Numerical simulation of heat transfer of an absorber with fin of a flat-plate type solar collector

In this study a flat plate type solar collector with fin is studied numerically. The fins are installed to the plate absorber to increase the thermal efficiency of the collector. The objective of this paper is to explore the temperature and velocity distribution in the solar collector. In addition, the rate of the heat transfer from the plate absorber to the tube is examined. The governing equations are developed based on mass conservation, momentum equation and energy conservation. The developed governing equations are solved numerically using commercial computational fluid dynamic code. Pressure distributions, temperature distributions, and velocity distributions are plotted and discussed. The heat transfer rate from the plat absorber to the tube is estimated. Effect of the fins to the heat transfer rate is examined. The results showed that there is no significant effect of installing fins to the performance of the solar collector. It is suggested to use the present result in designing an optimum solar collector. (paper)