engleski

Estimating heat losses in solar collectors by IR thermography and numerical simulations

The paper demonstrates application of numerical methods supported by IR thermography for heat transfer evaluation in two types of plate solar collectors: with and without tubes. Numerical simulations of collector heat losses are performed in order to analyze influence of the welding between absorber plate and tubes on the collector efficiency. Results are compared with the collector thermal test data and IR measurements of absorber temperature field. The prototype of plate collector without tubes is investigated through numerical simulations of heat losses which are compared against the experimental values. A method for estimating the local heat transfer coefficients on the working fluid side in the prototype collector by means of IR thermography is presented and computed values compared against the experimental ones.

numerical simulations; IR thermography; solar collector; heat losses; efficiency; absorber plate

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