DESIGN, SIMULATION ,CONSTRUCTION AND TESTING OF A THERMOSYPHON SOLAR WATER HEATER FOR A BLOCK
(A CASE STUDY OF POSTGRADUATE HOSTEL IN AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA)
By
Author
Presented To
Department of Mechanical Engineering
ABSTRACT
All nations of the world depend on fossil fuels for their energy needs. However the obligation
to reduce Carbon dioxide and other gaseous emissions is the reason behind which countries
turn to non-polluting renewable energy sources. Hot water heated by the sun is used in many
ways, in residential settings to provide domestic hot water, also has industrial applications,
e.g. to generate electricity. Designs suitable for hot climates can be much simpler and
cheaper, and can be considered an appropriate technology for these places. Hot water use
represents a large proportion of energy needs in hostels. This energy need accounts for a large
portion of the total annual energy consumption in hostels and therefore a reasonable amount
of the university income is spent on electricity bills used for heating water for bathing in
hostels. A solar water heater was designed, simulated, fabricated and tested. The design,
simulation, fabrication and performance tests of a thermosyphon solar water heater were
carried out successfully for a block in Postgraduate hostel of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria.
the fabrication was carried out using locally available materials. The solar water heater has
the ability to heat 200 liters of water from a temperature of 25o
C to a temperature of 500
C,.
The design was purposely for students to use the water for bathing in order to totally
discourage the use of electric heating devices in the hostel which on several occasions has
been the reason of fire outbreaks in the hostel. The system factors such as costs and sizing
were taken into consideration which assisted in the choice of materials and the design. The
average solar radiation data was obtained from typical meteorological year (TMY) of Zaria
which was used to determined the month with the least solar radiation. From the analysis of
the typical meteorological year (TMY) data of Zaria the month of August has the least energy
ratio which point it out as the month with the least solar radiation and it was used as the
design month.The optimization of the system components was also carried out using
MATLAB to determine the optimum system size. After the fabrication of the system the
performance was evaluated by comparing the simulation results obtained from the model
(solar data processor, Type 109 of TRNSYS) and the results obtained from the experiment
using Microsoft Excel and standard deviation, Nash-Sutcliff coefficient statistical tools were
used to validate the predictive power of the model. From the result obtained from the research
it can be concluded that the thermosyphon solar water heater of collector area of 2.6m2
has
the ability to heat 200 litre of water to a temperature of 500
C in the month that has the least
solar radiation in Ahmadu Bello University Samaru, Zaria.The statistical tools used for the
validation of the simulation model confirm that the model is valid and can be used in the
estimation of the actual characteristics of a real system. The relative error is very minimal for
all the measured parameters and Nash-Sutcliff coefficient shows that the degree of fitting is
very high which shows that the simulation model has high accuracy, also the standard
deviation shows that the deviation of the experimental parameters from the simulated is very
low and therefore it is negligible.The results show little deviation of predicted values from
actual values with a good level of fit, thereby validating the model used for simulating the
solar water heating system.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION- - - - - - - - - - - . iii
CERTIFICATION - - - - - - - - - - - iv
DEDICATION - - - - - - - - - - - - v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT - - - - - - - - - - - vi
ABSTRACT - - - - - - - - - - - - - vii
LIST OF FIGURES - - - - - - - - - - - - . xi
LIST OF TABLES - - - - - - - - - - - - . xii
LIST OF APPENDICES - - - - - - - - - - xiii
NOMENCLATURE - - - - - - - - - - - . xiv
CHAPTER ONE- - - - - - - - - - - - 1
INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - - - - - 1
1.1 Background to the Study - - - - - - - - - - 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem - - - - - - - - - - . 2
1.3 The Present Work - - - - - - - - - - - . 3
1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Work - - - - - - - - - . 4
1.5 Significance of the Research - - - - - - - - - . 4
CHAPTER TWO - - - - - - - - - - - .. 6
LITERATURE REVIEW - - - - - - - - - - 6
2.2 Passive and Active Solar Water Heater - - - - - - - - .. 6
2.2.1 Passive solar water heater - - - - - - - - - . 6
2.2.2 Active solar water heater - - - - - - - - - - . 8
2.3 Components of a Solar Water Heater - - - - - - - - - 10
2.3.1 Hot water storage tanks - - - - - - - - - .. 10
2.3.2 Solar collector - - - - - - - - - - - .. 11
2.3.2.1 Types of solar collectors used for domestic water heating - - - - - 12
2.3.2.2 Solar collector orientation- - - - - - - - - - 16
2.3.3 Absorber plate- - - - - - - - - - - .. 18
2.3.4 Transparent cover - - - - - - - - - - . 19
2.3.5 Collector casing - - - - - - - - - - - 19
2.3.6 Insulation - - - - - - - - - - - - 19
2.4 Application of Solar Heated Water - - - - - - - - . 20
2.5 Selecting and Sizing a Solar Heating System - - - - - - - - 20
2.6 Siting Your Solar Water Heating System- - - - - - - - 22
2.7 Review of Past Research Work - - - - - - - - - . 22
2.8 Theoretical Background - - - - - - - - - - . 28
2.8.1 Thermal radiation - - - - - - - - - - .. 28
2.8.2 Optical Analysis- - - - - - - - - - - . 28
2.8.3 Estimation of Absorptance of Absorber Plate - - - - - - - . 33
CHAPTER THREE - - - - - - - - - - - .. 36
MATERIAL AND METHOD - - - - - - - - - .. 36
3.1 Solar Water Heater Description and Operation - - - - - - - . 36
3.2 Working Principle of the Solar Water Heater - - - - - - - .. 37
3.3 Solar Resources and Weather Data - - - - - - - - . 37
3.4 Material Selection - - - - - - - - - - - . 37
3.5 Design Analysis - - - - - - - - - - - .. 39
3.5.1.1 Total Radiation on Tilted Surfaces - - - - - - - - . 39
3.5.1.2 Absorbed Solar Radiation - - - - - - - - - - 41
3.5.1. 3 Extraterrestrial solar radiation - - - - - - - - - 41
3.5.1.4 Terrestrial irradiation - - - - - - - - - - 42
3.5.1. 5 Declination (δ) - - - - - - - - - - ..
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