Investigating the Thermal Performance of a Solar Water Heating System Integrated with Phase Change Material as a Thermal Energy Storage: A Case of Adama Hospital Medical College

Abstract

The Technology Of Solar Energy Has Led To The Development Of Several Solar Appliances Used For Water Heating, Lighting, Cooking And Solar Thermal Systems. The Most Encouraged Among Them Is The Solar Thermal System That Achieves The Energy Necessary For Different Applications At Domestic As Well As At The Industry Level Both For Day And Night Time Use. In Solar Systems, An Available Energy Supply Does Not Usually Coincide In Time With The Demand And Is Intermittent In Nature. So, The Utilization Of Solar Energy Can Be More Attractive And Trustworthy It Accompanied With A Thermal Energy Storage System (Tes). This Thesis Studied In Detail The Design Of Flat Plat Solar Collector And Performance Analysis Of Tes Incorporating With And Without Phase Change Materials (Pcm) With Flat Plate Solar Collector For Use In Domestic Water Heating Purposes. The Tes System Holds Shell And Tube Configuration Using Paraffin Wax (N-Heptacosane) As Pcm In Shell Side And The Water Used As Htf In Tube Side To Transferring Heat To Storage Tank From Solar Collector. A Transient 1d Method With The Finite Difference Scheme Is Used To Investigate Of Flat Plate Collector And Developed Numerically To Obtain The Temperature Profiles Of Both The Phase Change Material (Paraffin Wax) And Heat Transfer Fluid (Htf) During The Melting Process. The Comparison Of Conventional Sensible Storage And Latent Heat Thermal Storage With Incorporating Paraffin Wax Was Studied And The Simulation Results Are Also Analysed. As Well, The Pipe Network And Water Distribution System Numerical Developed And Simulated. Last, Cost Analyses For Tes Integrating With The Swh System Were Performed. Entirely, The Results From A Numerical Simulation Performed With Meteorological Data From Adama And Estimated As 54 M3 Of The Total Hot Water Demand Per Day, 5.6 M3 Of Pcm Volume And Two Storage Tank With Each 30 M3 Needs And With 265 Units Of Flat Plate Collectors Can Satisfy The Energy Needed For The Designed Pcm Based Solar Water Heating System For Supply Domestic Hot Water To Adama Hospital Medical College (Ahmc).