C H A P T E R – II

INTRODUCTION

Solar energy is the world’s most abundant permanent source of energy. Strictly
speaking, all forms of energy on the earth are derived from sun. However, the
more conventional form of energy, the fossil fuels received their solar energy
input ones ago and possess the energy in a greatly concentrated form. These
highly concentrated solar energy sources are being used at such a rapid rate that
they will be depleted in not-too distant future. Our most common forms of energy
– Petroleum, natural gas and natural gas-liquids, coal and wood. Excepting
wood, all these common sources have finite supplies. The life is estimated to
range from 15 years for a natural gas and nearly 300 years for coal. Therefore,
as these non-renewable sources are consumed, the man kind must turn its
attention to longer-form permanent type for energy sources. The two most
significant such sources are nuclear are solar energy.

Nuclear energy requires advanced technology and reliable utilization

and costly means for its safe and reliable utilization and may have undesirable
side effects. Solar is a dependent energy source without new requirements of a
highly technical and specialized nature for its wide utilization. In additional, it is
free from pollution.

The amount of solar energy intercepted by the earth is about 17x10 18

Kwh/year which is only tiny fraction of the total energy released by the conversion
of 4 million tons of hydrogen per second to helium in the sun.

Solar energy, which is the ultimate source of most from of energy used now,
is clean, safe and exists unviable quantities in many countries. The draw back in
using solar radiation as energy, as have been pointed out, are that it cannot be
stored and it is a dilute form of energy.

In addition to the thousands of ways in which the sun’s energy has been
used by both man and nature throughout the time to grow food, to see by, to dry
clothes. Solar energy is used to heat and cool buildings, to heat water, to power
refrigerators; to operate engines and sewage treatment plant, water stills,
furnaces, distillation equipment, crop dryers and sludge dryers powered by solar
energy electrolyzes convert water to clean hydrogen gas (a fuel ).

Solar energy is not a new concept and it has been realized that it has a
tremendous potential. Although abundant, solar energy impinging on the earth is
relatively dilute, also it is inter milting in its nature. The first factor makes any
solar radiation to heat on a practical scale, relatively large. The second factor
makes it necessary to have a thermal energy storage. The utilization of solar
energy can be approached broadly in three ways.

1. Low grade thermal devices making used direct and diffuse radiation. These
devices are further classified into flat plate type and focusing type. These
are easy to maintain , can be operated with local skills but restricted to low
temperature range (100o c )
The focusing type on the other hand can achieve temperature from 200o c
to 3000oc. But these are sophisticated ones and requires highly reflecting
sun tracking devices and high skills of maintenance solar.

2. Direct conversion of solar energy into electric using Photovoltaic cells.

Solar cells with photo voltaic effect principal and solar batteries using photo
chemical effects can be placed under this heading. That day is not far off,
when mankind receives electricity from solar powered satellites. It is
estimated that one large satellite could produce as much power as 1 to 10
Nuclear power reactors in the 1000 to 2000 MW range.
3. Biological conversion of solar energy into transport fuels. All the stored up
fuels that are now inherited by the earth owe their origin to solar radiation
depend. Processes called photo synthesis. Exploitation by this method
includes permentation and pyrolysis of plant material to produce liquid
fuels and gases development from efficient plants using ways to grow up
usual to ferment, producing methane and hydrogen gas.
 India a fast developing country needing cheap energy with mostly rural
population and favorable weather conditions is best suited for solar energy
utilization. Cost of utilization of solar energy can be computed favorably with
other means of energy as cost of standard fuels in India is high.
 C H A P T E R - lll

SOLAR RADIATION

The first step is to measure the intensity of radiation received outside

the earth’s atmosphere called extraterrestrial radiation. This endeavor entails
measuring the intensity of X-rays , ultra violet, infrared, radio emissions etc.., all
of which form part of the solar radiation. A general method is to convert the sun’s
radiation into heat which can be accurately measured.

Components of solar Radiation :-

On entering the earth atmosphere solar radiation splits into three parts.
One part is absorbed by water vapour and ozone, the second part is scattered
by air molecules, water vapour and dust particles. This part the direction of which
is changed by reflection and scattering Is called “Diffuse radiation” or Sky
radiation”. The third part of which reaches the earth unuttered is called ‘Direct
radiation “ . The total energy reaching the earth’s surface is the sum of direct and
diffused radiation.

Direct Radiation under clear sky conditions : -

Owing to scattering and absorption, the solar radiation reaching the earth
is less than that available outside the earth’s atmosphere. The reduction in
intensity depends upon atmospheric conditions (amount of dust particles, water
vapor, ozone content atmospheric pressure etc.) and solar latitude. The latter
factor determines the length of atmosphere through which the solar beam has to
pass before reaching the earth’s surface. If the latitude of the sun is small the
length traversed by beam is long. On the other hand, if the sun is at the zenith,
the solar beam traverses through the vertical, the shortest path through the
atmosphere. The path length of the solar beam through the atmosphere is
accounted for in the terms ‘air mass’ which is a numerical comparison between
the path length which the solar beam actually traverses and the vertical path
through atmosphere. Thus the air mass ‘m’ is unity when the sun is at zenith i.e.,
when AI =90o in general

Air mass = Path length traversed

Vertical depth of atmosphere
m = Cosec ( Altitude )

Direct radiation under clear sky conditions and in the wave length ranger of
0.3 to 3.0 µ m. ‘ Low Wave radiation ‘ is defined as radiation originating from
sources at temperature nearly ordinary ambient temperature and thus they are
wave length greater than 3.0 µ m.

Solar Radiation data : -

Solar radiation data are available in several forms and should include the
following information.

1. Whether they are instantaneous measures or values integrated over some

period of time (usually hour or day ) in our analysis we used daily totals.
2. The time or time period of measurement.
3. Whether the measurement are of beam, diffuse (a/r) total radiation and the
instruments used. For our work the total radiation is measured using
pyranometer.
4. The radiation surface orientation horizontal. Transmission factor (Td) of
the atmosphere for direct solar radiation under clear sky c0ndition at sea
level. TD is defined as the ratio between the intensity of solar radiation
received on the earth’s surface and the intensity of extra- terrestrial solar
radiation. For a given value of air mass ‘m’ and depth of predicable water
‘w’ , the transmission factor ‘TD’ varies linearly with the number of dust
particles.

‘Solar short wave radiation’ is defined as radiation originating from sun, at

a source temperature of about 6000o k.
 C H A P T E R - IV

SOLAR GEOMETRY

The orbit of the earth and rotation occurs about axis at an angle of about 23½
to one another.

To locate the position of the sun with respect to observer. We fix the earth and
find co-ordinates of sun.

The sun is constrained to move with two degrees of freedom. As a result the
location of the sun can be specified by two angles;

1. The solar altitude angle is measured from the local horizontal plane to the
center of the sun. It is measured between a line collinear with the sun’s
rays and the horizontal plane.
2. The azimuth angle as is measured in the horizontal plane between a due
south line and the projection of the site to sun line on the horizontal
plane. Signs convention used for azimuth angle is positive east of south
and negative west of south.

Zenith (z) : The point at which the earth sphere intercepts the upward vertical
axis passing through the observer.

Nadir (N) : The point of the celestial sphere diametrically opposite to the zenith.

The position of a point ‘p’ on the surface of earth with reference to sun’s rays
is known at any instance, if the altitude ‘l’ hour angle ‘h’ , and sun’s declination ‘d’
are know.

‘l’ is the angular distance of the point north (or) south of equator.
‘h’ is the angle through which the earth must turn to bring the meridian of ‘p’
directly in line with sun’s rays’. ‘h’ is measured with reference to mid-noon. Each
hour is equal to 15° of longitude. It is positive in the mornings and negative in the
afternoons. Thus for example at 10 A.M. h= +30° and at 2.30 P.M. h= -37.5°.

‘d’ is the angular distance of sun’s rays, north (or) south of equator, at
solar noon. ‘d’ varies from –23½ to +23½ over a year. On equinoxes (march
22 vermal equinox, September 22 Automnal equinox). d = 0, on summer
solstice (June 22) d =± 23½° and on winter solstice (December 22, d = - 23½°)
variation of ‘d’ can either be determined by a plot of d Vs day (or) approximately
by the equation:

d = 23.45 Sin 360  284 + n 

 365 

Where n is the day of the year, for example on Feb.1

n = 31 + 1 = 32
∴ d = 23.45 Sin 360 30 284 + 32
365
= - 16.25°
Solar Time :-

Solar radiation calculations must be made with reference to solar

time. Solar time does not coincide with the local time.

Time reckoned from midnight at the Greenwich meridian (Zero longitude) is

known as Greenwich standard time or Universal tome such time is expressed on
an hour scale from 0 to 24 . Hence midnight is 0 and mid-noon is 12.

On any particular meridian the local time is less or more than the GST and
varies by ± 4 minutes per degree change in longitude plus 4 minutes for eastern
longitude and minus 4 minutes for western longitude.

The local time is not set with reference to the meridian of the place. Each
country spans a certain range of longitudes and the time with reference to mean
meridian is taken to be the local standard time for example our country spans
from 67° E to 92°. The Indian standard time is the corresponding to the 82.5° E
meridian (mean) It can thus be seen that IST is a head of GST by 5 hours 30
minutes.

Local time = Standard time - 4 ( L st - L loc ) min.

Where, Lst = standard meridian for local zone and Lloc = Longitude of place
required.

Again there is a difference between local solar time (LST) and the local time and
this difference is called the ‘equation of the time’. Equation of the time is the
result of irregularities of the earth’s orbit.

LST = Local time + equation of time

Equation of time can be obtained from the charts.

Hence LST = Standard time – 4 ( Lst –Lloc ) + equation of time
Here the second and third terms are in minutes.

Solar Constant : -

It is defined as the ‘amount of energy that would fall perpendicularly

per cm2per minute on a surface placed out side the earth’s atmosphere at the
earth’s mean distance from the sun.The value of constant is nearly 1.94 claries.
–2 –1
cm min . The solar constant is thus the amount of energy available to heat
the entire surface of the atmosphere was perfectly transparent and if the sun was
vertically over head.

Whenever the sun is at a lower angle of elevation, its energies spread

by the slanting rays over a great area of the earth’s surface and the heating of the
earth’s surface and the heating of each centimeter is correspondingly weaker.
Hence the intensity of solar radiation is depends upon altitude and time of year.
But the total time of energy received in 24 hours depends also on the length of
the day between sunrise and sun set. Because of this factor, the daily totals of
the available solar radiation are actually greatest at the poles in mid summer,
although the total over the year is about 2½ times greater at the equator then at
the poles. For all practical purposes, solar radiation as it reaches the outside of
the earth’s atmosphere is similar to the radiation form a block body at a temp of
nearly 6000°c. This radiation is effectively contained with in a spectrum
extending from about 0.2 µ m wave length is ultra violet to about 5.0 µ m in the
infrared, maximum energy falling near 0.45 µ m in the visible region.

The distribution of energy in the major divisions

Ultra violet 3 %
Visible 50 %
Infrared 45 %

To be more precise the amount of radiation incident on a plane surface

outside the earth’s atmosphere is not constant, but varies with solar declination
and the distance of the earth form the sun. The variation is the order of ± 3%
around its mean value of 1.94 cal. cm -2 min-1 I.e., 1353 W/ m2
 CHAPTER - V

DESCRIPTION AND PERFORMANCE STUDY OF FLATE PLATE

WATER HEATER

Description : -

The plate water heater under our study is a natural circulation type domestic
water heater. It consists of a metal (GI) plate which is painted black on the side
facing the sun and thermally insulated on the edges (wooden supports) and on
the back side glass wool. Above the absorbing plate, spaced an inch, one more
glasses are placed to reduce up ward hear losses. Provision is made to remove
the collected energy by circulating water in tubes which are in thermal contact
with the absorber plate.

Liquid – Heating Flat Plate Collectors : -

The absorber plate, the main component of a collector stops the sun light
converts it into heat, and transfers it to the liquid. Its surface is usually painted
black to reduce the heat loss, cover plates such as glass which transmits sun
light, are placed over the absorber. Heat loss out the back side of the absorber is
reduced through the use of insulation. All of these components are often
containerized (wooden or metal boxes) for shipping case of inclination, or
protection from moisture.

Absorber Plate : -

Traditionally absorber plates for liquid systems have been made of

copper aluminum or steel the characteristics are considered an absorber are

1. Availability
 2. Energy and resources required in manufacture

3. Conductivity (thermal performance)

4. Durability

5. Easy of handling

6. Cost

Conductivity (Thermal Performance ) :-

Metal need not be used as the absorber plate if the fluid comes in direct
contact with every surface, which is struck by sunlight. With almost all liquid
systems in use, however, the liquid is channeled usually through tubes attached
to the plates. Heat must be conducted to the tubes form those of the plate which
are not in contact with the fluid. If the conductivity is not high enough, the heat will
escape form the collector before it is conducted through the tubes. With metals of
high thermal conductivity such as copper, the sheet can be thinner and tubes can
be spaced further apart. The most conductive is copper followed by aluminium to
obtain similar results with all other conditions being the same, an aluminium
sheet would have to be twice as thick and a steel nine times as thick as a copper.

Durability :-

The durability of metals is limited by the threat of corrosion. Copper resists

corrosion better than aluminium and steel, but under certain conditions water and
antifreeze can corrode all three. The high operating temperatures of solar
collectors also accelerate corrosion there are however, methods reducing the
effects of corrosion. If the absorber is drained to prevent freezing, for instance the
admission of air into system raises the potential for corrosion. Thus, corrosive
oxygen from the air should be prevented from entering (gases like nitrogen are
being investigated as alternatives to air in self draining systems). Steel must be
galvanized or stainless, corrosion also can be reduced by adding so called
inhibitors, some of which are chromate based to the water or to the anti-freeze.

Types of Absorber Plates for Liquid Systems : -

There are three basic designs used to bring liquids in contact with the absorber
plate for the purpose of taking away heat. One is Thomson type, openfaced
corrugated sheet over which liquid flows. The second is the tube in plate method,
used in which passages are incorporated into the absorber sheet itself. The third
and the most popular prior to the advent of the tube in plate is the application of
the tubes on to the sheet, either on the backside, protected from the sun, off on
the front side exposed to the sun.

Absorber Surfaces :-

Absorber surfaces (on coatings) and over plates should be considered

simultaneously. There functions are similar and the choice of cover plates is
related to the absorber surfaces. For example it has been found that the use of
selective surface in combination with one cover plate is more efficient than a flat
black paint in combination with the two cover plates.
The primary function of the absorber surface is to increase
the percentage of sunlight, which is retained by the absorber plate. By definition
of black body is a perfect absorber of radiation, all wave lengths at every incident
angle will be absorbed by a black body. Real substances however, will always
reflect sum of the radiation, which strikes them and will do so to an increasing
extent with increasing angle of incidence. A black body is also a perfect emitter of
thermal radiation. Although there are no perfect emitters in nature, most black
colors absorb as much energy as they simultaneously emit about 90 or 95 %.
The ideal for an absorber surface is that it reflects no short wave light radiation (it
absorbs it all) and reflects all long wave radiation (it emits non of it ) such an ideal
surface is called a selective surfaces.
 The performance is measured by its absorbtivity (α ), by its emissivity
(E) of long wave thermal radiation and by the ratio of absorbitivity and emissivity
(α /E).

Cover Plates :-

A cover plate is the generic term applied to a rather large group of

transparent materials. Which are used to the absorber plate and which are
usually located about one inch from it. The short wave sunlight penetrates
through the ‘transparent material’ (transparent to sunlight), hits the absorber
plate, stops, and turns into long wave infrared. The previously transparent
material is now relatively opaque to these long waves and the heat is trapped.
The basic knowledge of the solar spectrum makes an understanding of the
function and choice of cover plates somewhat easier. Ultra violet light is less than
0.4 microns in length infrared is longer than 0.7 microns, visible light is the
spectrum between these two. Long wave infrared (heat) is usually considered to
be 3 to 20 microns in length or longer glass is almost totally opaque to these long
waves.

Glass, one of the most popular choices for cover plates, varies in its solar
transmittance according to the angle of incidence of the solar radiation.

Measuring Instruments : -
Thermo couples : -
Thermo electric thermometry is based on the rigorous relation that
exists between the thermo-emf generated by a thermocouple and the
temperature to which it is exposed. Thermo couples are widely used in various
fields of science and technology to indicate temperatures down to 2500° c.
Although they can indicate temperatures down to -200° c, thermo couples are
used in the low temperatures on a more limited scale than resistance thermo
meter. In the high temperature region (above 1300° c - 1600° c ) thermo couples
are mainly used for short duration measurements.
 The point is that the corrosive properties of process media
increases with rising temperatures and service life of thermo couples rapidly
decreases.

Basic theory of Thermo Couples : -

This history of thermo couples dates back to the discovery by see
back in 1825 that an electrical current flows in a continuous circuit of two
dissimilar metals if different temperatures are maintained at there junctions.
Thermo emf is related in a specific manner to the temperature at the junctions of
two dissimilar metals.
A and B are two dissimilar metals (say Cu and Platinum) each
homogeneous over its length ‘t’ and ‘to’ are the temperatures of the junctions.
When junctions (1) is heated and the junction (2) is left cold a current begins to
flow, direct from B to A at the hot junction and from A to B at the cold junction. If
junction (2) is heated, the direction of current will be reversed. This is thermo
electric current and the emf caused by the difference in temperature between the
two functions is called thermo – emf. The device which produce it is called
thermo couple or thermo electric transducer.

Copper constant Thermo Couples : -

Although not used in industrial instruments, copper constant
thermo couples are a convenient aid in laboratory practice and some times, in the
shop for measuring temperatures in the interval form - 200°c to + 350 °c.

Temperature Probe : -
One junction of copper constant an thermo couple wore is made anf
it is fixed on a piece of copper plate using metal seal. This copper plate is
attached to the bottom of a 1” G. I. Pipe again by using M-Seal. The other end of
the thermo couple wire is drawn through the pipe with this end of the wire, one
cold junction is made and it is maintained at 0°c by using ice. Copper wire is fixed
to the copper plate and constant wore is fixed to the cold junction. The two
terminals are connected to the potentiometer. This probe is passed into the hot
water tank and temperature difference is measured in mill volts in the
potentiometer at different levels of the water in the tank. This difference itself
gives the actual temperature of the water in the tank as the cold junction is
maintained at 0°c. Graph is drawn for temperature vs level of the water in the tank
where the measurement is made.
From this graph we can calculate the average tank temperature tf.
Radiation Measurement Instruments: -
Solar radiation measurements are most often made of total
(beam + diffuse) radiation, in energy/unit time/unit area on a horizontal surface by
Pyranometers. Measurements are also made of beam radiation by
Pyrheliometers which respond to solar radiation received from a very small
portion of the circular solar sky. Instruments from these measurements convert
radiation to some other form of energy and provide a measure of energy flux
produced by the radiation.
The most common Pyranometers in use are based on detection of the
difference the temperature of the black surface which absorb most solar radiation
and white surfaces which reflect most solar radiation by thermo piles properly
protected from wind and compensated for changes in ambient temperature, the
thermopile give mill volt signals that can be readily detailed recorded and
integrated over time.
In this country, the Eppley Pyranometer is based on this principle and has
become the most common instrument in use by weather bureau stations. It uses
concentric silver rings 0.25 mm thick approximately coated black and white with
10 (or) 50 thermo couple junction to detect the temperature differences between
the coated rings.
Later models use wedges arranged in a circular pattern with
alternate white and black coatings. The discs (or) wedges are enclosed in a hemi
spherical glass cover. This is calibrated in a horizontal position. In our instrument
the property of metals to expand correspondingly with change in temperature
difference is used to get output of solar radiation on a chart called “Pyrhe
Liograph”.

Collector Analysis : -
1. Heat losses to the environment must be minimized.
 2. Heat transfer coefficient of the heat exchanger process must be
maximized. As the thermal equilibrium,
qo = qa = ql
Flat plate collector can take the advantage of the diffuse component of
scattered solar radiation as well as the direct component.
The power absorbed/unit collector area for either one of these components
is simply the product of the absorptions coefficient the effective transmittance Te’
and the solar radiation falling on the tilled surface RH an evaluated for the
particular component (R is the geometry factor that converts the solar radiation
falling on a horizontal surface to the solar radiance falling on a tilted surface).
This qa = α ‘Te’ R ‘H’ + α “Tc” R “H”
‘l’ - for direct
‘ll’ - for diffuse
Heat loss to the environment is made up of a conduction loss from the back of
the absorber plate through the insulation material (losses through the edge of a
well designed collector are so small that can be ignored) and an upward radiation
conduction – convention – loss through the cover plates.
The rate of energy loss through the insulation per area qb is dependent upon
the thermal conductivity ‘K’ and the thickness ‘D’ the insulation as well as the
difference between arithmetic mean temperature of absorber ‘T’ and the
temperature of the back of the frame Tb.
qb = k/d (T – Tb)
Ambient temperature ‘Ta” is used instead of ‘Tb’ in practical calculations. Since it
is easy and economical to provide good insulation of the rear surfaces. The heat
loss is usually negligible compared to upward heat loss.
The cover plate are for practical purposes opaque to the long wave
length thermal radiation corresponding to the operation temperatures of the
converts and the absorber surface. The upward rate of energy transfer between
any two of these surfaces as an example, the absorber surface and the first cover
is therefore given by
qu = c (T – T1)5/4 + 1 (T4 – T41)
1
/ E + 1/ E -1