International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Research (IJSER)

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ISSN (Online): 2347-3878
Volume 3 Issue 4, April 2015

Analyze the Effect of Variations in Shape of Tubes

for Flat Plate Solar Water Heater
Vishal G. Shelke1, Prof. Chinmay V. Patil2

. 1PG Scholar, Department of Mechanical Engineering,

Shri Sant Gajanan Maharaj College of Engineering, Shegaon, Dist-Buldana, (M.S.), India-444203
2
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Shri Sant Gajanan Maharaj College of Engineering, Shegaon, Dist-Buldana, (M.S.), India-444203

Abstract: Solar water heater is a very simple device and efficient way to absorb energy from the sun rays and use it. Therefore
improvement in their operating condition & geometrical would definitely result in saving conventional fuel and cost. The objective of this
study was to analysis the effect of variations in shape of tubes for flat plate solar collector. For this study circular tube of 12.7 mm
diameter was considered and numerical analysis is carried out with ANSYS CFD FLUENT software. Comparison in inlet and outlet
temperature was performed for different heat flux. Further analysis was carried out for different elliptical tube shapes. Outlet
temperature of water is compared with circular results and there is a good agreement.

Keywords: Solar energy collector, CFD simulation, Flat Plate Solar Water Heater, Shape of Tubes

1. Introduction glass was analyzed using computational fluid dynamics

(CFD) soft-ware and simulated without water flow.
The solar energy collection as a renewable energy topic has
been the primary interests of many engineers and researchers 1.1 Flat-plate collectors
for the last two centuries due to its wide applications such as
domestic water heating systems. Today, solar water heating Flat-plate collectors are the most common solar collector for
systems are being used for single family houses, apartment solar water-heating systems in homes and solar space
buildings, schools, car washes, hospitals, restaurants, heating. A typical flat-plate collector is an insulated metal
agricultural farms and different industries. Solar water box with a glass or plastic cover (called the glazing) and a
heating can reduce domestic water heating costs by as much dark-colored absorber plate. These collectors heat liquid or
as 70%. Owners of these buildings have found that solar air at temperatures less than 80°C.
water heating systems are cost-effective in meeting their hot
water needs all over the year. A more intensive attention was Mohamed Selmi, Mohammed J. Al-Khawaja ,
given to this topic from 1970s of the last century, Abdulhamid Marafia [1] present the collector performance,
particularly, when the worldwide crisis of 1973 has taken after obtaining 3-D temperature distribution over the volume
place. Since then, the efficiency of solar heating systems and of the body of the collector, was studied with and without
collectors has improved. The efficiencies can be attributed to circulating water flow. An experimental model was built and
the use of low iron, tempered glass for glazing (low-iron experiments were performed to validate the CFD model. . It
glass allows the transmission of more solar energy than seems the temperature difference between the water inlet and
conventional glass), improved insulation, and the outlet is almost 9°C over all times. Also, the simulated
development of durable selective coatings. Thus due to its temperature curve has the same behaviour as that
importance, a flat plate solar collector with and without cover experimental one and they are close to each other.

Nomenclature
T simulation water outlet
h heat transfer coefficient, W/m2 °C out, sim
temperature, °C and K
velocity component in x-direction,
n number of iterations U
m/s
velocity component in y-direction,
p pressure, N/m2 V
m/s
velocity component in z-direction,
q solar heat flux, W/m2 W
m/s
R residuals
T temperature, °C and K Greek letters
T
in water inlet temperature, °C and K
fluid density, kg/m3
r

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Volume 3 Issue 4, April 2015
Marroquín-De Jesus Angel, Olivares-Ramirez Juan found from the CFD analysis that the flow of air in the solar
Manuel, Zamora-Antuñano Marco Antonio [2], present flat plate collector is not properly distributed. In order to
the investigation describes the construction and overcome this issue author had suggested introducing baffles
experimentation of solar energy absorbers using water as at the inlet of collector which improves the efficiency of solar
fluid and its simulation in Computational Fluid Dynamics flat plate collector.
(CFD). For Absorber A with rectangular cross section and
Absorber B with circular cross section, water temperature The CFD analysis of the flow and heat transfer in flat plate
was calculated using solar radiation and ambient temperature solar collectors is computationally quite difficult and the
measurements showing increases of up to 62.5°C for both number of research works on this subject is quite low.
absorbers. In the experimental data for absorber A the highest
variation is noted in the middle of the fluid path with values 2. Problem Statement
of 347 K, 346 K and 345 K for three different channels. For
equivalent locations in Absorber B the results were 345.5 K, The objective of present study is to perform CFD simulation
344.5 K and 344.5 K for three different pipes. for solar water collector. The results obtained by ANSYS
Workbench simulation are been validated with numerical
S.Eswaran, M.Chandru, M.Vairavel, R.Girimurugan [3], results of Mohamed Selmi [1] which done by Computational
The objective of this study is to validate the mass flow rate of Fluid Dynamics Research Corporation (CFDRC) software.
water inside the collector tube in an Ado-Ekidi natural The overall aim of this work is to understand the temperature
circulation solar water heater system. The existing solar distribution of water inside the solar collector and compare
water heating systems the optimum mass flow rate is 0.1 kg / the outlet temperature of water with numerical results of
m2. The study of numerical analysis is carried out in Mohamed Selmi.
reengineered Ado-Ekidi solar water heater by using CFD
software. Results show that maximum mass flow rate In this paper, CFD Simulation are done for two shapes,
achieved more than experimental values. At the mass flow
rate of 0.6 kg / m2, dynamic pressure of 4.30×105 Pa, flow 1. Circular tube
velocity of 5.91×105 l/m2 & relative temperature of 360° K. 2. Elliptical tube

Manjunath M.S, K. Vasudeva Karanth, and N. Yagnesh 1. Circular Tube

Sharma [4] , In this paper, an attempt is made to explain in a
comparative way the effect of surface geometry of solar The Project model consist of aluminium plate of 1500 mm
collector having dimple geometry with that of a flat plate long, 166 mm wide and 1 mm thick used as an the absorber,
solar collector of the same size. A CFD analysis was carried fixed to it from the top a copper tube of ½ inch (12.7mm)
out for the two cases, subjected to a constant heat flux of diameter. Copper tube of 1500 mm long and 1 mm thick.
600W/m2 and 1000W/m2. It can be inferred from the study
that the absorber plate temperature shows a rise of average
surface temperature of about 50C for the dimple solar
collector when compared to a flat plate solar collector. Most
importantly, the average exit water temperature shows a
marked improvement of about 5.50C for a dimple solar
collector as compared to that of a flat plate solar collector.

From the CFD analysis carried for the full three dimensional
absorber plate assemblies for plates with and without dimple
establishes that with surface geometry enhancements such as
having a dimple pocket increases the heat transfer to the
absorber tube due mainly to the increase in area for diffusion
heat transfer. Figure 1: Model geometry of circular tube

Prof. P.W.Ingle, Dr. A. A. Pawar, Prof. B. D. Deshmukh, 2. Elliptical Tube

Prof. K. C. Bhosale [5], this thesis attempts to present The Project model consist of aluminium plate of 1500 mm
numerical simulation of solar collector developed exclusively long,166 mm wide and 1 mm thick used as an the absorber,
for grape drying. Solar drying of grapes is much feasible from the top a copper tube for different major and minor axis
technically and economically. There has been a remarkable of elliptical shape as shown in table 1. The copper tube of
achievement in solar drying of grapes due to sustained 1500 mm long and 1 mm thick.
research and development associated with the adoption of
advanced technologies. In the present thesis the
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool has been used to
simulate the solar collector for better understanding the heat
transfer capability. 3D model of the collector involving air
inlet, wavy structured absorber plate, glass cover plate, and
pebble block is modeled by ANSYS Workbench and the
unstructured grid was created in ANSYS ICEM. The results
were obtained by using ANSYS FLUENT software. It is

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Volume 3 Issue 4, April 2015
precludes a description of the fluid flows this is at the same
time economical and sufficiently complete. The availability
of affordable high performance computing hardware and the
introduction of user friendly interference have led to a recent
upsurge of interest and CFD is poised to make an entry into
the wider industrial community in the 1990s. Clearly the
investment costs of a CFD capability are not small, but the
total expense is not normally as great as that of a high quality
experimental facility.

Moreover, there are several unique advantages of CFD over

Figure 2: Model geometry of elliptical tube of case no 5 i.e. experimental-based approaches to fluid systems design.
B = 0.5 A
1. Substantial reduction of lead times and costs of new
Table 1: Values of A and B for Different Case design.
2. Ability to study systems where controlled experimental
Value of Value of are difficult or impossible to perform. (e.g. very large
case Relation of Value Value Major Minor systems)
no A with B of A of B axis= axis=
3. Ability to study systems under hazardous conditions at
2A 2B
and beyond their normal performance limits. (e.g. safety
1 B = 0.1 A 20.08 2.008 40.16 4.016 studies and accident scenarios).
4. Practically unlimited level of detail of results.
2 B = 0.2 A 14.199 2.898 28.398 5.676
3 B = 0.3 A 11.593 3.478 23.1866 6.956 In contrast CFD codes can produce extremely large volumes
4 B = 0.4 A 10.04 4.016 20.08 8.032 of results at virtually no added expense and it is very cheap to
perform parametric studies, for instance to optimize
5 B = 0.5 A 8.98 4.49 17.96 8.98 equipment performance [6].
6 B = 0.6 A 8.2 4.92 16.4 9.8407
7 B = 0.7 A 7.585 5.31 15.171 10.6244 A. Basics in CFD
8 B = 0.8 A 7.087 5.67 14.175 11.35 CFD codes are structured around the numerical algorithms
9 B = 0.9 A 6.6933 6.024 13.3866 12.045 that can tackle fluid flow problems. In order to provide easy
asses to their solving power all commercial CFD packages
include sophisticated user interfaces to input problem
3. Numerical Simulation by Software
parameters and to examine the results. Hence all code
contains three main elements:
Computational system dynamics is the analysis of the
systems involving fluid flow, heat transfer and associated
1. Pre-processor
phenomenon such as chemical reactions by means of
2. Solver
computer-based simulation. The technique is very powerful
3. Post-processor
and spans a wide range of industrial and non-industrial
applications areas. Some examples are: aerodynamics of
B. Numerical Modelling of Solar Water Collector
aircrafts and vehicles, hydrodynamics of ships, combustion,
turbo machinery, electrical and electronic engineering, and
The procedure adopted to simulate the solar water collector
chemical process engineering, external and internal
by CFD tool is as follows:
environment of buildings, marine engineering, environmental
engineering, hydrology and oceanography, metrology,
1. The 3D model is been modelled by using ANSYS
biomedical engineering etc. from the 1960s onwards, the
WORKBENCH software as shown in Fig.3 and 4
aerospace industry has integrated CFD technique into design,
2. After creation of 3D model, the unstructured grid is been
R & D and manufacture of aircrafts and jet engines. More
created by using ANSYS ICEM software as shown in fig
recently the methods have been applied to the design of
5 and fig.6
internal combustion engines, combustion chambers of gas
3. The unstructured grid created consists around 7 lakh
turbines and furnaces. Furthermore, motor manufacturers
element in circular tube and 50 lakh elements in
now routinely predict drag forces, under bonnet airflow and
elliptical tube.
the in-car environment with CFD. Increasingly CFD is
4. The unstructured grid which is created then imported in
becoming a vital component in the design of industrial
ANSYS FLUENT software and the experimental
products and processes.
conditions are used while simulating the solar water
collector.
The ultimate aim of development in the CFD field is to
5. The model was defined by using 3D segregated solver
provide a capability comparable to other CAE (Computer-
with steady condition, energy equation, and laminar
Aided Engineering) tools such as stress analysis codes.
model.
The main reason why CFD has lagged behind is the
tremendous complexity of the underlying behaviour, which

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ISSN (Online): 2347-3878
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6. The fluid chosen to simulate solar collector is water. The
water properties used in this simulation is shown in table
no.2
7. The material used for absorber plate is aluminium and
for tube copper. The aluminium and copper properties
used in this simulation is shown in table no.2
8. After this give cell zone condition to different zone of
plate, tube and water fluid.
9. The boundary conditions are as follows.
Inlet velocity = 0.0170484 m/s
Inlet temp and Heat Flux change with time shown in
table no.3, and fig.7 shows Measured total solar a) Front View b) Top View
radiation on 7 December 2004, in Doha city. [1] Figure 5: Meshing by using ANSYS FLUENT of Circular
10. After setting all boundary conditions in fluent software, Tube
to solve the numerical equations the initialization by
inlet is to be done.
11. To visualize the residuals of iterations verses
convergence limit, the residual monitor is set to be in
ON state condition.
12. To get the final results the numbers of iterations are set
around 200. The results for these simulations were
converged at around 50 to 60 iterations.
13. As the numbers of elements are more to get the
converged results the time taken for these simulations
will be more with single processor.
a) Front View b) Top View
14. Finally after getting the proper converged results the
Figure 6: Meshing by using ANSYS FLUENT of Elliptical
water flow distribution and heat transfer inside the solar
Tube of case no 5 i.e. B=0.5 A
water collector is been plotted in the form of Contour
plots.
Table 2: Volume condition setting for properties of blocks
15. The outlet temperature is been calculated from ANSYS
FLUENT after getting converged results and been Water Al Cu
Properties
compared with the experimental results. block plate pipe
Density (kg/m3) 998.2 2770 8800
Specific heat (J/kg °C) 4230 875 420
Thermal conductivity (W/m
0.569 177 401
°C)

Table 3: Varying Heat flux and inlet temp of water

Inlet Temp of water
Time Heat Flux in W/m2
in K
9.31 am 470 306
Figure 3: 3D model of solar water collector of circular tube 10.15 am 520 311
visualizing the absorber plate and water domain 11.15 am 535 316
11.45 pomp 540 318
12.35 p.m 535 317
13.15p.m. 520 316

Figure 4: 3D model of solar water collector of elliptical tube

visualizing the absorber plate and water domain

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ISSN (Online): 2347-3878
Volume 3 Issue 4, April 2015

540
530
Heat Flux ( w/m2 )

520
510
500
Heat Flux
490
480
470
460
9 10 11 12 13 14
Figure 9: Difference in Inlet & Outlet for Case No.3 i.e.
Time (Hr) B=0.3 A
Figure 7: Measured total solar radiation on 7 December
2004, in Doha city. [1]

4. Result and Discussion

The results obtained from the CFD analysis of solar flat plate
collector are presented in this section. The simulation is
carried out for different times of the day i.e.9.30 am to 1.15
pm. Result obtained by simulation for circular pipe as shown
in fig.8.Also result obtained for elliptical pipe for different
cases are shown in fig.9 to fig 15.
Figure 10: Difference in Inlet & Outlet for Case No.4 i.e.
Then the results obtained by circular compared with best
B=0.4 A
result obtained elliptical as shown in fig 16 and in table 4.
The curves are plotted to indicate simulated outlet
temperatures of circular pipe and elliptical pipe versus time.
From fig.16 it seems that the difference between simulated
outlet temperature of circular pipe and elliptical pipe for
different times is almost 4.2˚C. The peak outlet temp was
obtained in elliptical case for case no 5 i.e. B = 0.5 A. as
shown in fig.17.

As in Mohamed Selmi et al. [1] seems the temperature

difference between the water inlet and outlet is almost 9 °C
over all times. But in elliptical case temperature difference
between the water inlet and outlet is almost 14 °C over all
times. That means elliptical tube gives 5 °C more than
circular tube. Figure 11: Difference in Inlet & Outlet for Case No.5 i.e.
B=0.5 A

Figure 8: Difference in Inlet & Outlet for Circular Pipe

Figure 12: Difference in Inlet & Outlet for Case No.6 i.e.
B=0.6 A

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Outlet Temp of
Difference in
Inlet Heat Outlet Temp Elliptical Tube
Elliptical &
Time Temp Flux in of Circular for case 5 i.e.
Circular Tube
in °C w/m2 Tube in °C B = 0.5 A in
in °C
°C
9.31 33 470 42.288 45.9757 3.6877
10.15 38 520 48.27 52.354 4.084
11.15 43 535 53.57 57.7297 4.1597
11.45 45 540 55.67 59.839 4.169
Figure 13: Difference in Inlet & Outlet for Case No.7 i.e. 12.35 44 535 54.57 58.73 4.16
B=0.7 A
13.15 43 520 53.27 57.3645 4.0945

Figure 14: Difference in Inlet & Outlet for Case No.8 i.e.
B=0.8 A

Figure 16: Comparison between Inlet and Outlet Temp of

water for Circular & Elliptical Tube of case no 5 i.e. B = 0.5
A

Figure 15: Difference in Inlet & Outlet for Case No.9 i.e.
B=0.9 A

Table no 4: Comparison between Inlet and Outlet Temp of

water for Circular & Elliptical Tube of case no 5 i.e. B = 0.5
A

Figure 17: Peak Outlet Temp vs. Relation between A and B

Also the temperature distributions are obtained by CFD

simulation. The contour plots obtained for temperature
distribution in streamlines of circular and elliptical tube are
shown in Figure 18 and Figure 19.

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ISSN (Online): 2347-3878
Volume 3 Issue 4, April 2015
volumen XIV (número 4), octubre-diciembre 2013: 553-
561.
[3] S.Eswaran, M.Chandru, M.Vairavel, R.Girimurugan,
“Numerical Study on Solar Water Heater using CFD
Analysis,” International Journal of Engineering Sciences
& Research Technology [Eswaran, 3(3): March, 2014,
[1485-1489].
[4] Manjunath M.S, K. Vasudeva Karanth, and N. Yagnesh
Sharma, “A Comparative CFD study on Solar Dimple
Plate Collector with Flat Plate Collector to Augment the
Thermal Performance,” World Academy of Science,
Engineering and Technology Vol:6 2012-10-21.
[5] Prof. P.W.Ingle, Dr. A. A. Pawar, Prof. B. D.
Deshmukh, Prof. K. C. Bhosale, “CFD Analysis of Solar
Flat Plate Collector,” International Journal of Emerging
Technology and Advanced Engineering, ISSN 2250-
Figure 18: Streamlines for temperature distribution of 2459,Volume 3, Issue 4, April 2013.
Circular tube at 11.45 am of the day [6] Fabio Struckmann, “Analysis of a Flat-plate Solar
Collector”, 2008 MVK160 Heat and Mass Transport,
May 08, 2008, Lund, Sweden.

Author Profile

Vishal G. Shelke is a student of Master of

Engineering in, Advance Manufacturing and
Mechanical System Design Shri Sant Gajanan
Maharaj College of Engineering, Shegaon, of
(M.S.) India. He received a degree of Bachelor of
Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Sant Gadge
Baba Amravati University, Amravati, (M.S.), India

Prof. Chinmay V. Patil is currently holding a

position as Assistant Professor in Mechanical
Engineering Department of S.S.G.M. College of
Engineering, Shegaon (M.S.) India. He has 10
years of experience in academics. His research interests
Figure 19: Streamlines for temperature distribution of include Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing and
Elliptical tube at 11.45 am of the day Solar Energy Utilization.

5. Conclusion
From the above study it is concluded that elliptical tube of
case no. 5 (i.e. B=0.5A) gives the maximum outlet
temperature of water for the same heat flux and inlet
temperature in comparison with circular and other elliptical
geometries. It also shows the peak outlet temperature
difference between circular and elliptical tube is 4.17 ˚C.
This shows that elliptical tube is beneficial in future for
domestic purpose.

References
[1] Mohamed Selmi, Mohammed J. Al-Khawaja and
Abdulhamid Marafia, “Validation of CFD simulation for
flat plate solar energy collector,” Renewable Energy 33
(2008) 383–387.
[2] Marroquín-De Jesus Angel, Olivares-Ramirez Juan
Manuel, Zamora-Antuñano Marco Antonio, Jiménez-
Sandoval Omar and Encinas-Oropesa Armando,
“Analysis of Flow and Heat Transfer in a Flat Solar
Collector with Rectangular and Cylindrical Geometry
Using CFD,” Ingeniería Investigación y Tecnología,

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