Sharif Digital Repository

Solar-driven ejector refrigeration (SER) systems have been granted special attention as a green and sustainable replacement for conventional vapor compression cooling systems. However, despite their significant advantages, SER systems suffer from a relatively low coefficient of performance and failure at high ambient temperatures and low solar radiations. Therefore, the need for an auxiliary heat source and cooling system has hindered their adoption in practice. In an attempt to eliminate the need for an auxiliary heat source and cooling system, this contribution puts forward a novel Solar-driven Multi-Ejector Refrigeration (SMER) system with an internal heat exchanger, a regenerator, and a... 

Design and fabrication of solar collectors with high performance of energy efficiency to convert solar energy to utility energy is vitally important. This article reports the results obtained from design, construction and investigation of the performance of a Combined Multi-Purpose Vacuum Solar Collector (CMPVSC). This collector consists of three sections: the vacuum section, the liquid section and the air section. In the present collector, it is capable of transferring heat to two flows (liquid and air) simultaneously and separate with the possibility of multipurpose applications. The CMPVSC is compared with the existing individual collectors and the effects of different parameters on the... 

In this study, the effect of graphene nanoplatelets (GNP)/distilled water nanofluid on the thermal performance of evacuated tube solar collector (ETSC) water heater was experimentally investigated. The mass percentage of GNP was considered at 0.025, 0.5, 0.075 and 0.1 wt%. The physical and thermal properties of the GNP nanofluids including stability, specific heat capacity, viscosity and thermal conductivity were investigated. The thermal efficiency tests on the solar collector were carried out for varying volumetric flow rate of 0.5, 0.1, and 1.5 L/min while the ASHRAE standard 93–2003 was considered to calculate the efficiency of the collector. The results indicated that the solar... 

Solar heat energy, one of the typical renewable energy absorbs radiation energy from the sun and converts it into heat energy. Since it is sustainable and eco-friendly, it can be a good alternative to solve the problem of the depletion of fossil fuels. But it has low density. So, solar collector is very important to use more efficiently. There are some possible approaches to scaling-up the effectiveness of a collector by re-thinking of using the collector as a heat exchanger. In the design of dual-purpose collector with rectangular fin (DPCRF), can be used for heating air and water simultaneously using incident solar radiation resulting in optimum usage of energy and space  

Solar collecting area is one of the most important operating parameters of active solar stills. No experimental work has been performed to investigate the effect of this parameter to date. Furthermore in all of previous theoretical studies the effect of solar collecting area was examined during only the first 24-hour period of the operation of stills with one specified brine depth. However the present work experimentally studies the long-term simultaneous effects of collector area and brine depth on the performance of active solar stills. For this purpose four parallel active solar stills with different collector areas were fabricated and experiments were conducted for 5 consecutive days... 

The use of solar collectors in combination with heat pipes is rapidly growing in recent years. Heat pipes, as heat transfer components, have undeniable advantages in comparison with other alternatives. The most important advantage is their high rate of heat transfer at minor temperature differences. Although there have been numerous studies on the heat analysis or first thermodynamic analysis of flat plate solar collectors in combination with heat pipes, the exergy analysis of these collectors is needed to be investigated. In this work, energy and exergy analysis of a flat plate solar collector with a heat pipe is conducted theoretically. Next, the exergy efficiency of pulsating heat pipe... 

The present work investigated the outdoor performance of a basin type multi-stage solar still as well as the effect of collector over basin area (CBA) ratio on the distillate production. The effect of CBA was studied in outdoor experiments for the first time. The system consisted of a still coupled with one, two or three flat-plate solar collectors. In order to study the effect of CBA more accurately, the experiments were conducted in both winter and summer. In these experiments, the distilled water production of the multi-stage still was measured during the whole 24. h of a day on an hourly basis. The results revealed that in the winter, the basin coupled to one solar collector (CBA. =... 

As a versatile platform for integrating renewable energies, District Heating systems (DHSs) offer a pragmatic approach toward an environmentally benign and sustainable future. This paper puts forward the feasibility evaluation of using geothermal hot spring source Heat pumps (HPs) for district heating of a village situated in the north-west of Iran, with a cold mountain climate. Solar collectors are also integrated into the DHS as a supplementary heat source. To this aim, three different renewable-energy-based district heating scenarios, viz. a Ground-Source-HP-based (GSHP), a combined GSHP-flat-plate-solar-collector (GSHP-SFPC), and a combined GSHP-linear-parabolic-solar-collector... 

Flat plate solar collectors lose a massive part of heat accumulated near the contact region because of the poor thermal characteristics of the working fluid. A new cost-effective design is numerically studied to cover up such deficiency by equipping the flat plate collector with revolutionary tubes and magnetic field inducer to affect Fe3O4/water working nanofluid in the collector tubes. Results substantiate that each of the applied rotary tubes and magnetic field inducer improves the convection mechanism in the tubes by circulating the flow inside the tubes and saves more of available solar energy. Results reveal that 27.8% and 10.44% of lost energy are restored in the solar collector... 

The exploitation of solar energy facilitates the renewable energy paradigm. In this regard, parabolic trough collectors (PTC) are considered as a useful set-up to absorb solar energy. Simultaneous study of thermal, thermodynamic, and exergoeconomic performance of PTC systems paves the way for designers and manufacturers to not only have a better insight into understanding the underlying concepts about the operation of PTC systems but also to find the most effective and cost-effective circumstances. This study aims at analyzing a practical PTC system by considering an evacuated absorber tube with glass cover, non-uniform heat flux, and taking into account the convective and radiative heat... 

In this study, performance of a flat plate solar collector operating in conjunction with a closed-loop pulsating heat pipe is investigated experimentally. The experiments were carried out in Yazd, Iran. The experimental setup consisted of a flat plate solar collector, pulsating heat pipe, and a tank. The pulsating heat pipe's evaporator is located inside the flat plate collector. In order to investigate the effect of the evaporator length on the efficiency of the system, three different length collectors are manufactured in the evaporating section. In addition, the effects of the pulsating heat pipe filling ratio, inclination angle, and flow rate are investigated for each collector... 

A considerable amount of energy is lost in the parabolic trough solar collectors due to the poor capability of working fluid in full absorption of the concentrated solar irradiation across the receiver tube. A new hybrid method is recommended here to cover up such deficiency by simultaneously using a rotary absorber tube and magnetic field inducer with nanofluid. Results showed that the combination effects of the receiver rotation and the magnetic field improve the convection mechanism in the absorber and increase both energetic and exergetic performance of the collector. The study reveals that there is an optimal rotational speed in the each magnetic field intensity for different... 

Due to significant reduction in fossil fuel sources, several researches have been conducted recently to explore modern sources of renewable energy. One of the major fields in the category of renewable energy harnessing devices is parabolic trough solar collector (PTC). Several parameters have effect on the overall efficiency of the PTCs. As the effect of these parameters is coupled to each other, a comprehensive investigation is necessary. In the present study, a numerical analysis is performed to examine the efficiency of PTCs via variation of several governing parameters (e.g., wind velocity magnitude, nanoparticles volume fraction, inlet temperature, and reflector's orientation). A... 

Parabolic trough solar collector (PTC) is one of the most mature and widely used type of solar energy harnessing devices. Therefore, investigation of the effect of various operational conditions on the overall efficiency of these devices has been topic of substantial interest in the recent decade. Moreover, utilization of nanoparticles as a useful additive to the working fluid should be examined thoroughly to optimize the collector's outputs. To do so, in the present study, energy and exergy efficiencies of a typical PTC as a function of several involving parameters are numerically calculated. These parameters are nanoparticle volume fraction (from 0 to 5 percent), environment wind speed... 

Optical and thermal analysis of the most well-known solar concentrator system; parabolic trough collector (PTC) are investigated and analyzed. To evaluate performance of the PTC, four cities of Iran with different weather conditions are chosen as case studies. Effective parameters such as concentration ratio, incident angle correction factor, collector mass flow rate are considered. The main objective of this work is evaluation of the solar energy potential using PTC in under consideration cities with different climates. Numerical modeling of the analysis is done using MATLAB software. Simulation results shows that Shiraz, with an average annual thermal efficiency of 13.91% and annual useful... 

In this research, a confined aquifer with low groundwater flow was considered to meet the cooling and heating requirements of residential complexes. The complexes were located in the cities of Ahvaz, Ardabil, Bandar Abbas, Esfahan, Kerman, Rasht, Tehran, and Zahedan. The complex in Ardabil mostly required heating, the ones in Ahvaz and Bandar Abbas mostly required cooling, and the complexes in other cities required both heating and cooling. Four different alternatives of Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) were analyzed in this study. These alternatives consisted of using ATES: 1) alone for cooling, 2) coupled with a conventional refrigeration system or a chiller for cooling, 3) by...