Experimental Investigation of Solar Flat Plate Collector with Inner Grooved Copper Tube

Abstract

Flat plate collector is a low temperature solar thermal collector which is used for domestic water heating, air heating/drying and applications requiring fluid temperature of 40 o C to 100 o C.The major parts responsible for working of FPC are absorber tube, absorber plate and transparent cover. Various enhancement techniques have been used to increase the heat transfer characteristics of flat plate collector with insertions (twisted tapes, wire coil) into the copper tube and by modifying the surface area of copper tube with respect to design. This paper is used to enhance the heat transfer characteristics of solar flat plate collector with the help of an inner grooved copper tube instead of existing copper tube.