Open Access

ARTICLE

Numerical Investigations of an Integrated Phase-Change-Material Solar Collector

Z. Bouhssine¹, M. Faraji¹, M. Najam¹, M. El Alami^1,2
1 Laboratory of Physical Materials, Microelectronics, Automatics and Heat Transfer, Faculty of Science, Hassan II University, Casablanca-Morocco.
2 Corresponding Author. E-mail: m.elalami@etude.univcasa.ma; m.elalami@fsac.ac.ma

Fluid Dynamics & Materials Processing 2015, 11(1), 63-85. https://doi.org/10.3970/fdmp.2015.011.063

Abstract

The objective of this study is to optimize the thermal performance of a solar collector. The solar collector is coupled to a building slab with a PCM layer. A mathematical model for the thermal behavior of the studied system is developed using the enthalpy method. The model parameters are defined and the resulting equations are solved iteratively. Several simulations were carried out to optimize the proposed heating system. The results show that the inlet temperature fluctuations are less pronounced than those at the outlet.

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Keywords

Solar collector, heat balance, optimization, PCM, heating, concrete, building

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