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Study of solar water heater using absorber plate integrated with composite thermal storage
Jalaluddin
Aip Conference Proceedings
Abstract
An absorber plate from Solar Water Heating System (SWHS) is the primary tool to absorb solar energy. Thermal energy storage receives special attention in solar energy applications, including high energy storage performance and energy conversion efficiency. A combination of absorber plate of the SWHS with thermal energy storage (TES) material aims to evaluate its performance. TES composite (TESC) is a Metal Matrix Composite (MMC) made of alumina (Al2O3) and pure aluminium (Al) composite material with a thickness of 15 mm. It is placed under the absorber plate to store heat energy before being transferred to the water and reduce top heat losses. Experimental tests were carried out by testing two models of absorber plates on a solar thermal energy unit with similar conditions. The first model is a standard flat-plate (SFP) absorber without TES composite. The second model combines standard flat-plate absorber and TES composite (SFP-TESC) placed under the SFP absorber. Each model was tested in the solar thermal energy unit for 2 (two) hours with the first 1 hour, the heat source is ON, and the next 1 hour is OFF. The results show that the average efficiency of the SFP model with various flow rates is 74.90% (8 L/h), 73.02% (10 L/h) and 69.23% (12 L/h). Meanwhile, the average efficiency of the SFP-TESC model with various flow rates is 67.10% (8 L/h), 68.43% (10 L/h), and 67.60% (12 L/h). Increasing the energy stored transferred to the circulating water can help to improve the efficiency of the SFP-TESC model.