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Multi-objective optimization of porous foam structure to enhance energy performance of flat plate solar collectors

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Abstract

Flat plate solar collectors are extensively used in buildings, however due to excessive heat losses, these collectors are not efficient. Metal foams can enhance the thermal efficiency in expense of higher pum** power. A numerical simulation is carried out to investigate the influence of geometrical characteristics of porous medium on the pressure drop and heat transfer. An innovative design with gradually increasing or decreasing height is proposed. Porous block consists of three smaller blocks, two rectangular blocks at the inlet and outlet connected with a trapezoidal block. Non-dimensional height and length of the rectangular blocks vary between 0.2–0.6 and 0.1–0.9 respectively, and the optimum geometry of the porous block is proposed. Central composite design is conducted to find an optimum geometrical design and 25 design points have been investigated. The main target of this optimization is the simultaneous increment of Nusselt and decrement of pressure drop. Results demonstrate that porous block with non-dimensional inlet and outlet height of 0.9 and 0.5 and inlet and outlet length of 0.4 and 0.4 respectively, result in the highest Nu (= 15.2). Comparing the optimal results with those of a conventional rectangular porous block with constant height of 0.9 represents that in the optimum design Nu is only 7.23% less than that of the conventional design, while, pressure drop is improved up to 38.46% in the proposed geometrical design. Additionally, response surface methodology has been carried out and results have been reported in response surface plots.

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Abbreviations

\(\mu\) :

Dynamic viscosity (Pa. s)

C d :

Non-linear Forchheimer coefficient

\(\rho\) :

Density (kg m−3)

C p :

Specific heat (J kg−1 K−1)

D h :

Hydraulic diameter (m)

Eff:

Effective

d p :

Pore diameter of porous media (m)

F :

Fluid

G :

Gravitational acceleration (m s−2)

I :

Inner

H :

Channel height (m)

M :

Middle

H :

Heat transfer coefficient (w/m2)

O :

Outer

K :

Thermal conductivity (W m−1 K−1)

L :

Channel length (m)

ASHRAE:

The American society of heating, refrigerating and air-conditioning engineers

Nu:

Nusselt number

CCD:

Central composite design

P :

Pressure (kPa)

DOE:

Design of experiments

q w :

Heat flux (w)

FPSC:

Flat plate solar collector

T :

Temperature (K)

MWCNT:

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes

V :

Velocity vector (m s−1)

LTE:

Local thermal equilibrium

T :

Temperature (K)

LTNE:

Local thermal non-equilibrium

PV:

Photovoltaic

\(\alpha\) :

Inclination angle (°)

RSM:

Response surface methodology

\(\varepsilon\) :

Porosity

SIMPLE:

Semi-implicit method for pressure linked equations

K :

Permeability (m2)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran

    Nazanin Variji, Seyedeh Zeinab Hosseini Imeni & Majid Siavashi

  2. Applied Multi-Phase Fluid Dynamics Lab., School of Mechanical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Heydarkhani St., Narmak, Tehran, 1684613114, Iran

    Nazanin Variji, Seyedeh Zeinab Hosseini Imeni & Majid Siavashi

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  1. Nazanin Variji
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Variji, N., Hosseini Imeni, S.Z. & Siavashi, M. Multi-objective optimization of porous foam structure to enhance energy performance of flat plate solar collectors. J Therm Anal Calorim 149, 3543–3559 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-024-12937-8

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