Oscar A.

L u~
opez-N nez1
Department of Chemical Engineering,
University of Guanajuato,
Guanajuato 36050, Mexico
e-mail: oa.lopeznunez@ugto.mx
J. Arturo Alfaro-Ayala
Department of Chemical Engineering,
University of Guanajuato,
Guanajuato 36050, Mexico
e-mail: ja.alfaroayala@ugto.mx
J. J. Ramırez-Minguela
Department of Chemical Engineering,
University of Guanajuato,
Guanajuato 36050, Mexico
e-mail: jdj.ramirezminguela@ugto.mx
J. Nicolas Flores-Balderas
Department of Chemical Engineering,
University of Guanajuato,
Guanajuato 36050, Mexico
e-mail: nico_brain10@hotmail.com
J. M. Belman-Flores
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
University of Guanajuato,
Salamanca 36885, Mexico
e-mail: jfbelman@ugto.mx
Solar Radiation Model Applied
to a Low Temperature Evacuated
Tubes Solar Collector
A solar radiation model is applied to a low temperature water-in-glass evacuated tubes
solar collector to predict its performance via computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
numerical simulations. This approach allows obtaining the transmitted, reflected, and
absorbed solar radiation flux and the solar heat flux on the surface of the evacuated tubes
according to the geographical location, the date, and the hour of a day. Different envi-
ronmental and operational conditions were used to obtain the outlet temperature of the
solar collector; these results were validated against four experimental tests based on an
Official Mexican Standard resulting in relative errors between 0.8% and 2.6%. Once the
model is validated, two cases for the solar collector were studied: (i) different mass flow
rates under a constant solar radiation and (ii) different solar radiation (due to the hour
of the day) under a constant mass flow rate to predict its performance and efficiency. For
the first case, it was found that the outlet temperature decreases as the mass flow rate
increases reaching a steady value for a mass flow rate of 0.1 kg/s (6 l/min), while for the
second case, the results showed a corresponding outlet temperature behavior to the solar
radiation intensity reaching to a maximum temperature of 36.5  C at 14:00 h. The CFD
numerical study using a solar radiation model is more realistic than the previous
reported works leading to overcome a gap in the knowledge of the low temperature evac-
uated tube solar collectors. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4041402]

1 Introduction in a passive heat transfer device mounted inside the inner tube.
The heat pipe tube contains a small amount of fluid (e.g., metha-
The solar energy has emerged as one of the most important
nol) that undergoes an evaporating–condensing cycle. In this
renewable energy resources due to the free millions of watts of
cycle, the solar heat evaporates the liquid and the vapor travels to
solar radiation that the earth receives every day. The solar energy
the heat sink region where it condenses and releases its latent heat
can be converted directly to (a) electrical energy by using photo-
to the working fluid of the solar collector [6]. On the other hand,
voltaic solar cells and (b) thermal energy by using solar collectors.
in the water in glass evacuated tube, the working fluid is circu-
The solar energy is the appropriate power source to satisfy the
lated directly through the inner glass tube with a heat transfer
growing energy demand worldwide [1,2], having an important
from the glass absorber to the heat fluid in the manifold of the
reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions [3].
solar collector [7].
In the case of the thermal energy, the solar collectors are equip-
The main differences between the heat pipe and the water in
ment that collect energy from solar radiation by absorbing them,
glass solar collectors are the operational pressure (where the heat
and then, transferring heat to a working fluid for a further purpose
pipe operate a higher pressures) and the costs (the water-in-glass
such as domestic and/or industrial sectors [4].
is more economic), both used for domestic and industrial applica-
The most commonly used solar collectors are the stationary col-
tions. This work is focused on the study of a water-in-glass evac-
lectors, which remain stationary regardless of the sun’s position
uated tube solar collector.
and are suitable for low-temperature applications generally for
In order to improve the efficiency and the performance of the
temperatures lower than 100  C, mainly used in hospitals, house-
ETC, theoretical and experimental researches have been done on
holds, and industries where the main purpose is to heat water [5].
various topics.
There are mainly two kinds of low temperature stationary col-
In the case of experimental works, the studies have been
lectors in the market, the flat plate collectors and the evacuated
focused on the effect of the performance under different operating
tube collectors (ETCs). The ETC is made of parallel evacuated
conditions [8–11], under different tilt angles in a specific geo-
borosilicate glass tubes, each one consists of two concentric tubes,
graphical location [12,13], and even some of the experimental
the inner tube is coated with a selective coating while the outer
works were focused on phase change materials to achieve a better
tube is transparent glass. Between the concentric tubes, there is an
heat storage [14–16]. However, the conduction of experimental
empty space where the air is evacuated at a vacuum pressure, this
tests must always deal with the high costs that are demanded by
vacuum pressure leads to an important improvement of the ther-
the specialized and sophisticated equipment such as a meteorolog-
mal performance of solar collectors due to the reduction of heat
ical station that includes pyrometers, pyrheliometer, environmen-
losses.
tal thermometer, and anemometers to obtain reliable results.
Among the evacuated tubes solar collectors, the heat pipe and
The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) numerical approach
the water in glass can be found in the market, the first one consists
of this paper is an economic tool to overcome the costs of experi-
mental tests in the study of the low temperature stationary solar
1
Corresponding author. collectors. In the state of the art of the ETC studies, a simplified
Contributed by the Solar Energy Division of ASME for publication in the geometry was studied via CFD numerical simulations by Waheed
JOURNAL OF SOLAR ENERGY ENGINEERING: INCLUDING WIND ENERGY AND BUILDING
ENERGY CONSERVATION. Manuscript received February 8, 2018; final manuscript
et al. [17] in order to estimate the pressure losses due to dividing
received September 3, 2018; published online October 1, 2018. Assoc. Editor: and combining the fluid flow through a tee junction in only a sec-
Jorge Gonzalez. tion of a solar collector manifold, however, the simplified model

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 cannot describe the real condition at each tube along the manifold
(full performance of the low temperature solar collector). Yao
et al. [18] worked on CFD numerical simulations in a low temper-
ature evacuated tubes solar water heater, with a twist tape inserted
inside the tube, with its corresponding section of the manifold.
Their results indicated that the twist tape insertions allow a higher
dissipation of mechanical energy, and at the same time, it makes
the temperature field more uniform, however, the boundary condi-
tion replaced the solar radiation by a uniform heat flux input
boundary condition. Farjallah et al. [19] developed a numerical
study of a solar collector with the simplification of only one tubu-
lar solar collector with a U-tube obtaining the effect of selected
operating parameters. Alfaro-Ayala et al. [20] reported a numeri-
cal study in a complete water-in-glass evacuated tube solar collec-
tor geometry. The prediction of the water temperature at the outlet
of the solar collector was obtained with two different approaches,
the use of the Boussinesq approximation (BA) and the variation of
the properties with temperature (VPT) models. They concluded
that the outlet temperature and thermal efficiency by employing
the BA model were closer to the experimental data. It is true that
this study represented a great progress to reduce the assumptions
made in the geometry of ETC among the previous works, how-
ever, it considers a constant heat flux boundary condition.
According to the reviewed literature, CFD numerical works
using solar radiation models in ETC to analyze the impact of dif-
ferent operating conditions on the overall performance are scarce.
The inclusion of a solar radiation model overcomes the simplifica-
tion of constant heat flux boundary condition considered in the
previous works related to low temperature ETC.
Furthermore, the main drawback of the reported works for the
ETC included assumptions like geometrical simplifications in the
geometry and constant heat flux for the boundary condition on
the solar collection area, this means that the reported works do not
consider the geographical location, the date, and the solar radia-
tion of a specific hour of a day, thus, the performance of the col-
lector obtained with the applied constant heat flux on the collector
is not related with real condition of solar radiation.
For such reasons, this work is focused on studying a complete
low temperature water-in-glass evacuated tube solar collector
under real solar radiation conditions by applying a solar radiation
model via CFD numerical simulations with the help of commer-
cial software ANSYS-FLUENT. The advantage of applying a solar
radiation model is that it considers the solar radiation under the
geographical location, the date, and the hour of a day. Once the
CFD numerical results were obtained for the model of a low tem-
perature ETC, these were validated against the experimental data
(see the Appendix). Finally, two cases of study under different
operational conditions were considered in order to predict and
analyze its full performance.
2 Mathematical Models
The numerical study of the ETC requires the mathematical rep-
resentation of the heat transfer and field flow inside the computa-
tional domain to obtain a solution. The governing equations
applied to the computational model include the radiation transfer
equation (RTE), solar load equations, as well as continuity,
momentum, and energy equations.
2.1 Radiation Transfer Equation. The change in radiation
intensity in a participating medium is given by summing the con-
tributions from emission, absorption, scattering away from the
direction s^(out-scattering), and scattering into the same direction
s^(in-scattering), thus, the RTE is Lagrangian [21]
ð
@Ig rsg
¼ jg  jg Ig  rsg Ig þ Ig ð^s i ÞUg ð^s i ; ^s ÞdXi (1)
@s 4p 4p
The RTE in a participating medium consists of three fundamen-
tal phenomena: the first two are the absorption (attenuation of
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energy) and emission (discharge) of electromagnetic energy by
matter, the third one is the propagation of electromagnetic waves
between different objects and includes the effects of scattering,
which encompasses diffraction, interference, reflection, and trans-
mission [22]. Figure 1 shows the three different fundamental phe-
nomena of the radiation.
The term in the left hand of the RTE (Eq. (1)) describes the
radiative intensity field within the enclosure as a function of loca-
tion, direction (fixed by unit direction vector, ^s ), and a spectral
variable (wavenumber, g).
The negative terms of the right hand in the RTE (Eq. (1)) repre-
sent the radiation attenuation by absorption and scattering where
jg is known as the absorption coefficient and rsg is the propor-
tional constant called scattering coefficient.
The positive terms of the right hand in Eq. (1) represent the
radiation augmentation by absorption and scattering, at the same
time that a beam loses energy by traveling through a participating
medium, also gains energy by emission, as well by scattering
from other directions into the direction of travel (^s ), jg is known
as the emission coefficient, the function Ug is called the scattering
phase function and describes the probability that a ray from one
direction, ^s i , will be scattered into certain other direction, ^s . The
constant 4p is included for convenience.
Solving the RTE equation by integrating over the direction and
spectral variable (wavenumber), the radiation intensity is
obtained. Once the radiation intensity is known, the source term
(r  qR Þ of the energy equation (Eq. (2)) is acquired
   
@ ðqcT Þ @ ðqcT Þ @ ðqcT Þ @ @T @ @T
u þv þw ¼ k þ k
@x @y @z @x @x @y @y
 
@ @T
þ k  r  qR
@z @z
(2)
On the left hand of the energy equation, the term represents
energy transfer due to convection. On the right hand, the first term
represents energy transfer due to conduction and the second term
is a source term that represents energy transfer due to radiation by
the RTE [23]. The source term of the energy equation is obtained
under the following assumptions: (i) the scattering is not consid-
ered as it only redirects the stream of photons; it does not affect
Fig. 1 Fundamental phenomena of the radiation in a partici-
pant medium
Transactions of the ASME
 Table 1 Properties of the materials 2.3.1 Continuity Equation
Material Parameter Value Unit @ðquÞ @ðqvÞ @ðqwÞ
þ þ ¼0 (8)
Borosilicate glass Density, qb 2230 kg=m3
@x @y @z
Thermal conductivity, kb 1.2 W=m  C
Specific heat, cb 800 J=kg  C 2.3.2 Momentum Equations
Absorptivity 92 %
Transmissivity 95 %  Component x
3
Polyurethane foam Density, qp 30 kg=m @ ðquÞ @ ðquÞ @ ðquÞ @p
Thermal conductivity, kp 0.06 W=m  C u þv þw ¼ (9)
@x @y @z @x
Specific heat, cp 1000 J=kg  C
 Component y

the energy content of any given unit volume and it is assumed iso- @ ðqvÞ @ ðqvÞ @ ðqvÞ @p
u þv þw ¼  þ qgy (10)
tropic (relatively few investigations have dealt with the case of @x @y @z @y
anisotropic scattering) and (ii) a gray medium (jg ¼ jÞ. A  Component z
detailed description of the coupling of Eqs. (1)–(3) is found in
Ref. [23] @ ðqwÞ @ ðqwÞ @ ðqwÞ @p
 ð  u þv þw ¼ (11)
@x @y @z @z
r  qR ¼ j 4rT 4  IdX ¼ jð4rT 4  GÞ (3)
4p
2.3.3 Turbulence Equation. For turbulent flow, the standard
j–e turbulence model was used [25]. This model is appropriate for
2.2 Solar Load Equations. ANSYS-FLUENT provides a solar the study of the turbulence in practical engineering flow due to its
load model in order to solve the RTE equation; this model calcu- acceptable accuracy in a wide range of turbulent flows. The stand-
lates the direct solar radiation and the diffused solar radiation ard j–e equations are defined as
[24]; Eq. (4) gives the direct solar radiation (GD ) as
"  #
GD ¼ Setrn Sunprime (4) @ @ lt @j
ðqjui Þ ¼ lþ þ Gk þ Gb  qe  YM (12)
@xi @xi rj @xj
where Setrn is the direct solar radiation from the atmosphere, while
Sunprime is a correction factor that takes into account the reduction "  #
of solar radiation through the atmosphere. @ @ lt @e e e2
ðqeui Þ ¼ lþ þ C1e ðGk Þ  C2e q (13)
Diffused solar radiation (Gd ) on a vertical surface is given by @xi @xi re @xj j j
Gd ¼ CYGD (5)
In these equations, Gk is the generation of turbulence kinetic
C is a constant reported in Ref. [24] which is dependent on the energy due to the mean velocity gradients, Gb represents the gen-
month and has values ranging from 0.058 to 0.136. Y is the ratio eration of turbulence kinetic energy due to bouyancy, YM is the
of sky diffuse radiation on vertical surface to that on the horizon- contribution of the fluctuating dilatation in compressible turbu-
tal surface and GD is the direct normal radiation. lence to the overall dissipation rate, C1e and C2e are constants. The
For surfaces other than vertical, the diffuse solar radiation is turbulent (eddy) viscosity lt is computed by combining jande as
given by follows:

1 þ cos  j2
Gd ¼ CGD (6) lt ¼ qCl (14)
2 e
where  is the tilt angle of the surface in degrees from the horizon-
tal plane. 2.4 Material Properties. The material taken into account for
The equation for ground reflected solar radiation (Gr ) on the the evacuated tubes and the insulating inside the manifold were
surface is given by borosilicate glass and polyurethane foam, respectively. The prop-
ð1  cos Þ erties of the borosilicate glass and the polyurethane foam such as
Gr ¼ GD ðC þ sinbÞqg (7) density ðqb ; qp Þ, thermal conductivity ðkb ; kp Þ, specific heat
2
ðcb ; cp Þ as well as absorptivity and transmissivity are shown in
where b is the solar altitude (in degrees) above the horizontal and Table 1.
qg is the ground reflectivity. Therefore, the total diffused radiation In order to consider the buoyancy effect in this CFD numerical
on a given surface is the sum of Gd and Gr . model, the fluid properties such as density ðqÞ, thermal conductiv-
ity ðkÞ, specific heat ðcÞ, and viscosity ðlÞ were set as temperature
2.3 Continuity, Momentum, and Turbulence Equations. polynomials with a validity range from 5  C to 95  C as shown in
The governing equations for the fluid flow and the turbulence for- Table 2.
mulation are described as follows:

Table 2 Fluid properties fitted to temperature polynomials

Properties Polynomial

Density, qðkg=m3 Þ 1001  0:0834T  0:0035T 2

Thermal conductivity, kðW=m  CÞ 0:5634 þ 0:002T  8  106 T 2
Specific heat, cðJ=kg  CÞ 4215  2:3787T þ 0:0528T 2  0:0005T 3 þ 2  106 T 4
Viscosity, l (Pas) 0:0017  5  105 T þ 9  107 T 2  8  109 T 3 þ 3  1011 T 4

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 Fig. 2 Solution diagram of the CFD model

Fig. 3 Geometry of the low temperature water-in-glass evacuated tube solar collector

3 Numerical Simulations
The CFD simulations of the low temperature water-in-glass
evacuated tube solar collector were carried out using the commer-
cial software ANSYS-FLUENT which uses the finite volume method
(FVM). The governing equations (9)–(11) were solved coupling
the velocity and the pressure under the SIMPLE algorithm. A
second-order upwind discretization scheme was used for Eqs. (2)
and (9)–(11) (energy and momentum equations) and a standard
scheme for the pressure [26].
A general diagram of the solution procedure of the model is
shown in Fig. 2. The governing equations were solved considering
the variation of the fluid properties according to the temperature
polynomials allowing to account the buoyancy effects. The solar
load model is fed by parameters such as the geographical location,
the date, and the hour of the day as follows: the location of the
solar collector was in the city of Guanajuato, Mexico, which is
represented by the Latitude 21.02 deg and the Longitude 101.25
deg, the date was June 6, and the hour of the day was from
12:00 h to 15:00 h (for different cases showed in this work). A
solar load model allows to calculate the direct, diffuse, and
reflected radiation ðGD ; Gd ; and Gr Þ that enter to the computa-
tional domain, besides, a solar heat flux is also calculated. The
phenomena of convection and conduction in all the walls of the
solar collector (tubes and manifold) were considered as boundary
conditions. In the convection phenomena, the environmental tem-
perature ðTenv Þ and the convective heat transfer coefficient ðhÞ
were considered, while in conduction phenomena, the properties
of the borosilicate glass, the polyurethane foam insulated material
as well as the thicknesses ðtÞ of these two different materials were

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 Table 3 Environmental and operational conditions polyurethane foam (50 mm); also, the properties of the solid
insulation material (polyurethane foam) and borosilicate
Case G (W/m2) Hour (h) Tenv ( C) Vw (m/s) Tin ( C) glass tubes were defined (Table 1), thus, the appropriate ther-
mal resistance across the wall of the insulation material and
1 935 13:00 27.5 2.5 27.9 the borosilicate glass tubes thickness is imposed.
2 1060.8 14:00 26.7 2.3 32.9
3 1009.5 15:00 24.8 2 40.4
4 899.9 12:00 22.6 2.4 46.7 3.2 Boundary Conditions. The low temperature water-in-
glass evacuated tube solar collector consists of a manifold and 36
taken into account. The solution of the governing equations leads evacuated tubes (Fig. 3). The internal and external diameters of
to the outlet temperature, temperature increments, and the veloc- the tubes are 37 mm and 47 mm, respectively, with a length of the
ities inside the low temperature water-in-glass evacuated tube tube of 1500 mm. The tubes of the collector are inclined to 30 deg
solar collector. with respect to the horizontal and are connected directly to the
manifold which has a length of 2500 mm and an internal diameter
of 130 mm. All the solid surfaces for the tubes and the manifold
3.1 Assumptions. This CFD numerical study of a water-in- were set as walls. The transmitted and the absorbed radiation for
glass solar collector has the following assumptions: the evacuated tubes were considered (Table 1). An adiabatic con-
(1) A steady-state flow. dition was used on the manifold. Also, the mass flow inlet and the
(2) Turbulent flow regime. pressure outlet were set as boundary conditions at the water
(3) The density (q), the specific heat (c), the thermal conductiv- entrance and the water exit, respectively (Fig. 3).
ity (k), and the dynamic viscosity (l) of the fluid vary All the simulations were carried out at the same geographical
according to Table 2 in order to consider the buoyancy location considered the city of Guanajuato, Mexico (Latitude:
effects. 21.02 deg, Longitude: 101.25 deg) and the date (June 6). The
(4) The convective heat transfer due to the air of the environ- manifold was directed toward the z-direction, while the gravity
ment (surroundings of the solar collector) was simulated by acts in the negative y-direction. The geometry should be oriented
a convective boundary condition [26] in all the walls of the to the cardinal directions, it means the manifold to the North car-
solar collector (tubes and manifold). dinal direction and the evacuated tubes to the South cardinal
(5) The conduction heat transfer through the insulation mate- direction. To validate the CFD numerical model applied to the
rial and through the glass tubes thickness was simulated by low temperature ETC, the four different experimental tests were
the boundary condition shell conduction approach; it can carried out as in Ref. [20], named in this work as Cases. A con-
be used to model thin sheets without the need to mesh the stant mass flow rate of 0.0717 kg/s (4.3 l/min), a solar collection
wall thickness in a preprocessor. It was specified thicknesses area (Ac) of 3.14 m2, and different environmental and operational
ðtÞ for the walls of the glass tubes (10 mm) and the conditions for each case were used as shown in Table 3.

Fig. 4 Mesh independence analysis

Table 4 Comparison of thermal behavior for the four cases

G Tin Tout exp DT Tout mod % Relative error % Relative error

Case (W/m2) ( C) ( C) ( C) gi exp ( C) gi between Tout exp and Tout mod between gi exp and gi

1 935 27.9 36.7 8.8 0.89 36.41 0.86 0.8 3.3

2 1060.8 32.9 41.8 8.9 0.76 41.04 0.73 1.81 5.18
3 1009.5 40.4 48.5 8.1 0.7 47.2 0.64 2.68 9.49
4 899.9 46.7 52.5 5.8 0.57 51.88 0.54 1.18 5.45

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 Fig. 5 Absorbed, transmitted and reflected solar radiation flux: (a) profile around the
tube and (b) contour in the tubes

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 Fig. 6 Solar heat flux: (a) profile around the tube and (b) contour in the tubes
4 Results and Discussion
Sections 4.1–4.6 show the model validation, the solar radia-
tion flux, the solar heat flux, the thermal and hydraulic perform-
ance, and the behavior of the performance for different mass
flow rates and for different solar radiation due to the hour of
the day by mean of the solution of the equations shown in Secs.
2.1–2.4.
4.1 Mesh Independence Analysis. The mesh analysis con-
sidered a full study of the grid size; the number of unstructured
cells (tetrahedrons and hexahedrons) was taken between 0.25 mil-
lion and 1.45 million (Fig. 4), avoiding any unnecessary computa-
tional effort required for the calculations with a large number of
cells. The highest temperature found between the coarse and the
fine meshes was around 7.3%. The time required to reach a CFD
solution of an individual with 1.45 million cells was around 5 h in
a computer with a quad-core CPU (fourth generation i7 processor)
and 8 GB in RAM. It was observed that for a number higher than
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0.88 million cells, the outlet temperature is independent of the
mesh. The geometry constructed and modeled had a size around 1
million of cells.
4.2 Model Validation. In order to validate the results, the
four experimental cases (Table 3) were compared with the CFD
numerical model. Outlet temperatures were obtained from these
numerical model (Toutmod ) and the results were compared with
experimental outlet temperatures (Toutexp ); also, the thermal effi-
ciency from the experimental data ðgiexp Þ and the numerical model
ðgi Þ were compared. The thermal collector efficiency, gi , was cal-
culated for each simulation by the following equation [27]:
_ ðTout  Tin Þ
mc
gi ¼ (15)
Ac G
The validation is shown in Table 4. The percentages of relative
error between Toutmod and Toutexp showed a lower value than
JUNE 2019, Vol. 141 / 031003-7
 Fig. 7 Thermal and hydraulic performance: (a) contours of temperature in the manifold, (b) contours of velocity in the mani-
fold, (c) contours of temperature in the tube, and (d) contours and vector of velocity in the tube

2.68% (around 1.3  C) for the four cases. Furthermore, the relative
error between giexp and gi showed a value lower than 9.49%,
therefore, the model developed is able to predict the outlet tem-
perature and the behavior of a low temperature water-in-glass
evacuated tube solar collector.
variation of the transmitted, reflected, and absorbed solar radiation
flux around the evacuated tubes. Furthermore, the contours of
each type of radiation flux in the tubes, described earlier, are
shown in Fig. 5(b).

4.3 Solar Radiation. The transmitted, reflected, and absorbed
solar radiation flux profile on the wall for the middle-evacuated
tube of the solar collector of case 1 are shown in Fig. 5(a). Similar
behavior was obtained for the other three cases and for the other
tubes. The top of the tube (0–60 deg and 300–360 deg) exhibits an
intense transmitted solar radiation flux of about 750 W/m2 with a
null transmitted solar radiation flux in the bottom walls of the tube
(100–250 deg), a null reflected solar radiation at top of the tube
(0–60 deg and 300–360 deg) with a high reflected solar radiation
in the bottom wall (120–240 deg) of approximately 600 W/m2,
and finally, a high absorbed solar radiation at the top of the tube,
around of 700 W/m2, with a moderate absorbed solar radiation in
the bottom walls (120–240 deg) of 400 W/m2, i.e., there is a
4.4 Solar Heat Flux. The solar heat flux ðq00 Þ profile around
the middle evacuated tube for case 1 (similar behavior for the
other tubes) is shown in Fig. 6(a), as well as the solar heat flux con-
tour in the tubes (Fig. 6(b)). It can be observed that the distribution
is not uniform along the circumferential direction of the evacuated
tube. The top walls of the tubes (0–60 deg and 300–360 deg) show
a more realistic distribution in comparison to the previous works
reported [17,18,20], where a constant heat flux was applied along
all the evacuated tubes as a boundary condition. Also, it can be
observed in Fig. 6 that the solar heat flux is more intense on the
sides of the top walls of the tubes (about 760 W/m2 and 740 W/m2
in 70 deg and 300 deg, respectively) than elsewhere in the circum-
ferential direction due to the sum of the transmitted and absorbed
radiation of top and bottom walls of the evacuated tubes.

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 Fig. 8 Temperature and efficiency profile according to mass flow rate variation

Fig. 9 Solar radiation flux through time

Fig. 10 Temperature and efficiency profile along the time of the day

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 Furthermore, the bottom wall of the tube (120–240 deg) shows the solar radiation increases (the day progresses) reaching to a max-
a lower solar heat flux than the top walls (400 W/m2) due to the imum temperature of 36.5  C and an efficiency of 0.63 at 14:00 h,
amount of the reflected solar radiation and the low absorbed solar and then, the temperature and efficiency decreases due to a reduc-
radiation received. tion of the solar radiation. The CFD numerical model can predict
the outlet temperature at different conditions such as different mass
flow rates or different times of a day as shown in this work.
4.5 Thermal and Hydraulic Performance. The temperature
distribution on a plane along the manifold for case 1 is shown in 5 Conclusions
Fig. 7(a). It is observed that the water with the lower temperature
goes to the bottom of the manifold, while the water with the The performance of a low temperature water-in-glass evacuated
higher temperature goes to the top of the manifold (buoyancy tube solar collector using a solar radiation model was shown in
effect), besides, the temperature increases as the water flows from this work. The application of a solar radiation model via CFD
the entrance to the exit of the manifold, reaching to a maximum numerical simulations allowed obtaining the transmitted,
value at the exit of the manifold. absorbed, and reflected solar radiation flux at the top and bottom
The velocity contours along the manifold are shown in walls of the evacuated tubes as well as the solar heat flux distribu-
Fig. 7(b), where higher velocities are observed at the entrance of tion in the circumferential direction of the evacuated.
the manifold becoming more uniform as the fluid reaches the exit The CFD numerical model was validated using experimental
where again it reaches an increment of velocity due to the reduc- data; the percentage of relative error between Tout exp and Tout mod
tion of cross-sectional section. and between giexp and gi was lower than 2.68% and 9.49%, respec-
The water temperature inside the tubes in a vertical plane is tively, for all the cases analyzed. The buoyancy effect along with
shown in Fig. 7(c). A clear separation between cold and warm the stratification was observed inside the tubes and in the manifold.
water along the bottom and top half of the tube can be noticed; a The thermal performance of the collector was obtained by mod-
range of temperature is obtained from around 28  C to 51  C. The ifying two important variables in the ETC behavior (mass flow
water enters at the tube and flows along the bottom of the tube rate and time of the day) taken as cases of study. In the first vari-
increasing the water temperature; after that, the water goes back able, it was found that the outlet temperature decreases as the mass
to the manifold along the top of the tube according to density flow rate increases. In the second variable, the outlet temperature
changes due to the temperature (buoyancy effect). increases as the solar radiation increases (the day progresses), and
The buoyancy effects are better observed in the contours of then, it decreases when the solar radiation is reduced.
velocity with vectors of velocity (Fig. 7(d)). The vectors of veloc- The CFD numerical study presented in this work allows to char-
ity flow down and along the bottom half of the tubes with higher acterize a complete low temperature water-in-glass evacuated
density and lower temperature, while the velocity vectors flow up tube solar collector under any geographical location, date, hour of
and along the top half of the tubes going back to the manifold the day, and operational condition. This CFD model can be
with lower density and higher temperature. applied for further designs, for the improvement of the perform-
ance and efficiency of the low temperature ETCs.
4.6 Solar Collector Behavior Under Different Mass Flow Funding Data
Rates. The mass flow rate variation was considered in order to
analyze the influence of the outlet temperature of the numerical  Secretariaa de Educacion Publica (DSA/103.5/14/10539 and
model under a constant solar radiation. The value of the direct DSA/103.5/15/7007).
solar radiation is 1021.11 W/m2 with a diffuse solar radiation of  Programa para el Desarrollo Profesional Docente (PRO-
111.656 W/m2, and as mentioned earlier, the geographical loca- DEP). Folio: UGT-PTC-379 and UGTO-PTC-477. DSA/
tion of the city of Guanajuato, Mexico at 13:00 h of June 6 was 103.5/14/10539 and DSA/103.5/15/7007. Secretarıa de Edu-
considered. Also, a constant inlet temperature was set with a value of cacion Publica.
Tin ¼ 27:9  C and the variations of the mass flow rate were in the
range from 0.03 kg/s to 0.1 kg/s (2 l/min to 6 l/min). The outlet tem- Nomenclature
perature and the thermal collector efficiency are shown in Fig. 8. Ac ¼ surface area of the solar collector, m2
The outlet temperature and the thermal efficiency for the lower c¼ specific heat, J kg1  C1
mass flow rate (0.03 kg/s) are 45.42  C and 0.59, respectively. The G¼ total radiation, W m2
outlet temperature and the thermal efficiency for the higher mass gy ¼ gravity, m s2
flow rate (0.1 kg/s) are 34.25  C and 0.65, respectively. The thermal Gd ¼ diffuse radiation, W m2
efficiency of the solar collector increases as the mass flow rate input GD ¼ direct radiation, W m2
also increases. It is observed that the outlet temperature is influenced Gr ¼ reflected radiation, W m2
by the quantity of the mass flow rate input, the outlet temperature h¼ convective heat transfer coefficient W m2  C1
decreases as the mass flow rate increases. The temperature seems to Ig ¼ radiation intensity, W m2 sr1
reach a steady value for a mass flow rate of 0.1 kg/s (6 l/min). k¼ thermal conductivity, W m1  C1
m_ ¼ mass flow rate, kg s1
4.7 Solar Collector Behavior Under Different Solar Radiation. p¼ pressure, Pa
The thermal performance of the collector was evaluated at the q’’ ¼ solar heat flux W m2
time from 9:00 h to 17:00 h for the date of June 6 (different solar ^s ¼ unit vector into a given direction, dimensionless
radiation) under the same geographical location (Guanajuato city) Tenv ¼ environmental temperature,  C
described earlier with a constant mass flow rate input (4.3 l/min). Tin ¼ inlet temperature,  C
The solar heat distributions in the middle-evacuated tube Toutmod ¼ numerical model outlet temperature,  C
through different hours of the day are shown in Fig. 9 (the behav- Toutexp ¼ experimental outlet temperature,  C
ior is similar in the other tubes). At 9:00 h of the day, the solar u; v; w ¼ velocity component, m s1
heat flux reaches 450 W/m2 between 60 deg and 70 deg of the Vw ¼ wind velocity, m s1
evacuated tube. As time passes, the solar heat flux reaches to a
maximum between 13:00 h and 15:00 h (around 768 W/m2) in the
region of the 70 deg approximately. Greek Symbols
The behavior of the outlet temperature and the thermal efficiency b ¼ solar altitude above the horizontal, deg
given by Eq. (15) along the time of a day are shown in Fig. 10. The  ¼ tilt angle of the surface measured from a horizontal
outlet temperature along with the thermal efficiency increases as plane, deg

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 g¼ wavenumber, m1 Table 6 Uncertainties of the thermal efficiency
jg ¼ absorption coefficient, m1
l¼ dynamic viscosity, Pa s Case G (W/m2) Tin ( C) Tout exp ( C) gi exp ug iexp
q¼ density, kg m3
1 935 27.9 36.7 0.89 0.9  102
qg ¼ ground reflectivity, dimensionless 2 1060.8 32.9 41.8 0.76 1.14  102
rsg ¼ scattering coefficient, m1 3 1009.5 40.4 48.5 0.7 1.96  102
Ug ¼ scattering phase function, dimensionless 4 899.9 46.7 52.5 0.57 2.2  102
Xi ¼ incident solid angle, sr

Appendix
uX ¼ tN SX (A2)
The solar collector was tested with four sets of real operational
conditions according to the Official Mexican Standard NMX-ES-
where X represents the thermal efficiency, giexp , N is the number
001-NORMEX-2005 in the city of Guanajuato, Mexico. The
of tests, and tN is student t number, which is 2.262 at a confidence
experimental setup includes specialized equipment such as a
interval of 95%. Table 6 presents the calculated data at each of the
pyrometer, a pyrheliometer, temperature sensors, and an anemom-
four cases, where the maximum uncertainty of measurement is
eter which are described in Table 5; other types of equipment like
2:2  102 .
flowmeter, a cooler, a storage tank, and a centrifugal pump were
The overall uncertainty of the thermal efficiency is defined as
also used. All the equipment was connected to a data acquisition
follows [28]:
system to register automatically the readings. A basic schematic
representation of the experimental setup is shown in Fig. 11. qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
The measurement uncertainties from the tested data at each u ¼ u2X þ u2cf (A3)
thermal efficiency point are calculated. The standard deviation
and the uncertainty of the mean value are calculated using the fol- where ucf is the uncertainty of the curve fitting due to which the
lowing equations, respectively: thermal efficiency was approximated by a polynomial fit:
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi gcfi ¼ 8:5274ðTin  Tenv =Ac GÞ þ 0:819. Therefore, the uncer-
u N
uX 2 tainty of the curve fitting is calculated as
u Xi  X
u vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
SX t i¼1 u N
SX ¼ pffiffiffiffi ¼ (A1) uX
N NðN  1Þ u 2
u ðgiexp  gcfi Þ
Scf t i¼1
ucf ¼ tN pffiffiffiffi ¼ tN (A4)
N N

where  ¼ N  ðm þ 1Þ, and m is the order of the polynomial fit.

Table 5 Equipment used in the experimental setup [20] The calculated uncertainty of curve fitting ucf is 3:08  102 , and
thus, the overall uncertainty by Eq. (A3) is 3:8  102 .
Equipment Measuring variable

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Fig. 11 Experimental solar collector setup

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