Combined Heat Transfer in Glass and Plastic Covered Solar Collector

In this study, combined thermal radiation and natural convection heat transfer problem are investigated in glass and plastic covered flat solar collector. The bottom plate that absorbs the sunlight and the ambient temperature are kept constant. Solar collector cover is considered as a constant thickness glass, lexan and acrylic material. The outdoor wind coefficient of the cover was changed to 5-45 W/m2K while the bottom plate temperature was changed in the interval 323-423K. The momentum equations and the energy equation with the Boussinesq approach are solved using the finite volume method together with the SIMPLE algorithm. Steady-state the cover temperature and the total heat loss coefficient were calculated according to the different bottom plate temperature and the change of the wind convection coefficient of the outside environment. The flow and temperature profiles of the bottom plate mean convection and radiation Nusselt numbers are also presented. Analytically calculated glass cover temperature and the numerically calculated glass cover temperature were found to be in perfect agreement.