experiment measurements is found. Root of mean square error 0.52 C
is calculated on outlet of air flow temperature Tout. This suggests that collectors
should be design with maximum air flow rate to ensure maximum efficiency while
respecting constraints of minimum temperature gain required by the process, if any.
Future of work include development of tubes that could sustain constraints caused by
thermal expansion of hot inner tube for very low or no air flow.
Sundari and Neelamegam (2013) have studied drying behavior of the Muscat grapes by
using Evacuated Type Solar Drier in Thanjavur, Tamil nadu, India. During their
experimentation temperature at various places, relative humidity, wind velocity and mass
of the sample was recorded and quantities were calculated with drying period, dryer
efficiency per hour basis. The newly designed solar dryer with evacuated tube collector
considerably reduces the drying period of chilli. The use of heat storage material still
reduces the drying period of the newly designed dryer. The time taken by the solar dryer
is one-third of the time taken by natural sun drying. The efficiency of the solar dryer with
heat storage material is higher than the efficiency of the solar dryer without heat storage
material. Similarly, the moisture loss and specific moisture extraction ratio are higher for
the designed solar dryer with heat storage material than without heat storage material.
The quality of the solar dried chilli using the designed dryer is high in terms of color,
flavor and appearance as compared to the natural sun dried one. As the dryer makes use
of evacuated tube collector, it can perform better during winter season and off-sunshine
period than the dryer that makes use of flat plate collector. The drying process can be
controlled in the designed dryer. It is also evident that the thermal storage material helps
in improving the performance of the solar dryer with evacuated tube collector. This dryer
can be used to dry any agricultural product and product that cannot be dried under natural
sun drying. Solar dried product meets the standard of exporting and farmers can make a
good profit. This type of solar dryers can play a major role in improving the economic
growth of a nation.
Kumar et al.(2013) studied experimentally performance of the ETC solar system for
different air flow rates. The experimental study was carried out in Indian climatic
conditions, with air used as working fluid. The array of 15 evacuated tubes was arranged
with a central manifold channel (a square pipe) connecting all tubes parallel to each
other. The inlet and outlet temperature was measured and instantaneous thermal
efficiencies of the system were calculated, to analyze the performance of the ETC solar
system.
Dabra et al. (2013) has experimentally studied the performance of the Evacuated Tube
Solar Collector with air used as working fluid for different collector tilt angles. It was
shown that tilt angle has a significant influence on the collector outlet temperature and in
turn thermal efficiency of the system. It was carried out the experiments with and without
reflector arranged at the bottom of ETC system. It was also showed that the thermal
performance of the ETC system with a tilt angle of 30° by using reflector is better than
the system arranged at` tilt angle of 45°, with or without reflector.
Experimental results revealed that the collector tilt angle had significant effects on
thermal performance of evacuated tubes solar air collector with reflector. Results showed
that the temperature difference of air and thermal efficiency of evacuated tube solar air
collector at 30 degree tilt angle is better as compared to 45 degree tilt angle. Results also
showed that 30 degree tilt angle with reflector had more thermal performance as
compared to the45 degree angle with and without reflector. These indicated that steep
collector tilt angle decrease thermal performance of evacuated solar air collector and the
thermosyphonic circulation phenomenon. The future aspect of evacuated solar tube
collector are regeneration of desiccants, solar cooking in evening with help of phase
change material for domestic purpose evacuated solar tube air collector based of thermo
siphon is used for room heating for industrial purpose-hot water generation, hot air
generation, regeneration of desiccants wheel and also in air conditioner.
Yadav et al. (2011) has investigated the experimental performance of the Solar Air
Heating System by using one end open evacuated tubes. The array of parallel forty
evacuated tubes connected to each other was used to generating the hot air, with collector
surface area measured as 4.44 m2. The standard dimensions of each evacuated tube as
length and outer and inner glass tube diameters were 1500 mm, 47 mm and 37 mm,
respectively. It was used 1500 mm length square the header (190 mm x 190 mm) with
108 litres of water used as primary working fluid and air was passed through the 60 mm
pipe, which it worked as secondary working fluid. It was found that the collector outlet
temperature of air depends on various factors like air flow rate and solar radiation. Two
techniques were used like, up-flow and down-flow of air in header in similar weather
conditions, with different air flow rates. It was found that the system was very effective
for the air heating purpose. The comparison was made between the results obtained for
down flow and up flow configuration with concluding remark that down flow
configuration was more efficient due to less losses.
At the same operating conditions in downward flow and outward flow, a temperature of
600C or more is achievable in downward flow. Such an outlet temperature in upward
flow is not achieved because of losses in upward flow. The result show that temperature
differences of upward head and lower head, both of water and surface of pipes on
respective ends is lower in down-flow. Thus efficiency of downward flow is much better.
Rushi et al. (2010) has successfully compared the results of flat plate collector with and
without tracking. He performed the experimentation on a 100 liters/day capacity flat plate
water heater, which was commercially available. He instrumented that collector and
developed into an experimental test-rig to conduct the experiments on it. The experiments
were conducted for seven days, when the atmospheric conditions were almost uniform.
The data was collected both for fixed and tracked conditions of the flat plate collector. It
was observed that there was an average rise of 4oC in the outlet temperature. It was found
that there was a gain in collector efficiency by 5-7% by using tracking mechanism.
Hong-Wei Xiao, et.al (2010) have studied drying kinetics and quality of Monukka
seedless grapes in an impingement dryer under different drying temperatures and air
velocities. It was observed that the effect of the drying air velocity has less influence on
the drying rate than the drying air temperature. The effective moisture diffusivity was
calculated by using Fick’s equation and found in the range of 1.820x10-10 to 5.84x10-10
m/s2. It was reported that the hardness of the raisins had shown increasing trend with
drying air temperature. It was shown with experimental results that the drying air
temperature has significant effect on the retention of Vitamin C, and there was no definite
correlation between the drying air velocity and retention of Vitamin C of the raisins. The
retention ratio of Vitamin C was observed in their experiments in the range of 10.26 to
39.73%.
The effect of drying temperature and air velocity on drying kinetics and quality of
monukka seedless grapes, which subjected to thin layer air impingement drying, where
examined in this investigation. In case of drying kinetics the drying temperature and air
velocity where found to have an effect on drying rate on monukka seedless grape. In
terms of quality of dried grapes the texture and vitamin c retention were studied.
Regarding textural durability, the hardness values showed an increasing trend as drying
temperature increased but no significant relationship was found between air velocity and
sample hardness. The retention of Vitamin C was controlled by drying temperature.
However drying air velocity did not show any significant influence on Vitamin C
retention.
CHAPTER 3: DESIGN
3. DESIGN
3.1 INTRODUCTION
Agriculture is considered to be the backbone of Indian economy as 65-70% of the
population depend on agriculture for employment and livelihood. But, yet the national
food production could not meet the needs of the population. It is found that, post- harvest
loss of fruits and vegetables are high. Improper preservation of seasonal agricultural
products and depleting energy reserves cause considerable loss, thereby reducing the food
supply significantly.
At the time of harvesting, most of the agricultural products have high moisture content.
Agricultural products, if left as such will biologically degrade due to the growth of
microorganisms. So, to preserve them for future purpose and to make it available
throughout the year proper preserving technique is to be adopted.
Drying is a method of food preservation which can improve the shelf life of agricultural
products mainly fruits and vegetables. Drying reduces moisture content of a product to a
level below which deterioration does not occur and thus prevents fermentation or growth
of moulds. Products after drying process fetch a better market price. Thus, drying helps
the farmers to secure a greater economic return which in turn enhance the economy of the
nation.
The disadvantages of traditional sun drying are contamination by dirt, insects, dust, rain
etc. Also, it requires continuous monitoring throughout the drying period, to safeguard
the product when the weather becomes worse and to protect it from domestic animals.
Also, the product dried is found to be unhygienic and the quality of the product is very
poor.
Several attempts to improve sun drying have introduced solar dryers for agricultural
applications as a promising alternate that shows increased dryer efficiency. Several
research and performance studies on solar dryer with flat plate collectors and heat storage
material have been reported aiming at the improvement of the traditional drying systems.
From the literature, it is found that solar collector is one of the best type of drying
techniques to dry fruits and vegetables. Also, it is observed that most of the dryers use
only flat plate collectors. But the evacuated tube collector has many advantages in
compare to flat plate collectors such as high efficiency and performance even in bad
weather. A few experimental studies have been conducted on solar evacuated tube dryers;
thus, in this research work, an attempt has been made to design and develop a evacuated
tube solar collector filled with the engine oil as heat transfer medium or working medium
at different tilt angles.
Solar drying of food products can be most successfully employed as a cost effective
drying technique. It has got several advantages over Open Sun Drying Process., the
solar energy is available at free cost and can be harnessed in the site itself. It is also
possible to have controlled drying by using this method and it enhances the organoleptic
qualities of dried product as well. Hence solar drying systems must be properly
designed so that one can achieve particular drying conditions of specific crops and to
give satisfactory performance with respect to energy requirements. Literature shows
that use of evacuated tubes in solar collector could give higher thermal efficiency than
Flat plate collector. So ETC solar system is accordingly selected and designed for this
study.
3.2 METHODOLOGY
This study has been carried out with the purpose of developing an effective, economical
and efficient solar collector system for drying food products in the rural areas of India.
The literature study reveals that ETC solar collector has better performance amongst all
types available. Hence solar collector is selected as ETC solar system and accordingly
the collector parameters, like total exposed solar collector area, mass flow rate, etc.
system is designed. The experimental analysis and simulations were employed to ensure
an effective and cost efficient design. The designed components were then fabricated and
tested under uncontrolled environmental condition and efficiency of the system is
calculated.
Designing of solar system, deals with developing a solar ETC system. The experimental
study of the solar collector means analysis of the collected data of the solar collector to
find its performance and relations of every element of the system on each other. The
research work has been carried out in following four phases,
Phase (2) Design and Fabrication of evacuated tube solar collector system
1. Pyranometer
2. Anemometer
3. RTD
4. Thermocouple
3.4.1.1 Pyranometer
A Pyranometer is used for measuring solar irradiance on a planar surface and it is
designated to measure the solar radiation flux density from the hemisphere above within
a wavelength range 0.3 to 3 micrometer. Solar radiation is measured with the help of
solar Pyranometer having the accuracy +3%.
3.4.1.2 Anemometer
An Anemometer is a device used for measuring the wind speed and is also a common
weather station instruments. Air velocity is measured for all reading with anemometer
(accuracy 0.1m/s) with all the velocity variations.
3.4.1.4 Thermocouples
A thermocouple is an electrical device consisting of two dissimilar electrical conductors
forming electrical junction at differing temperatures. A thermocouple produces a
temperature dependent voltage as a result of the thermoelectric effect, and this voltage
can be interpreted to measure temperature. Thermocouples are a widely used type
of temperature sensor. To calculate the different temperatures K type thermocouples are
used. Various temperatures like ambient condition, air outlet, air inlet, temperature of
engine oil at inlet and temperature of engine oil at outlet are recorded per hour.
All the equipment are calibrated with the standard calibrating agency.
absorbing material (Aluminum Nitrite) for collecting the incident solar radiation and
transmitting it to working fluid passing through it. The closed volume between the outer
and the inner tube being evacuated works as a thermal insulator, preventing heat loss
primarily due to convection and conduction. Thus the trapped solar energy absorbed and
transmitted to working fluid gets prevented from escaping backward to the environment
(green house phenomenon).
The design of the frame of the Evacuated tube solar collector was done under
considerations of environmental and equipment parameters. We have taken 5 possible
evacuated tubes (47 mm in diameter) of length 1800 mm which gives us the area for
actual working for our study. We had first enlisted the possible materials for designing
frame on basis of parameters such as weight, temperature, density, surface roughness, air
flow rate and at last cost of the material (per meter). The possible materials were
Stainless Steel, Iron, Galvanized Iron and Aluminum.
As a fact, the Aluminum material is light in weight and not high in cost. On the other
hand, the Galvanized Iron was also low in cost and strength was also considerable. The
Stainless Steel has high cost that’s why it was out of consideration. We selected the
Aluminum material for our frame construction. The design of frame was first made with
the help of the CAD software. As the construction of earlier frames, which were likely to
be fixed for same angle from the fixed bottom and the Solar collector were only fixed to
attend the radiations of the sun at that angle only. This probably decreases the surface
area that to be attended by the radiations and affects the efficiency of the working solar
collector. For overcoming this situation, we constructed a frame which can be turned with
the help of rotating links. With help of this rotation of the links, the frame was turned and
desired angles were acquired (28 and 33 deg). Depending upon the angles of the frame
different efficiencies are calculated.
The outer body of heat exchanger or header is made up of stainless steel. This header has
5 holes of diameter of 48mm on it to place the evacuated tube. Open end of these tubes
are in these holes and the close ends are supported by the frame. The header has a
circular hollow pipe in the center along its length.
Header size – 750*76.2*76.2 (mm)
Araldite and M-seal both are two component epoxy putty having adhesive properties and
resistance chemicals. Araldite is used to seal all the gaps of the header after spot welding
and M-seal is used for sealing, Joining, fixing. It is used in multiple segments. It bonds
almost anything its high cohesive strength. In our project we used them to fix the
evacuated tubes in the header or heat exchanger to prevent the leakage of oil from header
and tubes.
3.4.5 Fan
Fan is used as blower, to vary the air inlet velocity at the inlet pipe. Velocity of the air
through the fan is measured by the anemometer.
The collected data consists of several uncertainty sources during measurements such as
solar radiation measurement, temperature measurement at various locations in collector
and dryer, air velocity, relative humidity, current and voltage measurements, etc. In
current experimentation, it is assumed that there is negligible heat loss from dryer
chamber to the surrounding. Further the heat losses due to convection and radiation from
evacuated tubes are considerably very small, hence are not calculated separately. The
pressure drop of the working fluid in the collector is also not considered as the air
velocity is measured at inlet and outlet of dryer. Successive measurements under identical
operating conditions give different results with small change. This variation is of the
order of 2–5% which is acceptable.
If air is passed through pipe surrounded by fluid having temperature higher than ambient
temperature the air will take the heat from them. The oil filled in the evacuated tubes and
the header (heat pipe) is heated by the solar energy falling on the system. Energy falling
on tubes is absorbed by the vacuum present between the inner and outer tube and given to
the oil filled within it. The energy balance equation is given as,
Where mo is mass of oil, Cpo is specific heat of oil and ΔT is the temperature difference
between the inlet oil temperature and outlet oil temperature.
Heat stored by oil is transferred to the pipe from which air is passing. The heat gained by
the air is given by,
Where, ma is air passing through the pipe, Cpa is the specific heat of air, ΔT is the
temperature difference between the air inlet and outlet temperature.
ma = ρ * Vair * A
where, ρ is density of air, Vair is the velocity of air and A is the area of tube
Efficiency of the heat gained by the oil due to the solar radiation falling on the tubes is
given by,
Ac= (π/2) * D * L * N
where, D and L are diameter and length of the tube in m, N is number of tubes and Ig is
the total global solar radiations falling on the tubes.
Efficiency of heat gained by the air flowing through the pipe fixed in the header due to
increased temperature of the oil is given by,
3.7 FABRICATION
For fabrication we have visited different shops, vendors for required material. As the
whole project is useful for farmers and different companies where the drying of material
is needed, our objective was to select the materials at optimum price.
We cannot neglect the quality of product for sake of low cost, by considering all
parameters the material was selected. This method was carried out for all material we
required. The list of materials we used along with its specifications is given below.
Tools Required
(1) Spanners
(2) Drilling Machine
(3) Cutter
(4) Abrasive Saw
(5) Measuring Tape
For the fabrication of Header, laser cutting is done. First we have created the design on
AutoCAD locating the holes required for mounting the evacuated solar tubes. By using
the laser cutting operation for header design we have minimized the possibilities of oil
leakage. After the cutting operation was done the next step was the bending of sheet
metal in its required form. After bending of sheet metal in the square shape or we can say
the box is formed and it was sealed by spot welding on its corner. Generally one side is
open in any bending process that was sealed by spot welding. Both the sides of header
are sealed by stainless steel plate welded on the header. After the spot welding process
all corners are covered by epoxy solution to prevent any leakages.
In this chapter the methodology adopted along with the step-by-step approach employed,
for carrying out the research work has been described. The experimental setup and the
measuring instruments used for collecting the experimental data are also explained in this
chapter. The uncertainty analysis in the measuring instruments while gathering the
observations is essential which is explained here. The next chapter which covers the
detailed analysis of the collected data of solar collector is described according to the
methodology.
This chapter consists of the step by step procedure of the experiment. It deals with the
collection of the experimental data and its analysis. The performance of the solar ETC
system was analyzed under the uncontrolled environmental conditions. The collector
thermal efficiency was calculated by calculating mass flow rate and heat gained by the
working fluid. These efficiencies were calculated and their relationships with other
parameters were studied.
As the study is mainly focused on solar radiations, proper site selection is very important
to get maximum use of sun rays. The setup was mounted on an open space so that
maximum usage of sun radiations in sunshine hours i.e. from 9 to 5 can be obtained.
The K-type thermocouples were used to measure the temperature of surrounding, air
inlet temperature from where the air is passing through, air outlet temperature of pipe, oil
inlet temperature at the entry of air and oil outlet temperature at exit of air flow by using
12 channels RTD. RTD, resistant temperature difference is an instrument which gives
direct value of temperature in degree Celsius.
To calculate the total global solar radiation the Pyranometer is adjusted on plane surface
by observing the bubble indicator and adjusting it in the center to get the direct beam
solar radiations. Anemometer is used to measure the velocity of air flowing through pipe
at its both ends. A small blower is used to blow air to the pipe like forced convection
where the air is forcefully passed through the duct to gain the heat from its surrounding.
The readings were taken from morning 10 am to evening 5 pm at every hour and
required parameters were observed and noted. By following the mathematical design
procedure all calculations were done.
4.2 OBSERVATIONS
Above readings were taken at constant velocity of air Vair = 1.32 m/s
𝑉 = 𝜋 ∗ 𝑟2 ∗ 𝐿 ∗ 𝑁
𝑉 = 𝜋 ∗ 0.0192 ∗ 1.8 ∗ 5
𝑽 = 𝟎. 𝟎𝟏𝟎𝟐 𝒎𝟐
𝑚𝑜 = 𝜌𝑂 ∗ 𝑉
𝑚𝑜 = 834 ∗ 0.0102
𝒎𝒐 = 𝟖. 𝟓𝟏 𝒌𝒈
𝑚𝑎 = 𝜌𝑎 ∗ 𝐴𝑎 ∗ 𝑣
𝒎𝒂 = 𝟖. 𝟏𝟗 ∗ 𝟏𝟎−𝟒 𝒌𝒈/𝒔
𝑚𝑜 ∗ 𝐶𝑝𝑜 ∗ 𝛥𝑇
(𝑄𝑜)𝑎𝑏𝑠 =
3600 ∗ 𝑆
8.51 ∗ 16400 ∗ 12
(𝑄𝑜)𝑎𝑏𝑠 =
3600 ∗ 8
(𝑄𝑜)𝑎𝑏𝑠
Ƞ𝑜𝑖𝑙 = ∗ 100
𝐼𝐺 ∗ 𝐴𝑐
58.51
Ƞ𝑜𝑖𝑙 = ∗ 100
682 ∗ 0.6644
Ƞ𝒐𝒊𝒍 = 𝟏𝟐. 𝟖𝟑 %
(𝑄𝑎)𝑎𝑏𝑠 = 𝑚𝑎 ∗ 𝐶𝑝 ∗ ∆𝑇
(𝑸𝒂)𝒂𝒃𝒔 = 𝟗. 𝟖𝟖 𝑱⁄𝒔
(𝑄𝑎)𝑎𝑏𝑠
Ƞ𝑎𝑖𝑟 = ∗ 100
(𝑄𝑜)𝑎𝑏𝑠
9.88
Ƞ𝑎𝑖𝑟 = ∗ 100
58.51
Ƞ𝒂𝒊𝒓 = 𝟏𝟔. 𝟗𝟗 %
4.4 RESULT
Where ,
radiation
800
700
600
500
400
radiation
300
200
100
0
10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00
30
25
20
0
10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00
Fig 4.4.1.2 Variation of efficiency of oil along with variation of efficiency of air with
respect to time
Where,
Radiation
800
700
600
500
400
Radiation
300
200
100
0
10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00
35
30
25
20
Efficiency of oil
15 Efficiency of air
10
0
10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00
Fig 4.4.2.2 Variation of efficiency of oil along with variation of efficiency of air with
respect to time
5.1 SUMMARY
This research work is carried out to study experimentally performance of the evacuated
solar tube under forced convection heat transfer mode. This system demonstrates the use
of complete non conventional source of energy. The evacuated tube solar collector is
designed and fabricated on analytical calculation. For following experiment non edible
oil is used as heat transfer medium. The frame is designed for different tilt angles.
Efficiency at different tilt angle is found. Forced convection is used for experimentation.
This model is more suitable for practical applications for heating of air as that of
traditional systems. Hence less modification is required to scale up this system to suit
actual environmental conditions.
Experimental results revealed that the collector tilt angle had significant effects on
thermal performance of evacuated solar tube collector. Several test were performed for
several days using different air mass flow rate on each day. Leaving the oil in the tube
cavity and in the collector without circulating air through the pipe, even for short period
rapidly increases oil temperature. Once air is circulated in the pipe the oil temperature
rapidly decreases because oil delivers its heat to air. Oil in such case acts as a constant
heat transfer medium. This fact is true for higher values of mass flow rate, although the
system in such a case requires more time to attain stability. Collector under consideration
was not able to produce high temperature air.
Using higher mass flow rates although overcomes losses in one hand; it decreases the air
outlet temperature on other hand which in turn necessitate the increase in collector
interception area. Therefore for efficient use of solar evacuated tube collector requires
less mass flow rate with moderate diameter of pipe carrying air. To achieve more steady
flow, the collector interception area should be increases to enable employing higher mass
flow rates.
5.2 CONCLUSION
This research work is carried out to study experimentally the performance of evacuated
tube solar collector under forced convection as heat transfer. This system demonstrates
use of complete non conventional energy source. Experimental results indicate that
thermal performance of the two phased closed system is higher than single phase system.
Experiments were carried out on a proposed design of an evacuated tube solar collector to
find out its application to produce high temperature air. It was also found that engine oil
is an efficient medium for heat transfer between evacuated tube inner surface and the
through flow pipe outer surface.
Experimental results revealed that the collector tilt angles had significant effect on
thermal performance of evacuated tube solar air collector. Results showed that the
temperature difference of air and thermal efficiency of evacuated solar tube collector at
280tilt angle is better as compare to 330tilt angle. These indicated that steep collector tilt
angle (330) decrease thermal performance of evacuated tube solar air collector.
1. If the interception area of flow of air is increased then heat gained by air will increase
eventually it will increase thermal efficiency of air
2. Velocity of flow of air should be reduced so that the air will be in contact with heat
transfer medium for long duration.
3. Heat pipe used air passage should have high thermal conductivity.
CHAPTER 6: REFERENCES
6. REFERENCES
1. Ankit Kumar, Himanshu Sharma, Shivam Kr. Bissariya, Gaurav Kr. Mishra,
design and fabrication of evacuated tube solar air collector for heating air, International
research journal and technology, Volume 5, Issue 5, 2018.
2. Dr. Amol Ubale, Dr. Dilip Pangavhane, A. Auti, Analytical and experimental
study of evacuated tube solar collector used for grape dryer, International Journal of
Applied Engineering Research, Volume 10, No.50, 2015.
9. Dr. Amol Ubale, Dr. Dilip Pangavhane, Dr. Arundhati Warke, Performance
improvisation of conventional grape drying method by introducing forced air exhaust,
American International Journal of Research and Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics, 14-505, 2014.
12. Vishal Dabra, Laxmikant Yadav, Avadhesh Yadav, The effect of tilt angle on
performance of evacuated tube solar air collector: Experimental Analysis, International
Journal of Engineering, Science and Technology, Volume 5 No. 4, 2013.
14. Rushiprasad, Performance analysis of solar water heater with flat plate
collector using computer program, International Journal of Engineering and Research,
Volume 1,2012
15. Hong Wei Xiao, Chang-le Pang, Drying Kinetics and Quality of manukka
seedless grapes dried in an air impingement jet dryer, Bio system engineering, 2005.
16. Ayyappan S. and Mayilsamym K., Solar tunnel dryer with thermal storage for
drying of copra, International Journal of Energy , Technology and Policy, Volume 8 No.
1,2012
17. Taha. A. T., Amer Eissa A. H., Simulation Model of flat plate solar collector
proceeding of the first scientific conference for marketing and applied university
research, 421-429, 2009.
6.2 INTERNET
1. https://greenterrafirma.com/evacuated_tube_collector.html [9/2/2019]
2. https://dir.indiamart.com/impcat/evacuated-tube-solar-collector.html
[19/2/2019]
3. http://www.solarpanelsplus.com/evacuated-tube-collectors/ [4/3/2019]
4. https://youtu.be/FB8izjnTKQI [11/3/2019]
5. https://www.energymatters.com.au/solar-hot-water/flat-vs-evacuated/
[11/3/2019]
6.
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/E/AE_evacuated_tube_collector.html
[13/3/2019]
7. https://hydrosolar.ca/blogs/news/how-do-vacuum-tubes-collector-work
[16/3/2019]
8. http://www.redsunin.com/products/evacuated-tube-collector-solar-water-
heaters/ [16/3/2019]
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_thermal_collector [5/1/2019]
10. https://www.thegreenage.co.uk/article/how-do-evacuated-tube-solar-thermal-
hot-water-systems-work/ [5/1/2019]
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