Fatemeh Nadi - Young Researchers and Elite Club, Azadshahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Iran,

The flat plate collector is the simplest and most widely used means to convert the Sun’s radiation into useful heat. Solar radiation passes through the ransparent cover plates and strikes the blackened collector absorber surface where it is absorbed, changing to thermal or heat energy. Thermal energy is removed from the absorber by a flow of air or liquid that then delivers heat to be used or stored. In this paper a solar dryer is designed and developed based on the energy balance. The effect of an aluminum reflector is also evaluated on flat solar collector efficiency. The aluminum foil is set on the south wall of thedryer as a reflector. Under the various conditions, the effect of using a reflector and the lake of reflector are tested, evaluated and calculated on the erformance of the solar collector. The results illustrate the collector efficiency increases about 10 % by using reflectors.

Solar Energy, Solar Collector Efficiency, Flat Plate Collector, Reflector