Mechanical Department

CLASSIFICATION OF SOLAR
COLLECTORS

Submitted To: ENG/ Hany Ebrahem Yahya.

Submitted By: Khaled Gamal ELSaftawy

ID: 20140377
Abstract. In practice different kinds of solar collectors for hot domestic water heating worldwide are used. The
amount of sunshine hours in Latvia is some 1800 hours a year in average what preclude it to use solar energy
for water heating. However, areas of solar collectors installed in Baltic States increases with every year. With
the increasing use of solar collectors, the variety of constructions of solar collectors in order to improve its’
efficiency gets wider. Wherewith, for the last time there are originated a large amount of modifications of solar
collectors. To establish a solid classification of solar collectors the following research has been done. It is
stated, that the basic constructions are kept the same, but new modifications of them are arisen up.

Introduction
Situation in energetic become more acute with every year. With increase of manufacturing, increases
both need for heat as well as for electrical energy. It is well known that great amount of total consumed
energy is produced in way of combustion of several fossil fuels: solid, liquid and gaseous. As known fossil
fuels are expensive, require for a stockroom, combustion of them makes pollution of the atmosphere and
resources of fossil fuels in the nearest future will run away [1]. These are reasons why an alternative
energy sources are becoming more and more charismatic. Latvia is not rich in natural energy sources -
approximately 70 % of them have to be imported [1]. Solution of this problem is focusing to an alternative
energy sources. Like an alternative energy sources in Latvia it is possible to use: biomass, biogas,
waterpower, wind energy, geothermal heat and solar radiation. Solar radiation for water heating widely
worldwide is used. In Latvia it is about 1800 sunny hours a year what preclude it to use solar energy for
water heating. Also solar devices what are possible to use for efficient water heating in weather condition
of Latvia are too expensive. A lot of constructions of solar devices worldwide are known and each one of
them is efficient in some specific locations and weather conditions. To establish solid classification of
solar collectors the following research has been done.

Materials and Methods

Solar energy can be used by three technological processes [2]: chemical, electrical and thermal (Fig. 1).
Chemical process, through photosynthesis, maintains life on earth by producing food and converting CO2
to O2. Electrical process, using photovoltaic converters, provides power for spacecraft and is used in many
terrestrial applications. Thermal process can be used to provide much of the thermal energy required for
solar water heating and building heating. Another one form of converted solar radiation is mechanical
energy as wind and water steams [3].

Solar energy

Chemical energy Electrical energy Heat energy Mechanical en.

Fig. 1. Conversion of solar radiation to other energy

forms
The most important and most expensive single component of an active solar energy system is the
collector field, which may be performed in a several versions, as from constructions of solar collectors, as
of collector configuration. Solar collector is a mechanical device which captures the radiant solar energy
and converts it to useful thermal energy [4].
The use of solar energy for heat production dates from antiquity. Historically, methods used for collecting
and transferring solar heat were passive methods, that is, without active means such as pumps, fans and
heat exchangers. Passive solar heating methods utilize natural means such as radiation, natural
convection, thermosyphon flow and thermal properties of materials for collection and transfer of heat.
Active solar heating methods, on the other hand, use pumps and fans to enhance the rate of fluid flow
and heat transfer. Passive systems are defined as systems in which the thermal energy flow is by natural
means: by conduction, radiation and natural convection [5]. Passive features increase the use of solar
energy to meet heating and lighting loads and the use of ambient air for cooling. For example, window
placement can enhance solar gains to meet winter heating loads, to provide daylighting, or to do both,
and this is passive solar use.
A distinction is made between energy conservation techniques and passive solar measures. Energy
conservation features are designed to reduce the heating and cooling energy required to thermally
condition a building. Such features would include the use of insulation to reduce heating or cooling loads.
Similarly, window shading or appropriate window placement could lower solar gains, thus reducing
summer cooling loads. An example of active solar system is solar collector and thermo battery and of
passive solar system – south side windows and greenhouse.
Converting the suns’ radiant energy to heat is the most common and well-developed solar conversion
technology today. The temperature level and amount of this converted energy are the key parameters
that must be known to match a conversion scheme to a specific task effectively. Possible achievable
temperature depending of concentration level in Table 1 [4] is shown.

Table 1 Classification of solar collectors

according to concentration degree
Category Example Temperature range, ºC Efficiency, %
Flat-plate Evacuated up to 75 up
No concentration 30 – 50
tube to 200
Medium concentration Parabolic cylinder 150 - 500 50 – 70
High concentration Parabodial 1500 and more 60 - 75
In most cases solar collectors in order to reduce heat losses are covered (exception is pool collector, when
necessary achievable temperature level is some 10 – 20 ºC above ambient temperature). Classification of
solar collectors depending of number of covers in Fig. 2 is shown.
 None covered One cover Two covers More covers

Number of covers of collector Fig. 2. Number of covers

of solar collector
In way of enlarge of number of covers heat loses become reduced, but it must be taken into account that
solar income are reduced too. For a system of N covers all of the same materials, a following analysis
yields. Equation for estimation of transmittance for both parallel and perpendicular components of
polarization τrN for a several number of cover N by following equation is given [6]:

τrN = 121+(12−Nr−II 1)r +1+(12−Nr−⊥1)r  ,

(1)
where rII – parallel component of unpolarized radiation, non dimensional value;
r⊥ - perpendicular component of unpolarized radiation, non dimensional value; N
– number of covers.

Position in relation to the Sun

Nontracking (fixed) One-axis tracking Two-axis tracking

Fig. 3. Equipment ratio of the collector

It is well known that the maximum gain from solar collector it is possible to obtain when solar rays are
striking solar device perpendicularly because of reflective losses from device surface. In that case solar
collectors are divided in three designs shown in Fig. 3. Must be mentioned, that the equipment of
collector with tracking devices increase its costs.

Results and Discussion

Consider accordant literature where gathered information about five mine types of solar collectors
described below.

1. Tank-type collector
In an Integral Collector Storage unit, the hot water storage tank is the solar absorber. The tank or tanks
are mounted in an insulation box with glazing on one side and are painted black or coated with a selective
surface. The sun shines through the glazing and hits the black tank, warming the water inside the tank.
The single tanks are typically made of steel, while the tubes are typically made of copper [7]. Achievable
temperature with such collectors is a little bit less than in flat-plate collectors (see Table 1 and below).
 2. Pool collector
The single largest application of active solar heating systems is in heating swimming pools. Special
collectors have been developed for heating seasonal swimming pools: they are unglazed and made of a
special copolymer plastic. These collectors cannot withstand freezing conditions. Approximate maximum
operating temperature of such type of solar collector is 10 – 20 ºC [8] above ambience.

3. Flat-plate collector
Flat-plate collectors are the most widely used kind of collectors in the world for domestic solar water
heating and solar space heating applications [7]. Flat-plate collectors are used typically for temperature
requirements up to 75 ºC (Table 1) although higher temperatures can be obtained from high efficiency
collectors (there water must be changed to other heat transfer liquid because of its boiling temperature
of 100 ºC).

Flat-plate collector
Liquid heater Air heater

Water sandwitch type Finned plate Metal matrix

Semi-sandwitch type Miller L F type

Corrugated plate
with selective
Pipe and fin type surface Thermal trap

Tubes are mounted under the plate

Tubes aranged
parallel Tubes are mounted on the top of the plate

Tubes aranged
in serpentine Centered tubes in the plane

Fig. 4. Classification of flat-plate solar collectors [2]

These collectors are of two basic types based on heat transfer fluid [5]: liquid type and air type (Table 2).
Flat-plate collectors use both beam and diffuse solar radiation, do not require tracking of the sun, and
require little maintenance [6], is usually planed on the top of a building or other structures. Flat-plate
collectors are durable and effective. These collectors have a distinct advantage over other types in that
they shed snow very well when installed in climates that experience significant snowfall. They are the
standard to which all other kinds of collectors are compared [7]. Depending on absorbers’ construction
and configuration flat-plate collectors are divided in several types (Fig. 4).

Tabl
e 2 Classification of collectors according to heat transfer
medium
Heating matter Efficiency, % Achievable temperature, ºC
 Liquid heaters 30 - 75 75 – 1500 and more
Air heaters 30 – 65 30 – 80
Because of their high heat loss coefficient, ordinary flat-plate collectors are not practical for elevated
temperatures, say above 80 ºC. When higher temperatures are desired, one needs to reduce the heat loss
coefficient. This can be accomplished principally by two methods: evacuation and concentration, either
singly or in combination. While several attempts have been made to build evacuated flat plates, they do
not seem to hold any promise of commercial success.

4. Evacuated tube collector

While plat-plate collectors are all essentially made the same way and perform the way from one brand to
other, evacuated tube collectors vary widely in their construction and operation. Evacuated tube
collectors are constructed of a number of glass tubes. Each tube is made of annealed glass and has an
absorber plate within the tube, because tube is the natural configuration of an evacuated collector [8].
During the manufacturing process in order to reduce heat losses through conduction and convection, a
vacuum is created inside the glass tube. The only heat loss mechanism remaining is radiation [2]. The
absence of air in the tube creates excellent insulation, allowing higher temperatures to be achieved at the
absorber plate. In order to improve an efficiency of evacuated tube collector there are several types of
concentrators depending on its concave radius established. Classification of evacuated solar collectors in
Fig. 5 is shown. There are many possible designs of evacuated collectors, but in all of them selective
coating as an absorber is used because with a nonselective absorber, radiation losses would dominate at
high temperatures, and eliminating convection alone would not be very effective [8].

Evacuated collector

Without heat pipe With heat pipe

Without With reflector Cusp reflector Metal fin within

reflector within tube tube

With evacuated tube Behind evacuated tube or

cusp reflector

Evacuated tube Single straight U-shaped tube U-shaped with

cover tube manifold insulation

Fig. 5. Classification of evacuated solar collector [2]

A heat pipe provides the most elegant way of extracting heat from an evacuated collector. Heat pipe is
hermetically sealed tube that contains a small amount of heat transfer liquid. When one portion of tube is
heated the liquid evaporates and condenses at the cold portion, transferring heat with great effectiveness
because of the latent heat of condensation. The heat pipe contains a wick or is tilted (or both) to ensure
that the liquid follows back to the heated portion to repeat the cycle. It is easy to design a heat pipe (e.g.,
by giving it the proper tilt) so that it functions only in one direction. This thermal diode effect is very
useful for the design of solar collectors, because it automatically shuts the collector off and prevents heat
loss when there is insufficient solar radiation. Also, heat pipes have lower heat capacity than ordinary
liquid-filled absorber tubes, thus minimizing warm-up and cooldown losses [8].
Heat pipe provides the method of transferring larger amounts of heat from the focal area of a high-
concentration solar collector to a fluid with only small temperature difference. It consists of a circular
pipe with an annular wick layer situated adjacent to the pipe wall. The circular pipe is perfectly insulated
from outside to avoid thermal losses from the circular pipe. Solar energy falls on evaporator and the fluid
inside evaporator boils. The vapor migrates to the condenser where heat of vapor is transferred to a
circulation fluid loop. The heat available with circulating fluid is further carried away to the end use point.
The circulation fluid after releasing its heat is transferred to the boiler by capillary action in the wick or by
gravity and cycle repeats. Gravity return heat pipes can operate without wick but cannot be operated
horizontally as a result.

5. Concentrating collector
A concentrating collector utilizes a reflective parabolic-shaped surface to reflect and concentrate the
sun’s energy to a focal point or focal line where the absorber is located. To work effectively, the reflectors
must track the sun. These collectors can achieve very high temperatures (Table 1) because the diffuse
solar resource is concentrated in a small area. The area geometrical concentration ratio according to [2, 6]
is

A R2
= a=
C 2 =, (2)

A r
r

where C – concentration ratio, non-dimensional value;

Aa – area of the collecting aperture, m2;

Ar – area of the absorber, m2;

R – distance from the sun to the concentrator, m;

r – radius of the sun, m; θs – half of an angle
subtended by the sun, º.
This ratio has an upper limit that depends on whether the concentration is a three-dimensional (circular)
concentrator such as a paraboloid or two-dimensional (linear) concentrator such as a cylindrical parabolic
concentrator. Thus, the maximum possible concentration ratio in air for circular concentrators is 45, and
for linear concentrators the maximum is 212 [6].
 R

r
s
Ar

Aa

Fig. 6. Schematic of the sun at a distance R from a concentrator [2, 5, 6]: R – distance from the sun to
the concentrator, m; r – radius of the sun, m; θs – half of an angle subtended by the sun, º;
Ar – area of the absorber, m2; Aa – area of the collecting aperture, m2

Solar concentrator may be classified as tracking type and non-tracking type. Tracking may be continuous
or intermittent and may be by one-axis or two-axis (Fig. 3). As the sun may be followed by moving either
the focusing part or the receiver or both; concentrators can be classified accordingly.

Further, the system may have distributed receiver or central receiver. The concentrators may also be
classified on the basis of optical components. They may be reflecting or refracting type, imaging or non-
imaging type, and line focusing or point focusing type. The reflecting of refracting surface may be one
piece or a composite surface; it may be a single or two stage type systems and may be symmetric or
asymmetric. In practice, however, hybrid and multistage systems, incorporating various levels of the
features, occur frequently. Types of concentrators in Fig. 7 are shown.

Tracking Non-tracking

One-axis tracking Two-axis tracking

Flat receiver with
booster mirror
Paraboloidal dish
Fixed mirror solar concentrator
concentrator Tabor-Zeimer
circular cylinder
Central tower
Cylindrical receiver
parabolic conc. Compound
parabolic conc.
Circular Fresnel
Linear Fresnel lens
lens/refkector V-trough

Hemispherical
bowl mirror

Fig. 7. Classification of concentrators

Concentrators

Conclusions
Considering to the existing situation in the energetical field, it is foreseeable that an alternative energy
sources will become more and more charismatic and remarkable part in this section will be realized by
solar collectors.
 References
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for Water Heating in Latvia // Engineering for Rural Development: proceedings, May 24 - 25, 2007,
Jelgava, Latvia. – Latvia University of Agriculture, Faculty of Engineering, 2007 - p. 35 - 40.

2. Tiwari G.N. Solar Energy. Fundamentals, Design, Modeling and Applications. – New Dehli: Alpha
Science International Ltd, 2006. – p. 525.

3. Weiss W., Themessl A. Training Course – Solar Water Heating. Latvia – Baltic States. – Helsinki:
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4. Direct Thermal Conversion and Storage [online] [viewed 2007.11.25.]. Available:

www.osti.gov/accomplishments/pdf/DE06877213/10.pdf.

5. Yogi Goswami D., Kreith F., Kreider J.F. Principles of Solar Engineering. – New York: Taylor & Francis
Group, 2000. – p. 694.

6. Duffie J.A., Beckman W.A. Solar Engineering of Thermal Processes. – New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons,
Inc, 2006. – p. 908.

7. Ramlow B., Nusz B. Types of Solar Collectors [online] [viewed 2007.11.25.]. Available:

http://oikos.com/library/solarwaterheating/collector_types.html.

8. Rabl A. Active Solar Collectors and Their Applications. – New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. –
pp. 503.