Application of simulated annealing for inverse analysis of a single-glazed solar collector

Abstract

This work presents the application of simulated annealing (SA)-based evolutionary optimization algorithm to solve an inverse problem of a single-glazed flat-plate solar collector. For a given configuration, the performance of a solar collector may be expressed by heat loss factor. Four parameters such as air gap spacing, glass cover thickness, thermal conductivity and the emissivity of glass cover have been simultaneously estimated by SA to meet a given heat loss factor distribution. Many possible and nearly unique combinations of the unknowns are observed to satisfy the same requirement, which results in satisfactory reconstruction of the required heat distribution.