$olarEnergyVol.32,No. 1,pp.67-74,1984 0038-09"2X/84 $3.00+.

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Printedin GreatBritain. © 1984PergamonPressLtd.

TRANSIT THEORY OF A TUBULAR SOLAR

ENERGY COLLECTOR

N. K. BANSALand A. K. SHARMA
Centre of Energy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Hanz Khas, New Delhi 110016, India

(Received 27 September 1981; accepted 30 November 1982)

Abstraet--A simple analysis has been. developed to predict the transient response of a tubular solar energy
collector. A good agreement between the earlier reported measurements under no fluid flow conditions with the
corresponding numerical calculations of present theory validated the applicability of the developed analysis. A
selective coating over the receiver plate and the evacuation of annular space between the cover and the receiver
plater suppressing the radiative and convective losses respectively, are found to play almost equally important role
in improving the thermal performance of such systems especiidly for low fluid rates. The selective coating plays
more important role at temperature/>120°C. A suitable mirror at the base of the collectors reflecting the radiation
on the bottom of the collectors is expected to increase the thermal efficiency of such collectors considerably.

1. INTRODUCTION sulation (eo = 0.1, a = 0.9, P < 5 × 10 4 mm Hg).

Solar thermal energy collectors consisting of two coaxial We then determined the maximum temperature of the
glass tubes with the inner tube coated with either black plate for each version. The optimum size of the air gap
paint or with some selective coating have been found to between collector and the cover was obtained for the
give added advantage over the Conventional flat plate stagnation temperature. Using an earlier theory[3] it is
collectors [1-3]. In some cases the space between the two possible to explain the experimental results of Baimatov
glass tubes is further evacuated to minimize thermal et al [4] at equilibrium; no idea can however be obtained
losses thus enhancing the thermal efficiency of the about the transient behaviour of the systems. In this
system. paper we develop a theory for determining the transient
In contrast to the vast literature on fiat plate collectors behaviour of tubular collectors taking into account (I) no
the studies on tubular collectors are quite limited. fluid flow conditions (II) fluid flow conditions. Numerical
Umarov et al.[3] examined some thermal energy collec- calculations have been performed for each of the four
tors of tubular shape designed with selective coating and versions of tubular collectors studied by Baimatov et
thermal isolation. Based on energy conservation equa- al. [4] and a comparison of the theoretical results is made
tions these authors presented a steady state method to with the corresponding experimental results.
determine the thermophysical characteristics of such
systems. Baimatov et a£[4] stud~ed the solar heat collec-
tors of tubular shape experimentally. These authors 2. THEORY
considered four different versions of the collectors Configuration of a typical solar collector is shown in
namely. Fig. 1. For setting the systems's equation we consider the
(I) Without a selective coating at normal air pressure two cases, i.e. (I) no fluid flow and (II) fluid flow
between collector and transparent screen (~,, = 0.9, a = separately.
0.9).
(II) Without selective coating and with vacuum ther- 2.1 No fluid flow through the system
mal insulation (e,, = 0.9, a = 0.9, P < 5 × 10-+ mm Hg). The energy balance equations~ at the receiver and the
(IIl) With selective coating at normal pressure (E+,= cover plate (Fig. la) are, respectively, given by
0.1, a =0.9).
(IV) With selective coating and vacuum thermal in-
MoCp ~ - + hrA,(Tp - T,) = az~AeSo (1)
tThe radiative heat transfer from the receiver plate to the
cover plate and from the cover plate to the ambient has been
considered to be given by the usual T4 law. The equations, MC~ +
dr~
UA2(T.-T,,)=hrA,(Tp-T~). (2)
however, have been linearised and the corresponding heat trans-
fer coefficients have been evaluated corresponding to equilibrium
temperatures. The term on the r.h.s, of eqn (1) carries a term Ae which

67
68 N.K. BANSALand A. K. SHARMA

Solar re diotion

Cover plate
I.......................................................... I I. Selective coating or black paint
1............................................. ! Receiver plate
I I
(al

• x
¥
FlUidTi • ]&X[ Tw To•
x=o T T+&T x=L

(b)
Fig. 1. Schematics of a tubular solar energy collector.

we define as the effective area over which the solar and.

radiations are incident.
Ir~ eqns (1) and (2) hT is the heat transfer coefficient h.r = o'e.(T~2+ L,Z)(T. + T.). (8)
between the receiver and the cover plate. It usually
consists of two parts namely (i) the convective part and Taking the Laplace transform of eqns (1) and (2), one
the radiative part. For a configuration under consideration gets two algebric equations yielding the following
one writes [5] expressions

hv = hf,, + h,,. (3) 7],(s) - M~(sT.,, + M3T.) + g d s T , , , + C) (9)

s ( K , K 2 - M,M2)
where the convective part h,,,.~'can be calculated by
using the formula [7] 7".(s) - M2(sT,,,, + C)+ K~sT.,, + M3K, 7".
s ( K , K : - Mt2) (10)

h., = 1.53 (4)

where

The radiative heat transfer coefficient h,r is calculated hTA I aSoA~

K, = (s + M,), M, = ~ G ' C - M~C,,
using the relation [6]

hTA~ - UA2
h.~ - a(T"2 + T~%(% + T.) (5) K2 = (s + M2 + M3), M2 = M ~ . ' M3= MgCg"
;-1 +dp/1 1)
The inverse Laplace transform of eqns (9) and (10) yields
The heat loss coefficient U from the glass cover to the the time behaviour of the plate and cover temperatures
ambient again consists of the convective and radiative T, and T. respectively, we obtain;
part, i.e.
Tp(t)=C~ + C 2 e x p ( B d ) + C 3 e x p ( B 2 t ) (11)
U = h,, + h.r (6)
TAt) = D, + D2 exp(B,t) + D3 exp(B2t) (12)
where
where/3,,/32 are the roots of the equation
h~,. = 5.678 + 3.8u (7)
K , K 2 - M,M2 = 0

tOn reducing the air pressure in the annular space between the and other constants are defined as
absorber tube and the glass cover, the convective heat' transfer is
lowered and the corresponding loss coefficient is now given by Ct = Y3/B,B2 (13)
h[,,. = h,,.(atml(P/P,.,,,) 21~. At very low pressures the convection
is totally suppressed. The mean free path of air molecules ,~
being greater than the heat transfer path length x, the mode of C: = Y~B, 2 + Y2B, + Y3/B.,(B, - B2) (14)
heat transfer is conductive and expressed by the coefficient
hl;, (P) = K./(x + 2A)[9]. C~ = Y,B22+ Y2B2+ Y3/B2(B2- B J (15)
 Transit theory of a tubular solar energy collector 69
D, = X3/B,B2 (16) where

D2 = X, B 2 + X2B, + X3/B dB, - B2) (17) H=rhC,~,[l [ h,pL\]

- exp/- ~f) j. (29)
-7c-[
D3 = X,B22 + X2B2 + X3/B2(B2 - B,) (18)
The time dependent plate and glass temperatures are
X , = T~,, (19) obtained as

X 2 = M,T~,, + M2Tp,, + M3T. (20) T,,(t)=C',+C;exp('y,t)+C;exp(y2t) (29)

X3 = M I M 3 T , + M2C (21) and

Y , = T,,, (22) TAt) = D i + D; exp(7, t) + D; exp(~/zt), (30)

Y2 = C + ( M 2 + M3)Tp,, + M, Tg,, (23) where 3q,3'2 are the roots of the equation

Y3 = M , M 3 T . + C(M2 + M3). (24) KIK2- MIM2=O, (31)

where
2.2 Fluid flow through the system
If some fluid is made to flow through the absorber K; = K , + H L d M o C ~.
plate (Fig. lb) the energy balance equation (1) at the
plate becomes The constants C~ and D's have the same analytical
expressions as the constants G and D~ given by eqns
M- (13)-(18) with the difference that B,,B2 are now replaced
,,tSp ~dTf,
- - + h T ( A , ( T o - T~) + A , Q ( t ) = ar~AeSo
by 7,,3'2 and C is replaced by C + HT~./MpC~.
(25)
3. RESULTS
while at the cover plate the energy balance is again given We have first calculated the temperatures of the ab-
by eqn 2. In eqn (25) Q(t) is the amount of useful heat sorber plate Tp and the cover plate T~ corresponding to
taken away by the flowing water. In order to get an the experimental versions of Ref.[4] described in the
expression for this quantity we consider a small element introduction. In this experiment, the absorber plate is
of width Ax in the direction of fluid flow as shown in Fig. exposed to the solar radiation source only from the top.
l(b). Neglecting conduction along the plate in the direc- The effective area Ae of the absorber plate receiving sun
tion of fluid flow, the energy balance over this radiation is therefore approximately Am. The dimen-
infinitesimal element yields sions of the system used in the calculations and the value
of various heat transfer coefficients used in the numerical
calculations are given in Table 1.
n~C~ @ A x = h~(Tp - Tw)Ax (26)
The calculated values of the stagnation temperature Tp
of the absorber plate along with the experimental values
where h~ is the heat transfer coefficientt from the ab- of Baimatov et al.[4] for each version of the tubular solar
sorber plate to the fluid. An integration of the above energy collectors is given in Table 2. It is observed that
equation with the initial condition that at x = 0, Tw = Ti. the theoretically obtained values match fairly well for the
leads to the following'expression for the fluid tem- (i) and (iv) version of the collectors. For the (ii) and (iii)
perature at the outlet version of solar energy collectors, however, the
theoretical values are always smaller than the cor-
T,, = T,, - (T. - T~.) e x p ( - h , L / t h C w ) . (27) responding experimental values. The discrepancy could
either be due to some error in the experimental
the useful heat flux 0 is therefore obtained as measurements or could be due to high values of the heat
transfer coefficients used in the theoretical calculations.
O. = H(T,, - T,.) (28) However, an increase of 21°C measured in the experi-
ments for iii version of solar energy collectors by in-
creasing dg i.e. the air gap width between the receiver
tHeat transfer coefficient h~ from the absorber plate to the and glazing, does not seem to be possible especially
fluid was calculated by using the dimensionless relation[8] when in the rest of the cases a reverse trend is noted, i.e.
on increasing dg, the stagnation temperature decreases.
Nu = C~,R,"P,"K, where The theoretically calculated values on the other hand
, ( ,o,4 show a correct trend. On forcibly decreasing the total
heat transfer coefficient by about 20 per cent, the cal-
culated values match fairly closely with the measured
m = n = 0.33. values of the stagnation temperature especially for the ii
70 N. K. BANSALand A. K. SHARMA

Table 1. Numerical values ofthe constants used in the calculations

Geometrical dimensions Physical Constants Heat Transfer

of the system coefficients (W/m2)

dr = 0.025-0.03 m A1 = 0.0942 m2 h I = 233 2 W/maOc

A 2 = 0.1979 ma U 19.5 W/m20C

dg = 0.033, 0.037 Cp: Cg = 837.2J/kgOC

• 041 and CW = 4216 J/kgOC F i Version = 19.2
"045 m Ka 0.03365 w/mOc
b It Version 9.02
~II Version 11,2 WlmaOc
1 0.5-1.0 m Ta 30 OC !LIV Version 1.04
r
~= 0.88

-3
Ig = 0.5-1.0 m ~g = 2515 kg m
~- : 5.6696x10 -8
Wm-2K-4

~g = 0.9

Table 2. Stagnation temperatures for various versions of solar energy collector

Stagnation temperatureof the receiver (Tp), OC

Ist Version lind Version IIIrd Version IVth Version

S,
~'[m~ Theoretical Experimental Theoretical Experimental Theoretical Experimental Theoretical Experimental

0.025 0.033 905 54.9 52 73.8 82 66.8 75 199.6 198

0.025 0.037 905 54.8 51 73.6 80 66.6 83 199.5 196
0.025 0.041 905 54.6 50 73.3 79 66.7 90 199.3 195
0.025 0.045 905 54.4 50 72.9 78 66.1 96 199.3 194

version of the collector. The measured stagnation tem- temperature Tp and the dotted curves correspond to the
peratures for the iii version of solar collectors, therefore, cover temperature Tg. The plate temperature Tp rises
seem to be in error. From Tables 2 and 3 it is also seen steeply in the beginning and then slowly, when the
that a change in the air gap between the receiver plate equilibrium starts reaching. The stagnation conditions for
and the cover plate does not yield significant changes in first three versions of the solar collectors are reached
the stagnation temperature of the receiver and the glaz- within 10-30min, where as, for the IV version of
ing for all the cases. This effect is observed experiment- collectors it is reached in more than l hr. The results
ally also except for iii version of collectors (see Table 2), show that the radiative losses and the conductive losses,
the measurements of v~hich as discussed, could be in suppressed by the selective coating and evacuation res-
error. pectively, play almost equally important role in the per-
Figure 2 shows the time variation of the temperatures formance of such collectors. This is also seen by the
of the receiver and cover plates for no fluid flow con- numerical values of the radiative and conductive heat
ditions. The continuous curves correspond to the plate transfer coefficients, which are

Table 3. Theoretically calculated values of the stagnation temperature of the glazing in various versions of the
collectors

dr dg Stagnation Temperature of the Glazing OC

mm mm ~t Version llnd Version l l l r d Version IVth Version

0.025 0.033 37.9 37.9 37.9 34.0

0.025 0.037 37.9 37.8 37.8 33.8

0.025 0.041 37.8 37.6 37.7 33.6

0.025 0.045 37.5 37.3 37.4 33.3

 Transit theory of a tubular solar energy collector 71

200

SC Selective Coated
wsc Wtthout Selective Coating
NP Normal Pressure
V Evacuafed

- Plate Temperature
- -- Cover Temperature

60
WSC (NP)

---_-______ SC INP)
____--_---- _-__.
SC iv1

10 20 30 LO 50 60
Ttme lmmutes I
Fig. 2. Time variation of the stagnation temperature of the receiver plate for the four versions of the collectors.

h,, = 9.02 W/m’“C without selective coating peratures reached in the IV version of collectors are, as
expected, much higher since both the radiative and con-
h,, = 10.2W/m’“C at normal pressure. vective losses are supressed in this case.
In Figs. 5 and 6 the effect of increased emittance is
For fluid flow conditions, no experimental data was shown. At lower flow rates, the water temperatures are
available. Arbitrary values of water flow rates were effected up to 7 per cent.if the emittance is increased by
therefore chosen between 0.0001 and 0.001 l./sec. The 50 per cent. At higher flow rates this effect is even less
time variation of the water temperature at the outlet was and almost disappears at flow rates >7 x lo-* 1./s.
calculated for each version of the collectors. The results In Fig. 7, the thermal efficiency for various versions of
are shown in Figs. 3-6. For smaller flow rates of water, solar collectors is shown as a function of water flow
the increase in the water temperature is slow. The equil- rates at the equilibrium. For very small flow rates, i.e.
ibrium value is reached within .5-20min in I, II tII1 3 x IO41./s.the efficiency of the IV version of solar energy
version of solar energy collectors while for the IV ver- collectors is almost double than the I version of collectors
sion it takes even up to 40dn to reach the equilibrium and even approx. 25 per cent more than II and III versions.
especially for very small water flow rates. The tem- The difference in the efficencies, however, gets mini-

50,
1

IVersion of Solar Energy Collectors no

coatmg and normal pressure

.,v

0 10 2b 30 LO 5b ‘-60
Time ( mwtes i
Fig. 3. Time variation of the outlet water temperature as a function of flow rates for I version of solar collectors.
72 N.K. BANSALand A. K. SHARMA

60
1"i Version of Solar Energy Collectors:
oc Evacuated but no selectiv coating 00001

5o 0.0002

0.0003

D
0.0005
'S 40
00007
0.0009
F- 0001

30
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (minutes)
Fig. 4. Time variation of the water temperature at the outlet as a function of flow rate for 1I version of solar
collector.

55
0.0001
o~ °C
Ep = 1.0
5o ---~p =is //.//1
0.0002

45
-¢ 3.0003

~ 40 0.0005

:).0007
E 3.0009
3.001
~ 35
f 11"[ ~ l o r Energy Collectors:
Selective coating and normal pres'sure
30
lb 2'0 ' 3b 4'0 s'o ' 60
Time (minutes)
Fig. 5.. Time variation of the water temperature at the outlet as a function of flow rate for III version of solar
collectors.

raised with increasing flow rates and it remains only 7 per 4. CONCLUSIONS
cent between the I and IV version at water flow rates of A simple transient analysis is able to predict the
0.001 l.sec. Another important point to note is a rather behaviour of tubular solar energy collectors fairly well.
low value of thermal efficiency in all these cases. The From the numerical calculations performed it is seen that
main reason for this effect is the effective area Ae, which (1) A selective coating, used to suppress the radiative
receives the radiations. If some how the whole surface area losses, helps to increase the thermal performance of the
of the absorbing plate is made to receive the radiation, say collectors because it suppresses radiative losses.
by placing an appropriate mirror at the base of the (2) Evacuation of the air gap between the plate and
collectors, then the thermal performance can be increased glazing also increases the thermal performance of col-
considerably. lectors because it suppresses convective losses.
 Transit theory of a tubular solar energy collector 73
90
0.0001 I
~" Version of Solor Energy
°C
Collectors ~ I ~ - -

8O - - - Ep =1.0 J ~ f/"11
t.-

-- - (p = 1 . 5 7.,J-~""
'e

~5 7 0

"5

2
a 60
/ 3.0002 I

E
0000 3 I
50

---- -0:0005
40 00007
30009
3001

30
lO 2'0 3b 4'o s'o 60
Time ( minutes I

Fig. 6. Time variation of the water temperature at the outlet as a function of flow rate for IV version of solar
collectors.

50

%
lv
'I3
C

t)

Iii
40.
/f
30

20

10-

o ~ ~ & 8 lo
Water Row Rate .104 I / s

Fig. 7. Thermal efficiency of all the four versions of solar collectors for various flow rates of water.
74 N. K. BANSALand A. K. SHARMA

(3) The radiative losses and the convective losses are s lablace transformed variable
almost of the same order of magnitude at low and Pr Prandl number
intermediate temperatures up to 120°C. At higher tem- Re Reynold number
T,, ambient temperature,°C
peratures, however, the radiative losses are more T~, cover temperature,°C
dominant. Tr receiver temperature, °C
(4) The size of air gap between the plate and the T,, water temperature at any point inside the tube, °C
glazing does not effect the performance appreciably. "1",,, water inlet temperature. °C
T~ water outlet temperature. °C
(5) Selective coating and the evacuation are more ad-
T~,, initial cover temperature. °C
vantageous at very small flow rates to get higher fluid Tf,,, initial receiver temperature. °C
temperatures. U total heat loss coefficient from cover to ambient, W/m2°C
(6) The thermal performance of such collectors can be t' wind spread, m/sec
considerably improved by letting the whole absorbing X width gap, m
a absorhtance of the receiver
area receive the radiation. This can be achieved by Er, emittance of the receiver
placing an appropriate mirror at the base of the collector. ee emittance of the cover
o- Stefan-Boltzmann constant. W/m2K 4
NOMENCLATURE ,~ mean free path of air molecules at given pressure, m
A~ area of the receiver plate m 2 p~ viscosity
A: area of the cover plate, m 2
A,. area incident by the solar radiation, m:
Ce specific heat of cover plate, J/kg°C REFERENCES
Cf, specific heat of the receiver plate, J/kg°C 1. K. L. Moan, An analysis of the low loss evacuated tubular
C,, specific heat of the flowing fluid J/kg°C collector using air as the heat transfer fluid. Presented at the
de diameter of the cover plate, m ISES Orlando, Florida, 1977.
d~, diameter of the receiver plate, m 2. K. L. Moan, Evaluation of an all glass, evacuated tubular
h~, convective heat transfer coeffcient between cover and nonfocusing, nontracking solar collector array. First annual
ambient, W/m2°C progress report for period 2 July, 1976-31 August, 1977,
h,, convective heat transfer coeffcient between receiver and Owens Illinois, Inc., Toledo, OH 43666.
cover, W/m2°C 3. G. Ya. Umarov et al. Solar energy thermo receiver with
her radiative heat transfer coefficient between cover and am- selective coating and vacuum thermoisolation. Geliotekhnika
bient, W/m:°C 14, 46 (1978).
hpr radiative heat transfer coefficient between cover and plate, 4. T. Baimatov, U. Kh. Gaziev and T. Z. Abidov, Investigation
W/m2°C of a solar heat collector. Geliothekhnika 15, 37 (1979).
hr total heat transfer coefficient between receiver and the 5. J. A. Duffe and W~. A. Beckman, Solar Energy Thermal
cover, W/m2°C Processes. Wiley, New York 0974).
K. thermal conductivity of air. W/m°C 6. S. Dushman, In Scientific Foundation of Vacuum Technology,
L length of the collector, m (Edited by J. M. Lafferty), 2nd Edn. Wiley, New York (1962).
Me mass of the cover plate, kg 7. ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals. American Society of
Mp mass of the receiver plate, kg Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers, New
Nu Nusselt number York (1974).
m rate of fluid flow. kg/sec 8. H. Y. Wong, Heat Transfer for Engineers. Longman, London
P pressure in the annular space between the absorber and the (1977).
cover plate, mm of Hg 9. F. Kreith and J. F. Kreider, Principles of Solar Engingering.
&, solar radiation, W/re" McGraw-Hill, New York (1978).