Modified mathematical model for evaluating the performance of water-in-glass evacuated tube solar collector considering tube shading effect

The aim of this paper is to introduce a procedure for simulating the absorbed solar radiation and heat transfer process in water-in-glass evacuated tube solar collectors. The procedure is developed to calculate the daily utilized solar energy and outlet collector temperature for different tilt angles, collector azimuth angles and geometric parameters without requirement for any experimental factor determination. Total absorbed solar radiation is evaluated by integrating the flat-plate solar collector performance equations over the tube circumference taking into account the shading of the adjacent tubes and variance of transmissivity–absorptivity product with the incidence angle of radiation. The heat transfer into the collector fluid is evaluated by subtracting the heat loss from the total absorbed solar radiation. Comparison between calculated and measured tank temperature shows a good agreement between them under different heating loads. Performance of solar collector at different tilt angles, collector Azimuth angles, tubes spacing and collector mass flow rate is investigated theoretically. In Egypt (30° Latitude angle), the results show that 10°, 30° and 45° are the optimum solar collector tilt angles during the summer, vernal and autumnal equinox and winter operation respectively. Also, the utilized solar energy increases about 2.8% when the mass flow rate increases 100%, and the solar collector with south-facing has the best performance except for vertical tube solar collector. The simulation results also show that solar collector with wide tube spacing reduce the shading effect and hence increase the absorbed radiation. The final tank temperature as a function of collector's mass flow rate for three different days; 21 March, 21 June and 21 December is also investigated. The total incidence radiation, absorbed solar radiation and utilized heat per tube are presented for the three optimum tilt angles 10°, 30° and 45°. Efficiency curve of water-in-glass evacuated tube collector is also set into comparison with flat plate solar collector and salt gradient solar pond. - Highlights: • The effect of the three optimum tilt angles 10^o, 30^oand 45^o on the total incidence radiation and absorbed solar radiation are presented. • The vertical tube solar collector has the worst performance throughout the annual operating. • The study shows that the maximum absorbed solar radiation is limited to 80 Watt per tube