Concrete solar collector

Abstract

Concrete solar collector is an attempt to create an effective alternative for conventional solar collectors. Concrete has high heat storage capacity. Also, the problem of corrosion automatically gets eliminated due to the alkaline characteristic of cement. Cement concrete plays the role of heat absorber while the flow tubes are made up of copper. For the enhancement of heat transfer, dimpled surface copper flow tubes are used. Dimples improve the heat transfer rate with very little pressure drop. The project consists of a 2 m × 1 m setup and it deals with analyzing its performance under various conditions. For testing, we use pyranometer for measuring solar radiation, thermocouples for measuring the temperature of inlet and outlet water and digital temperature indicator for temperature indication.