Evaluation of a novel polymer solar collector using numerical and experimental methods

The presented research deals with an experimental and numerical evaluation of the thermal characteristics of a novel prototype polymer solar collector design. The experimental part comprises an alternative approach for determining the optical characteristics of polymer materials and measurements of thermal efficiency. Functional dependency of thermal efficiency on solar radiation, working fluid and air temperature is computed. In order to validate the numerical model built in the ANSYS FLUENT software package, simulations are performed on a segment of the polymer solar collector, and the findings are correlated with the experimental ones. The efficiency curve is determined for a whole collector consisting of eight analysed segments. The obtained efficiency of the proposed polymer collector design is 20% lower relative to the state-of-the-art flat plate collector during the typical summer operating regime. A parametric numerical analysis of a polymer solar collector is carried out to evaluate the influence of design and operating parameters on thermal performances and to provide design improvement guidelines. In addition, stagnation temperature measurements are conducted in accordance with EN ISO 9806:2017 when a stagnation temperature of 125.1 degrees C is recorded after the application of overheating protection measures.