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Outdoor experiments on a once-through single glazed solar air heater with perforated metal absorber plate were conducted to determine the practical effect of absorber plate porosity as well as suction air flow rate on the collector thermal efficiency and its total pressure drop. Three aluminum absorber plates were made perforated by drilling circular holes with different diameter/pitch ratios in square layout. A fan was employed at the top of the collector to suck ambient air from the bottom side through absorber plate perforations. The flow channel was designed such that uniform air flow over the entire absorber plate area could be achieved. Five levels of air mass flow rates (0.0065 to 0.0321 kg m-2 s-1) were adopted. Pressure drop across the apparatus was measured. The inlet air was preheated by short wavelength radiation absorbed by the cover as well as the long wavelength emission by the absorber prior to catching the heat from transpired absorber plate. A maximum thermal efficiency of 84% could be achieved for the most part of the porous absorber plate at the highest air mass flow rate. The collector with minimum porosity showed a maximum pressure drop. In some experiments, the glass cover was removed to determine the outdoor effect of glazing. Comparing the performance of the collector with and without glazing showed that the unglazed collector was about 25% less efficient than the glazed one at the same overall operating conditions. This reduction can be attributed to high top radiative and convective heat losses for the unglazed collector at the outdoor conditions. The pressure drop for the uncovered collector showed a lower magnitude in comparison to the covered one. The inlet air passes and heats up (21-59°C above the ambient) through the solar collector, therefore the fresh and clean hot air can be continuously supplied for many purposes such as solar drying system.

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In this paper, the performance evaluation of a two-way hybrid photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) solar collector was analytically and experimentally carried out. Mathematical expressions for operating parameters in glass to glass and glass to tedlar PV/T solar collectors were developed and experimentally validated by a glass to tedlar PV/T solar collector system. Also the influence of air flow rate on the solar collector performance was investigated. The results showed that the glass to glass PV/T solar collector gave higher outlet air temperature, cell temperature and thermal efficiency than the glass to tedlar PV/T solar collector. However, back surface temperature and electrical efficiency were higher in case of glass to tedlar collector. Increasing the air flow rate led to a lower outlet air temperature and a higher electrical efficiency of the photovoltaic module. Maximum experimental electrical efficiency, thermal efficiency and overall thermal efficiency for the glass to tedlar PV module were found to be 10.35, 57.9 and 84.5%, respectively.

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Direct-expansion solar-assisted heat pumps (DX-SAHP) have been used widely to heat the consuming water of buildings and industrial facilities, domestic and industrial space heating and also, air conditioning. These systems transfer energy from lower temperature source to a higher temperature source. In DX-SAHP systems, In order to optimize the heat transfer of solar radiation to the refrigerant, the flat plate solar collector is used as the evaporator. In this paper, the thermal performance of a DX-SAHP has been studied using numerical simulation for heating the water of a house in Kermanshah. The system mainly employs a bare flat-plate solar collector with a surface area of 4 m2, a hot water tank with the volume of 150 L, a rotary-type hermetic compressor, a thermostatic expansion valve and R-134a is also used as working fluid in the system. The results show that the hours of system operation, during different months in the climate of Kermanshah, vary between 37 to 130 hours and the monthly average COP and the solar collector efficiency vary between 3.96 to 6.71 and 68 to 99 percent respectively. The effect of various parameters, including solar radiation, ambient temperature, collector area, compressor speed, number of collector cover and wind speed have been analyzed on the thermal performance of the system.

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Considering the daily increase of consumption and expense of nonrenewable energies such as natural gas and electricity, application of clean and renewable energies such as solar thermal energy nowadays has been highly taken into consideration. In this research, at first, simple steam Rankine cycle and two different configurations of combined steam and organic Rankine cycles with parabolic trough solar collector as heat source are simulated from energetic and exergetic point of view. First configuration was basic steam rankine cycle with parabolic trough solar collector (PTSC) as heat source, and other configurations of the combined cycle worked as follows: In the second configuration (combined cycle with intermediate heat exchanger), with the increase of steam condenser pressure, heat dissipation in condenser is used as heat source for bottoming organic Rankine cycle and in the third configuration (combined cycle without intermediate heat exchanger), reduced-temperature solar fluid moving output of steam rankine cycle acted as the organic Rankine cycle heat source. Simulation results in the basic input state show that third configuration has the maximum amount of work and irreversibility and second configuration has the minimum amount of work and irreversibility which in this case, increase in the steam cycle condenser pressure leads to the reduction of work of combined cycle with intermediate heat exchanger, even lower than the simple steam cycle. On the other hand, second configuration has the maximum solar energy and exergy efficiency among three configurations which is due to the reduction of collector area required in this configuration.

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The goal of this research is to design and build a solar adsorption chiller operated by activated carbon / methanol. Continuous refrigeration systems are able to produce cooling continuously. This paper examines the effect of activated carbon particles on the performance of a continuous adsorption chiller device. The source of this chiller is through sunlight and supplied by a parabolic collector that does not need to track sunlight. The system operates with two adsorbent beds that, when one is adsorbed, the other is desorbed. The experiments were carried out in Yasuj during three different days in the month of Bahman for three hot water input to the chiller 38℃, 34℃ and 30℃. The average ambient temperature during the experiment is 18℃. Experimental results shows that for the total energy input, 13MJm-2, the average performance factor of the chiller is when the inlet temperature of the hot water of the chiller is 38℃, 34℃ and 30℃, respectively, of 0.123, 0.103 and 0.10. For Previous temperatures the average specific cooling power of the device was obtained at 88Wkg-1, 65Wkg-1 and 50Wkg-1 respectively.

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In this study, the performance of direct absorption solar collector is experimentally investigated using Fe3O4/Silica hybrid nanofluid based on deionized water. First, stability of prepared nanofluids is considered using spectral absorbency method. Then, spectrophotometry method is used for measuring optical properties of nanofluids. A prototype of this new type of collector was built with applicability for solar water heating systems. The procedure of EN 12975-2 standard was used for testing the thermal performance of the collector. Results show that collector efficiency is enhanced by nanofluid concentration, so that collector maximum efficiency is 73.9%, 79.8% and 83.7%using nanofluid with concentration of 500 ppm, 1000 ppm and 2000 ppm, respec/tively. This vaule is 63% using the base fluid as working fluid. Regarding very low volume fractions of nanofluids used in direct absorption solar collectors, the viscosity of the base fluid experience insignificant increase, therefore, pumping power will not increase significsantly. Such increase in efficiency show that direct absorption solar collector performance using hybrid nanofluid is much better than that of using the water at the same operating conditions. Application of stable hybrid nanofluid results in higher conversion efficiency of solar energy to useful energy.

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In this study, energy and exergy efficiency of residential-type direct absorption solar collector using PVP-coated silver nanofluid has been evaluated experimentally. First, stability and thermophysical and optical properties of nanofluid have been considered using the theoretical and experimental methods. Then, outdoor thermal performance of collector is investigated using the experimental setup based on EN12975-2. Results of energy analysis show that the collector efficiency is increased by increase of flowrate and concentration of nanofluid asymptotically. It is observed that exergy efficiency is firstly increased by nanofluid concentration and then, decreased after reaching the optimum value. The optimum concentration was 500 ppm for all flowrates. The variation of exergy efficiency by reduced temperature difference is similar to volume fraction. The optimum exergy efficiency is obtained at 0.01 m2K/W. The decrease of exergy efficiency by flowrate indicated that exergy losses due to pressure drop have the significant effect on the collector performance.

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In this research, the effect of using two solar fields in a solar thermal power plant was evaluated. The average price of natural gas in the last decade was 3.5 dollar/MMBTU. Due to the complexities of the solar power plant, two methods were introduced to optimize the area of the solar fields. Then, for further evaluation of the solar power plant with two distinct solar fields, the plant was examined for two natural gas prices of 3.5 and 9 dollar/MMBTU. The results of the study show that the use of two separate solar fields to produce high pressure steam turbines and low pressure over the use of a solar field reduces the cost of generating electricity. Although each solar field must produce different energy quantities, and the area of each of the fields is different, the size of the field coefficient of the field was the same for both solar fields.

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This paper examines the design, manufacture, and analysis a Gamma-type Stirling engine using the solar parabolic collector. The calculation base for designing is so that the size of the solar parabolic collector needed to start the engine is not too large. After finishing the design and manufacturing of the parts, the assembled Stirling engine was initially initiated by a 550W electric heater tested in two non-insulated and insulated conditions for different input power. In the non-insulated state, the Stirling engine has a maximum power of about 68.69W with an output of 12.66%; and insulated mode of Stirling engine maximum watts with an output of 15.72% was obtained. Then we constructed a solar parabolic collector based on the power of the heater used. Designing the collector is such that it has the ability to reflect around 550W. Thus, the diameter of the collector is 1m and its depth is 12cm. This solar parabolic collector provides the power needed by the engine to work during the day. The maximum output power of the solar Stirling engine is about 30W.
 

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This study investigates the comparative effects of carboxyl-functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)/water nanofluids and titanium dioxide (TiO₂) /water nanofluids in direct absorption parabolic solar collectors. To achieve this, a standard testing apparatus was constructed, and the thermal and exergy efficiencies of the collector were calculated using nanofluids at various concentrations. UV/Vis analysis was used to analyze the radiative properties of the nanofluids, and their thermal conductivity was also measured. Experiments were conducted under laminar flow conditions with flow rates of 20, 60, and 100 liters per hour and inlet temperatures of 20, 30, and 40 °C under real conditions with direct solar irradiation. The highest thermal efficiency recorded for the carbon-based nanofluid was 44.96%, while the titanium-based nanofluid achieved a thermal efficiency of 34.98%. Given the substantial improvement in efficiency compared to the base fluid (distilled water), the combined effect of using both nanofluids was also examined, resulting in a maximum thermal efficiency of 48.77%. The exergy efficiency at the highest flow rate and inlet temperature for the base fluid, TiO₂ nanofluid, MWCNT nanofluid, and the hybrid nanofluid were 2.61%, 4.98%, 6.68%, and 7.26%, respectively. The pressure drop of all nanofluids in the absorber tube ranged from 5 to 39.6 Pascals. The studied nanofluids enhance the thermal performance of the system and create low pressure drop, indicating their high efficiency in direct absorption solar collectors.