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without dust have been taken at the same time. We have measured gn ¼ 0:729 4:89 ðTin Ta Þ=G (1)
ambient temperature, inlet temperature, outlet temperature,
gw ¼ 0:632 4:80 ðTin Ta Þ=G (2)
volume flow rate, total and diffuse solar irradiance. The tempera-
ture is measured by Pt resistance temperature sensors. Two black From Fig. 2, Eqs. (1) and (2), it is found that the optical efficiency
thermopile based pyranometers which were calibrated in Beijing decrease of 9.7% and the heat loss coefficient for linear regression
by HUATRON are used. One measures the total solar irradiance, decrease of about 0.09 W/ C in a solar collector exposed for three
and the other shaded against the direct solar radiation measures months without cleaning. So the efficiency equation for solar col-
the diffuse solar irradiance on the plane of flat plate solar collec- lector with dust can be expressed as
tors. The magnetic type flow meters are used to measure the fluid
volumetric flow rate. The computer records all data with a time gw ¼ FR ðsaÞe;n Fd1 FR UL;n Fd2 ðTin Ta Þ=G (3)
step of 10s by data acquisition instrument.
According to the Chinese National Standard GB/T 4271, the
Therefore
steady-state test has been taken under the constant inlet tempera-
ture and constant volume flow rate. A very similar procedure to ðsaÞen;w ¼ ðsaÞe;n Fd1 ; UL;w ¼ UL;n Fd2
GB/T 4271 is described in EN 12975. The main difference
between these is that, in GB/T 4271 the maximum inlet tempera-
ture should not exceed 70 C for flat plat solar collector test, how- These results show that dust accumulation can greatly affect the
ever, in EN 12975 that shall be at least around 80 C. During daily transmittance of glass cover. In this experiment, the optical effi-
test, the volume flow rate is kept constant for the whole day. In ciency of clean solar collector FR ðsaÞe;n is equal to 0.729, how-
stagnation tests process, the flow of heat transfer fluid through the ever, the FR ðsaÞe;w of solar collectors with dust is 0.632. So the
collectors is interrupted. The flow of heat transfer fluid must circu- dust shading coefficient Fd1 is equal to 0.867. In the same way,
late through the collectors 15 min before the test to make sure that the value of Fd2 is 0.98. The dust heat loss coefficient factor Fd2
the solar collectors are in steady-state. Then, the valves at the inlet has little effect on collector efficiency, generally less than 2%, so
and outlet of solar collectors are shut off, the valves at the over- Fd2 can be approximated as 1.0, that is UL,w equals UL,n.
flow pipes are turned on. Then, the data starts to be reported.
3 Experimental Results and Analysis 3.2 Stagnation Tests. Stagnation temperature reflects the
highest collecting temperature that the solar collector reached
The effect of dust accumulation is analyzed by the steady-state under certain environment conditions. During stagnation
tests, stagnation tests, and daily tests. Two coefficients dust shad-
ing coefficient and dust heat loss coefficient factor are introduced
into the analysis. Dust shading coefficient is defined as the ration
of the optical efficiency with dust accumulation to it without dust
to reflect the impact of dust accumulation on the optical properties
of solar collector. Dust heat loss coefficient factor is defined as the
ration of the solar collector overall heat loss coefficient with dust
accumulation to it without dust to reflect the impact of dust accu-
mulation on the top heat loss coefficient of solar collector.
conditions the efficiency equals zero, and stagnation temperature and without dust are calculated by Eq. (5). The calculated
approximates the fluid inlet temperature, Ts Tin, so the stagna- FR ðsaÞe;n and FR ðsaÞe;w points are shown in Fig. 5. Stagnation
tion temperature can be calculated from temperature of solar collector without dust of the last two experi-
mental points, which reaches the water boiling point should not be
Ts ¼ FR ðsaÞe G=ðFR UL Þ þ Ta (4)
used for calculating FR ðsaÞe , so these two points do not show in
Fig. 5. In this graph, the dust shading coefficient which equals
If stagnation temperature, ambient temperature, total solar irradi- FR ðsaÞe;w divided by FR ðsaÞe;n is also reported. The dust shading
ance, and heat loss coefficient have been known, FR ðsaÞe can be factor is mainly affected by dust deposition density [6–8] and the
calculated from properties (optical, size, geometry, and chemical composition) of
dust [6,9]. However, when dust deposition density and the proper-
FR ðsaÞe ¼ FR UL ðTs Ta Þ=G (5) ties of dust are stable, the dust shading coefficient is still varying
in Fig. 5. It can be assumed that the dust shading coefficient
During stagnation test, the ambient temperature and total solar decreases with the decrease of solar incident angle and the diffuse
irradiance is shown in Fig. 3. The test data is recorded with a time to total solar irradiance ratio. As the dust shading coefficient
step of 10s. In order to ensure the test point stability, total solar decreases and the optical efficiency without dust increases over
irradiance is selected as the mean value over 10 min; however, the time, the difference between the optical efficiency with and with-
matching stagnation temperature is selected as the last data within out dust is increased over time.
10 min. The stagnation temperature of the solar collector with and The difference between the stagnation temperature of collector
without dust is compared in Fig. 4. It can be found from Fig. 4, with and without dust can be calculated from Eq. (4). Its expres-
dust accumulation has effect on the stagnation temperature, that sion is
is, it influences the heat-collecting quality in certain environmen-
tal conditions. The stagnation temperature decrease of Tsn Tsw ¼ FR ðsaÞe;n ð1 Fd ÞG=ðFR UL Þ (6)
0.3 C–7.2 C in a solar collector exposed for three months with-
out cleaning. The difference between the stagnation temperature From Eq. (6), it can be seen that the difference between Tsn and
of collector with and without dust increases from 8:30 am to Tsw increases with the raise of total solar irradiance and optical
10:30 am until water medium reaches its boiling point. efficiency, and with the decrease of the dust shading coefficient
Based on the measured data of ambient temperature, stagnation over time from 8:30 am to 10:30 am.
temperature and total solar irradiance, the optical efficiency with
3.3 Daily Tests. Daily tests of the solar collectors with and
without dust are implemented at the same operating conditions gn gw ¼ FR ðsaÞe;n FR ðsaÞe;w ¼ FR ðsaÞe;n ð1 Fd Þ (9)
(fluid inlet temperature, mass flow rate, and ambient temperature).
Figure 6 shows the main parameters recorded during the daily DTn DTw ¼ FR ðsaÞe;n ð1 Fd ÞGAa =cm (10)
test. Flow rate is kept constant for the whole day. The test data is
recorded with a time step of 10s. The incident solar energy on the
collector area and the collector useful energy gain are calculated Based on the measured data, the optical efficiency with and with-
over small time interval 5 min. For each time interval, the average out dust are calculated by Eq. (7). The calculated FR ðsaÞe;n and
efficiency is determined by the equation, g ¼ cmDsDT=ðGAa DsÞ. FR ðsaÞe;w points are shown in Fig. 8. In this graph, the dust shad-
The measured average efficiency within 5 min during the whole ing coefficient is also reported. From Fig. 8, when dust deposition
test day is reported in Fig. 7 for both of collectors with and with- density and the properties of dust are stable, the dust shading coef-
out dust. When the collector was left without cleaning for three ficient varies between 0.83 and 0.94 for a solar collector exposed
months, the reduction in the average efficiency varies between 3% for three months without cleaning during the whole day. The dust
and 12%. By integrating cmDsDT and GAa Ds over the entire day, shading coefficient is lower at noon than that in the morning and
the daily average efficiency can be calculated. The reduction in evening hours. The trend of the dust shading coefficient in Fig. 8
the daily average efficiency is 9.8% for a solar collector exposed is similar to that in Fig. 5. Also, it can be assumed that the dust
for three months without cleaning. shading coefficient decreases with the decrease of solar incident
By assuming the collectors operate constantly at steady-state angle and the diffuse to total solar irradiance ratio. From Eq. (9),
standard conditions, and the heat loss coefficient UL,n equals UL,w the trend of difference between FR ðsaÞe;n and FR ðsaÞe;w is similar
with constant during the whole day, the optical efficiency and to that of difference between gn and gw, and they are not only
temperature rise can be described separately by about the dust shading coefficient, but also about the optical effi-
ciency of the clean solar collector. So the difference between
FR ðsaÞe ¼ g þ FR UL ðTin Ta Þ=G (7) FR ðsaÞe;n and FR ðsaÞe;w has the trend of increasing first and then
decrease during the whole day.
DT ¼ Tout Tin ¼ Aa ðFR ðsaÞe G þ FR UL ðTin Ta ÞÞ=cm (8) Figure 9 shows the temperature rise for both collectors with
and without dust during the whole test day. In this experiment,
Therefore, the efficiency difference and temperature rise differ- the difference between the temperature rise of collectors with-
ence for both collectors without dust and with dust can be calcu- out dust and that of collectors with dust also varies between 0
lated separately from and 1.0 C. From Eq. (10), it can be seen that, when the mass
flow rate is constant, the temperature rise difference for both
collectors without and with dust increases with the increase of
the optical efficiency, total solar irradiance, and aperture area
of solar collector, and with the decrease of the dust shading
coefficient. So the temperature rise difference for both collec-
tors with and without dust is the highest at noon during the
whole day.
4 Conclusions
(1) By the steady-state test, it can be seen that, when the solar
collector exposed for three months without cleaning, the
reduction in optical efficiency is 9.7% and the dust shading
coefficient is 0.867 in this experiment.
(2) Stagnation temperature has been measured under stagna-
tion condition. The stagnation temperature decrease of
0.3 C–7.2 C in a solar collector exposed for three months
Fig. 8 The optical efficiency FR ðsaÞe;n and FR ðsaÞe;w , and the without cleaning. That is to say, under certain environmen-
dust shading coefficient Fd1 versus time tal conditions, the heat-collecting temperature of the solar
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