Performance Comparison between FPC and ETC for a Solar Absorption Chiller: A Case Study

Typical solar absorption chillers suffer from their low performance andit is very important to design an optimum device. Numerical simulationcan assist engineers to enhance the performance of a solar absorptionchiller. In this study, we have compared flat-plate collector (FPC) withevacuated tube collector (ETC) for a solar absorption chiller. Theresults show that there is acceptable agreement between the result ofnumerical simulation and experimental data or Theoretical analysisreported in the literature. Numerical simulation indicates that ETC hasmore annual solar fraction than FPC and for chillers with high generatortemperature, ETS is a better option. The results also imply that11.7m2 of evacuated tube solar collector are required to produce 1 tof refrigeration ( 3.51 kW¿ and 16.86m2 of flat-plate collector arerequired to produce 1 t of refrigeration ( 3.51 kW¿ .

Keywords:

Numerical simulation , Solar absorption chiller , FPC , ETC