Thermal analysis of a novel solar collector coupled in series and parallel connection based on honey-comb conjecture

Abstract

A potential solution to environmental problems associated to the use of fossil fuels and the exploitation of natural resources for energy production is the development of renewable energies with greater capacity, adaptability and integration, as well as their use for the improvement of this systems. Researchers turned their attention to biological and natural processes such as honeycombs at a structural level to increase the mechanical properties of various technologies. This investigation shows the results of the thermal analysis of a novel solar collector designed based on a Honey-Comb conjecture studied under different connections. Several structures were proposed considering a serial and parallel connections. Each one was designed and simulated in SolidWorks^® software Flow Simulation. The study considers different boundary conditions as mass flow and solar radiation on the surface of the collectors. In the analysis, the maximum temperature was achieved at the highest solar radiation of 1050 \(W/{m}^{2}\) and the lowest flow mass of 0.052 kg/s. On the other hand, the peak performance of the heat thermal parameter in the whole study was achieved at solar radiation of 1050 \(W/{m}^{2}\) and the maximum mass flow of 0.17 kg/s. A honey-comb structure conformed by three collectors (AC1) shows an increase of around 187%, against a single collector (A0), comparing the other structures two collectors in series (AS1) and two collectors in parallel (AP1) connections the total increase in the useful heat obtained with AC1 was 52% and 49% respectively.