Solar Energy Vol. 71, No. 4, pp.

263–268, 2001
 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd
Pergamon PII: S 0 0 3 8 – 0 9 2 X ( 0 1 ) 0 0 0 4 7 – 0 All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain
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A SIMULATION STUDY OF PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF SINGLE-

GLAZED AND DOUBLE-GLAZED COLLECTORS / REGENERATORS FOR AN
OPEN-CYCLE ABSORPTION SOLAR COOLING SYSTEM
RU YANG † ,‡ , * and PAI-LU WANG**
*Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, ROC
**Materials Research and Development Center, Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, Lungtan,
Taiwan, ROC

Received 7 June 1999; revised version accepted 29 March 2001

Communicated by BYARD WOOD

Abstract—Feasibility for an open-cycle absorption solar cooling (air-conditioning) system operated in

Kaohsiung, Taiwan is studied via a computer simulation program using previous obtained experimental
correlations for the collector / regenerator (C / R) performance and the statistical meteorological data for the
summer season at Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Comparisons of the system performance for two C / R models are
discussed in this study. They are the systems with natural convection single-glazed C / R and with the forced
convection double-glazed C / R. The effects of the C / R area, the C / R solution flow rate, the solution storage,
the chilled water temperature and the daily cooling demand on the system performance in terms of seasonal
solar fraction are studied and discussed. The results show the influence of the solar C / R performance on the
total performance of the cooling system. It is shown that the double glazed forced convection C / R gives a
better system performance.  2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. INTRODUCTION absorbent solution absorbs refrigerant vapor in the

absorber, the solution becomes dilute (weak solu-
The concept of the open cycle absorption solar
tion) and must be reconcentrated into strong
cooling (air-conditioning) system was first re-
solution in order for the absorber to operate
ported by Kakabaev and Khandurdyev (1969) and
cyclically. The C / R acts as the reconcentrator in
Kakabaev and Golaev (1971). The study of this
which the solution absorbs solar energy to drive
concept has been undertaken by US researchers
the refrigerant out from the solution by evapora-
since 1979 (Collier, 1979; McCormick et al.,
tion. Theoretical modelling studies by Wood et al.
1983; Novak et al., 1986; Nelson et al., 1986;
(1988) and Yang and Yan (1992) indicate that this
Siebe, 1986; Nelson, 1986; Hawlader et al.,
system is one of the most viable solar cooling
1992). Many similar investigations have also been
systems. In this study, the C / R characteristics
performed around the world (Kumar et al., 1985;
reported by Yang and Wang (1995a, 1998) are
Kaudinya and Kaushik, 1986; Kaushik et al.,
employed, and statistical meteorological data for
1991; Yang and Wang, 1994a). The system con-
the summer season at Kaohsiung, Taiwan is used
sists of two major parts, i.e. the solar collector /
for a computer program to simulate the system
regenerator (C / R, as depicted in Fig. 1) and the
performance in hot humid climate. The effects of
absorber / evaporator (A / E). The suitable working
various parameters on the cooling system are also
absorbent solution for the system is aqueous
presented.
lithium–chloride solution (LiCl–H 2 O), and water
is the refrigerant. The evaporator is the chiller that
delivers the cooling load by absorbing latent heat
2. SIMULATION
from the room air to evaporate the refrigerant.
Then, the refrigerant vapor is removed by absorp- The study has been accomplished by using a
tion effect taking place in the absorber. As the dynamic simulation program which describes the
transient behavior of the solution re-concentrator,
chemical energy storage subsystem, absorption
† chiller, auxiliary cooler and cooling load deman-
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Tel.: 1886-7-525-4222; fax: 1886-7-525-4299; der for an open-cycle absorption solar cooling
e-mail: yangru@mail.nsysu.edu.tw system under continuous operation. As shown in
‡
ISES Member. Fig. 2, the computer program consists of 11

263
264 R. Yang and P.-L. Wang
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the experimental C / R.
subroutines including data reader, radiation pro-
cessor, weak solution tank, pump, heat exchanger,
C / R, strong solution tank, ME, fan coil, auxiliary
cooling system and room. A detailed description
of the component modelling and all the variable
definitions are given by Ghiang (1992). The data
reader introduces the averaged weather conditions
(statistical meteorological data) and the control-
ling parameters. Then the radiation data processor
translates the meteorological data into a suitable
data form for the simulation program. The time
step for simulation is set to 10 min that gives
sufficient detailed information yet providing a
stable numerical solution. When the solar ir-
radiance is greater than a sufficient quantity to
produce re-concentration effect (about 300 W/ m 2
according to the experimental evidence of Yang
and Wang, 1998), the weak solution is pumped
into the C / R, where it is re-concentrated by solar
energy. When the concentration of the re-concen-
trated solution is greater than 42.0 wt.% the
solution is considered as strong solution (Yang
and Wood, 1993) and conducted into the strong
solution tank. If not, it is re-circulated back into
the weak solution tank. A liquid-to-liquid heat
exchanger is used to preheat the solution before it
enters the dIR. If the solar irradiance is less than
300 W/ m 2 the solution regeneration loop is shut
off.
For the absorber / evaporator (ME) component,
a smooth film model (Yang, 1987) is applied in
this study. If the concentration of the diluted
solution is less than 42 wt.% the solution is
re-circulated back into the weak solution tank;
otherwise, it flows into the strong solution tank.
The chilled water is circulated through the fan
coil to cool the room air. When a cooling load is
demanded, if the fan coil does not provide enough
capacity, the air cooling loop is shut down and an
auxiliary cooling system (10.6 kW capacity) will
take over the load. The cooling load is that for a
normal business office in which the room air
temperature is required to be kept within 24 to
288C. The building, comprised of typical solid
brick construction for Kaohsiung, is 10 m long, 9
m wide and 3.5 m in height.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The purpose of this simulation study is to
evaluate the seasonal solar fraction, which is
defined as
solar cooling load
F 5 ]]]]] (1)
total cooling load
where the total cooling load is the sum of the
solar-cooling and auxiliary cooling loads. The
solar-cooling load is the cooling load provided by
the solar cooling system. The summer season at
Kaohsiung, Taiwan may extent from May to
October. There are several parameters affecting
the solar fraction of the cooling system. Accord-
ing to previous experimental experience, a base
case may be chosen as shown in Table 1. Only
 Evaluation of single-glazed and double-glazed collectors / regenerators 265

Fig. 2. Flow diagram for the simulation program.

Table 1. Parameters of the base case for system simulation

Parameter Value Unit
Collector / Regenerator (C / R) area 90 m2
C / R glazing height 0.05 m
C / R solution flow rate 40 kg / m h
C / R forced air flow rate 180 kg / m h
Ambient wind speed 0.5 m/s
Heat exchanger effectiveness 0.8 –
Weak solution initial temperature 30 8C
Weak solution initial concentration 0.415 kg / kg
Weak solution initial volume 1 m3
Strong solution initial concentration 0.44 kg / kg
Strong solution initial volume 1 m3
Concentration diverter criterion 0.42 kg / kg
Absorber / Evaporator (A / E) solution flow rate 300 kg / h
A / E chilled water temperature 10 8C
Fan coil air flow rate 1800 kg / h
Room initial temperature 24 8C
Room initial humidity ration 0.013 kg / kg
Cooling hour 10 h
Auxiliary cooling capacity 37800 kJ / h
266 R. Yang and P.-L. Wang

one parameter is varied at a time to show its

individual effect. Three flat plate solar C / R
models are considered in the study. The first is a
single glazed natural convection model (Yang and
Wang, 1995b) that is 9 m in length. The second is
a single-glazed forced convection model and the
third is a double-glazed forced convection model,
both are 6 m in length (Yang and Wang, 1998).
Firstly, all three C / R models are simulated under
the base case conditions (Table 1). Fig. 3 illus-
trates the base-case solar fraction corresponding
to the individual month of the summer season at
Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The seasonal averaged solar
fraction for the three C / R types are found to be
Fig. 4. Effect of collector / regenerator solution mass flow rate
0.7, 0.75 and 0.79, respectively, while the corre- on the solar fraction.
sponding seasonal averaged C / R efficiencies are
15.7, 18.4 and 20.6%, respectively. The double-
glazed forced convection system performs better
than the other two systems. This is consistent with
the results of experimental studies for the C / R by
Yang and Wang (1994b, 1998). Since the system
performance for the single glazed forced convec-
tion C / R falls between that for the double-glazed
forced convection C / R and the natural convection
C / R, the following discussions will be focused on
the performance comparisons for these two sys-
tems for simplicity.
Fig. 4 indicates the effect of the C / R solution
flow rate on the solar fraction, while Fig. 5 shows
the dependence of the C / R performance on the
same parameter. Since good consistency is found Fig. 5. Effect of collector / regenerator solution mass flow rate
between Figs. 4 and 5, it infers that the per- on the collector / regenerator performance.
formance of the solar cooling system depends
strongly on the performance of the C / R. Fig. 6 influence of the solution storage on the system
even shows a nearly linear relationship between performance is illustrated in Fig. 7. Since the
the C / R efficiency and the solar fraction. The width of the natural convection C / R is 1.5 times
of that of the forced convection model for a given
C / R area, the solution required for the natural

Fig. 3. Monthly solar fraction of the base case for three C / R Fig. 6. Relation between the collector / regenerator perform-
types. ance and the system performance.
 Evaluation of single-glazed and double-glazed collectors / regenerators
Fig. 7. Effect of solution storage on the solar fraction.
convection model is also 1.5 times that of the
forced convection model for a fixed C / R solution
flow rate of 40 kg / m per hour. In other words, the
natural convection model needs 600 kg per hour
of weak solution while the forced convection C / R
takes 400 kg / h from the weak solution tank.
Although the solar irradiance is greater than
300 W/ m 2 , the solution re-concentrating loop will
be shut down in this study if the solution held
within the weak solution tank is less than 0.01 m 3 .
Once the C / R is shut off during sunshine periods,
the chemical energy storage is terminated and the
seasonal solar fraction is decreased consequently.
Thus, the solar fraction increases slightly with the
solution storage volume for the natural convection
case, but it is much more sensitive to the solution
storage for the forced convection system. Fig. 8
shows the dependence of the system performance
on the C / R area. The solar fraction is relatively
insensitive to the C / R area after a critical value is
reached. A similar dependence is also found in
Fig. 8. Effect of collector / regenerator area on the solar
fraction.
267
other solar absorption air conditioning system
alternatives (Wilbur and Mancini, 1976). The
critical C / R area is a representation of the critical
C / R width as the C / R length is fixed. Likewise as
the C / R width is increased, the total C / R solution
flow must be increased to maintain the same
solution flow rate per unit width. According to the
simulation study, the critical C / R width is found
to be 15 in for a 2 m 3 solution storage system
operated at the base case conditions. That is, 2 m 3
solution storage is just sufficient to supply the
C / R solution flow rate at 600 kg / h. As shown in
Fig. 8, the solar fraction for the double-glazed
C / R with 2 m 3 storage decreases slightly with
increasing C / R area when the C / R area is greater
than 90 m 2 . When the C / R is simulated with an
area more than 110 m 2 , the natural convection
system performs better than the double-glazed
system. The performance of a double-glazed
system with 4 m 3 solution storage is also illus-
trated in Fig. 8. The critical C / R width is found to
be approximately 20 m in this case. Since both of
the solution storage and the C / R size strongly
affect system installation costs, the present study
provides the necessary information for optimum
design. Five cases of daily cooling hour demand
are simulated. They are 8, 10, 12, 16 and 24 h that
correspond to the office hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
8 a.m. to 6 p.m., 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., 8 a.m. to 12
a.m., and 24 h respectively. Fig. 9 indicates the
effect of cooling hour demand on the solar
fraction. As expected, the solar fraction decreases
with increased hours of building operation. The
chilled water temperature effect is shown in Fig.
10. It is observed that the chilled water tempera-
ture has no significant influence for the single
glazed natural convection system, while 11 to
148C is an acceptable chilled water temperature
range for the double-glazed forced convection
Fig. 9. Effect of cooling hour on the solar fraction.
268 R. Yang and P.-L. Wang
Fig. 10. Effect of chilled water temperature on the solar
fraction.
system that gives an averaged solar fraction of
0.82.
4. CONCLUSIONS
Computer simulation for the performance study
of an open-cycle absorption solar cooling system
operated in a hot, humid area, Taiwan, is carried
out. The simulations give the affect of individual
parameters on the system performance for design
purposes. It is shown that the solar C / R strongly
affects the performance of the system. The doub-
le-glazed forced convection C / R gives better
system output. According to this study, the open-
cycle absorption solar cooling system would work
well even in humid climates.
Acknowledgements—The authors gratefully acknowledge the
financial support of the Energy Commission, Ministry of
Economy, Taiwan for supporting this research.
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