International Research Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Technology - IRJIET International Open Access, Monthly, Peer Reviewed, Reputed Journal ISSN (online): 2581-3048

Impact Factor (2025): 6.9

DOI Prefix: 10.47001/IRJIET

Simulation of U Tube Heat Exchanger Immersed in Oil inside Solar Evacuated Tube

Abstract

A numerical simulation using finite difference method, transient and 3D for the water flow within the U-tube heat exchanger which is immersed in oil inside evacuated tube solar collector. This simulation process starts from the heat gained from the solar radiation and ends with the outlet temperature of the water to be heated by the U-tube heat exchanger. The characteristics of the used materials such as glass, water, copper and the used oil were entered to the simulation software. The vacuumed space between the two glass tubes was replaced with Aerogel being the most appropriate solution instead of the vacuum part because it is difficult to represent in the mesh part. The solar load model was used to track the radiation in this simulation, where the solar radiation heat flux is solved using the fair weather condition of the radiation equations, then the solar radiation load is considered as the term source in the energy equation tube according to geographical location, date and hour of the day. The performance of the solar evacuated tube (SET) was studied under the continuous water circulation and exposing the collector to the solar radiation, i.e. heating the oil and water together at a speed of 0.08 m/sec and where the flow that is laminar. The simulation results showed a clear effect of solar radiation in the contours of temperature charts and water circulation inside the solar collector, where the highest oil temperatures are at the top opened end of the SET collector and the lowest at the bottom closed end of the SET.

Country : Iraq

1 Amina Salal Zayyan Alnajmawy2 Mahmoud Usamah Jasim

  1. MSc. Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq
  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq

IRJIET, Volume 6, Issue 8, August 2022 pp. 53-60

doi.org/10.47001/IRJIET/2022.608008

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