The energy balance equation for the condenser can be including beam radiation, diffuse radiation and
written as: radiation reflected from other surfaces and is written
as:
(7)
(15)
Where the horizontal instantaneous global and diffuse
radiations are obtained from the daily values by the
following equations:
Evaporator Energy Balance:
The overall energy balance of the evaporator can be (16)
expressed as:
(17)
(18)
(8)
(19)
Where Mw(t) is the amount of liquid water inside the
evaporator at time t and is expressed by equation 9 : (20)
(9) (21)
The refrigeration capacity of this system is defined as: And
(22)
(10)
(23)
And the heating power required is:
(24)
(11)
Hence COP can be expressed as: is assumed to be 0.15 according to [12].
Storage Tank:
(12) The storage tank has 3 temperature nodes to simulate
Solar Thermal System stratification. The collector injects heat into the
The solar thermal system model includes a flat plate storage tank, if the collector temperature is above the
collector, a stratified storage tank and a back-up lowest storage tank temperature. The return to the
heater. collector is always taken from the bottom of the tank;
Solar Collectors: the load supply is taken from the top of the tank. The
The solar collector is simulated using equation 13: collector outlet and the load return are put into the
storage tank at the corresponding stratification
temperature level. The energy balance on node i can
(13) be expressed as:
The available solar radiation data, which has been
measured by Iran’s meteorological organization, are
the daily global solar radiations on a horizontal (25)
surface, daily sky clearness indexes and daily
temperatures. It is necessary to have the instantaneous
direct solar radiation that is received by the collector. Where , and are defined as:
The daily diffuse solar fraction is a function of sky
clearness index (KT) and is defined by equation 14:
[12].
(26)
(14)
The instantaneous incident solar radiation on a tilted
surface is the sum of a set of radiation streams (27)
Ali Behbahaninia/ Journal of Energy Equipment and Systems/ 1006-EES-2013 77-95
Daily radiation, ambient temperature and daily sky calculate the optimal value for constrained problems.
clearness index for the period of June 1st to September LCC is considered as the objective function and is
st
31 for Ahwaz according to the data provided by subjected to minimization.
IRMO [14] are given in Figures 2 and 3. Collector tilt
angle, orientation, collector area and storage tank Results and Discussion
volume all have importance in system performance. Chiller Transient Response
As a starting point, collector area can be calculated by Figure 4 shows the temperature profiles of the hot,
using the following equation 15: cooling and chilled water. After about 700s, the hot
water outlet temperature approaches to the inlet
temperature, thus the heat consumed by the desorber
(33)
after this point, will be quite small. But the difference
For (average radiation for Ahwaz) between outlet and inlet temperature for the cooling
and , collector area is found to be 55m2. water is still 2.4°C after 600s of cooling. This
Since Ahwaz has latitude of 31.31° and the solar difference reaches 0.7°C after cooling the adsorber for
system is planned to be used only during summer 900s which shows that adsorber is sufficiently cooled
months, according to [16] the tilt angle of solar down and the adsorption ability remains strong until
collectors are taken as 45° due south. The storage the end of adsorption phase. Therefore the cycle time
tank volume is sized as a function of collector area is taken as 1800s. It is worthy of note that the
using equation 34: difference between outlet and inlet temperature of hot
water after heating the desorber for 900s is 0.5°C. It is
(34) also observed that the outlet temperature of chilled
Where is taken to be 50 as a starting point water reaches its minimum after each bed is
according to [13]. Thus V is 2750L for 55m2 of solar heated/cooled for 80s. At this point the cooling power
collector. Also the auxiliary heater efficiency is taken is at its maximum and the outlet temperature of chilled
as 80%. Since the adsorption chiller modeled in this water is 11.35°C. The switching time is taken as 30s
study was not. Accessible for writers, the results could which is a typical value for adsorption chillers
not be compared to experimental data for the [7,9,10].
discussed environmental condition. In order to Figure 5 shows the temperature profiles of the
calculate the optimum values of collector area and adsorption beds, condenser, and evaporator.
tank volume, the LCC of the system is considered as Figure 6 depicts the cyclic-steady-state dühring
objective function. The optimization was carried out diagram simulated by using the mathematical model
for collector area and tank volume using a MATLAB presented herein. In this figure, the various modes of a
computer program developed for this purpose. The complete cycle are designated by numbers: pre-
optimization was carried out using Sequential heating mode (1-2), desorption mode (2-3), pre-
quadratic programming (SQP) which allows one to cooling mode (3-4) and adsorption mode (4-1).
Ali Behbahaninia/ Journal of Energy Equipment and Systems/ 1006-EES-2013 79-95
Fig 6. Dühring diagram of the modeled silicagel-water two bed adsorption chiller.
Ali Behbahaninia/ Journal of Energy Equipment and Systems/ 1006-EES-2013 80-95
Fig 7. Temperature profiles of collector outlet, tank outlet and return water for August 10th.
Ali Behbahaninia/ Journal of Energy Equipment and Systems/ 1006-EES-2013 81-95
Fig 11. Effect of the hot water temperature on the refrigeration power and COP (cycle time=1800s).
Fig 12. Effect of hot water temperature on yearly SF and Qaux (cycle time=1800s).
Fig 13. Effect of cycle time on COP and refrigeration capacity (T hin=85C).
small, because tank should store enough energy for should consider two opposite phenomena: on one
the times when there is not enough solar radiation for hand, an increase of the storage tank volume would
operating the thermal chiller. Figure 18 shows the determine higher losses, higher capital costs and also a
influence of the storage tank volume on yearly solar longer response time of the system; on the other hand,
fraction and the yearly auxiliary energy demand. As larger tank would also allow one to store a greater
the storage tank volume increases, solar fraction amount of the energy produced by the solar collector,
increases and auxiliary heat decreases. As seen from and consequently to reduce the use of auxiliary
this figure the effect of tank volume on the system energy.
performance is much less intense than the effects of This trade-off results in an optimal value. Also the
hot water temperature, cycle time and collector area. optimum solar collector area could be considered as
the optimal compromise between lower operating
Optimization costs and higher capital costs due to the increase of the
The initial values for collector area and storage tank solar collector total surface. The optimum values
2
volume are taken equal to 55m and 2.75m . As
3
calculated using the SQP method for collector area
mentioned before, the selection of the tank volume and tank volume are:
Ali Behbahaninia/ Journal of Energy Equipment and Systems/ 1006-EES-2013 84-95
This trade-off results in an optimal value. Also the Table 2. results for optimum and base case
optimum solar collector area could be considered as
the optimal compromise between lower operating parameter Optimum case Base case
costs and higher capital costs due to the increase of Ac(m ) 2
38 55
the solar collector total surface. The optimum values 3
calculated using the SQP method for collector area V(m ) 1.045 2.75
and tank volume are: SF 0.49 0.59
Qaux(MJ) 35517 28044
For the optimum design, the solar fraction, auxiliary Yearly fuel cost($) 620.49 489.9455
heat and LCC are 0.49, 35517 MJ and 15705.8$
respectively. Table 2 shows a comparison between the Total fuel cost($) 9944.5 7852.3
base case and the optimum case. It is observed that
reducing the collector area to 38 m2 and tank volume
Investment cost($) 5761.3 9716.2
to 1.045m2 leads to a decrease of nearly 11% in life
LCC($) 15706 17569
cycle costs of the solar adsorption cooling system.
Fig 15. Effect of switching time on COP and refrigeration capacity (cycle time=1800s).
Fig 16. Effect of switching time on yearly SF and Qaux (Thin=85C, cycle time=1800).
Ali Behbahaninia/ Journal of Energy Equipment and Systems/ 1006-EES-2013 85-95
Fig 18. Effect of tank volume on yearly SF and Qaux (Thin=85C, cycle time=1800).
temperature and decreased with increasing the cycle Overall heat transfer coefficient,
time as well as switching time due to higher heating U
power demand. Also studied was the influence of
collector area and storage tank volume on SF and
auxiliary heat. Results showed that in comparison x instantaneous Uptake,
with tank volume, collector area has much stronger
impact on solar fraction and auxiliary heat.
In order to find the optimum values of collector area Equilibrium uptake,
and storage tank volume, an economic analysis was
performed and life cycle costs of the system were
calculated for different collector areas and tank α absorptivity
volumes. Using SQP method, the optimum Declination, rad
configuration was found to be 38m2 of collector area
and 1.045m3 of tank volume. efficiency
P Pressure, d diffuse
Adsorbent particles radius, m des Desorption
Rp
e Evaporator
R Gas constant, g gas
hw Hot water
SCP Specific cooling power
in inlet
ss sunset lr return
sr sunrise out outlet
T Temperature, K sc Solar collector
Ambient temperature, K w water
wv Water vapor
t Time, s
Ali Behbahaninia/ Journal of Energy Equipment and Systems/ 1006-EES-2013 87-95
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