Experimental Investigation of Thermal Behavior in an Active Type Solar Water Heater Based on Phase Change Material Using Solar Simulator

The weakness of an outdoor solar water heater (SWH) experiments is the difficulty in determining its thermal behavior. The fluctuation of solar radiation intensity causes the supply of energy received by SWH also fluctuate. The result is that the thermal behavior of the SWH cannot be known for specific parameters. This paper aims to investigate the thermal behavior of an active type SWH containing paraffin wax using the constant heat flux method. A phase change material (PCM) inserted into the capsule. The capsules were arranged in a tank to form a heat exchanger (HE). The thermocouples were mounted both on the waterside and the PCM side. The solar simulator installed on the top of the collector, and the SHW system placed indoors. the heat flux and water flow were set at 1000 W/m2 and 2 LPM, respectively. The temperatures of water and PCM for 143 minutes charging recorded. The data obtained were used to analyze the thermal behavior of water and PCM. The results showed that the average heating rate of water and PCM was 0.227 degrees C/min and 0.205 degrees C/min, respectively. The value of this adjacent average heating rate shows that HE has functioned well in removing heat energy from water. The accumulated thermal energy produced was 13.08 MJ. Indoor experiments can reveal the thermal behavior of the SWH-PCM systems.