EMH 441 HEAT

TRANSFER
PROJECT 2 REPORT
(Natural Convection)

Group 14

Group Members:

Ho Zhe Wei 125014

Yeap Yi Ling 125436
Muhamad Syaiful Akmal Bin Abd Aziz 125025
Nazri Bin Ibrahim 125039

Lecturer:
Dr. Mohd Sharizal b.
Abdul Aziz
1.0 Introduction

A typical flat-plate collector is a metal box with a glass or plastic cover called
glazing on top and a dark-colored absorber plate on the bottom. The sides bottom of
the collector are usually insulated to minimize heat loss.

Figure 1: A flat-plate collector

Sunlight passes through the glazing and strikes the absorber plate, which heats
up, changing solar energy into heat energy. The heat is transferred to liquid passing
through pipes attached to the absorber plate. Absorber plates are commonly painted
with ‘selective coatings’, which absorb and retain heat better than ordinary black
paint. Absorber plates are usually made of metal, typically copper or aluminum
because the metal is a good heat conductor. Copper is more expensive, but it is a
better conductor and less prone to corrosion then aluminum. In locations with average
available solar energy, flat plate collectors are sized approximately one-half to one-
square foot per gallon of one-day’s hot water use.

2.0 Objectives

i) To investigate if this a good idea to use double glazing on solar collectors

in Malaysia by using average local weather data, heat transfer analysis and
cost consideration.
ii) To discuss the effect of glass thickness and number (single, double, triple
and quadruple glazing) on heat transfer.
3.0 Efficiency Analysis of single and double glazing on solar plate collectors
3.1 Technical Specifications of Solar Flat Plate Collector
DESCRIPTION / MODEL CLASSIC
Collector Model FP-PTY 80-2.0
Dimension: Length x width (m) 2.030 x 1
Collector Area (m2) 2.03
Aperture Area (m2) 1.84
Glass Cover
Cover Material 4.0mm tempered texture glass
Transmittance, τ 0.89
Absorber
Material 0.4mm Aluminum
Absorption Rate,α 0.94
Table 1 : Technical Specifications Of Panel : Classic
3.2 Average local weather data
3.2.1 Solar Radiation Intensity
Malaysia has been a tropical country that received with abundant of sunshine
throughout the year with an average of 12 hours of sunshine daily, whereby the high
solar radiation conditions usually from December to February.

Months kWh/m2 Months kWh/m2

January 7.2 July 5.3
February 8.1 August 5.1
March 6.8 September 4.4
April 6.0 October 4.6
May 5.1 November 5.7
June 5.4 December 6.9
    Avearge Intensity 5.9

Therefore annual mean solar radiation in Penang is 5.9 kWh/m2.

Therefore, average Solar Radiation Intensity, I
= 5.9 kWh/m2 .0.5day
5.9 x 10 00
=
24 x 0.5
= 491.67 W/m2
 3.2.2 Wind Velocity

Months Wind speed (m/s) Months Wind speed (m/s)

Jan 3.087 Jul 2.572
Feb 3.087 Aug 2.572
Mar 3.087 Sep 2.572
Apr 2.572 Oct 2.572
May 2.572 Nov 2.572
Jun 2.572 Dec 3.087
Average Wind speed 2.744
Table 2 : Tabular view for wind velocity per month for Penang (Malaysia)

3.2.3 Temperature

Figure 1: Temperature statistics for Penang (Malaysia)

Months Normal (°C) Months Normal (°C)

January 26.9 July 26.9
February 27.4 August 26.8
March 27.6 September 26.5
April 27.7 October 26.4
May 27.6 November 26.5
June 27.3 December 26.7
Avearge Temperature 27.025
Table 3 : Tabular view for temperature per month for Penang (Malaysia)

Summary
Solar radiation intensity, I (W/m2) 491.67
Average wind velocity, V (m/s) 2.744
Average ambient temperature, Ta (°C) 27.025
Table 4 : Summary of I, V and T
3.2 Heat transfer analysis

Several assumptions are made before the start of heat transfer analysis.
1. The solar flat plate collector is placed horizontally towards the sun.
2. The conduction heat loss from absorber plate to bottom and side loss of the
collectors were not considered.
3.2.1 Single Glaze System

Figure 2: Thermal resistance of single glaze flat plate collector

The Overall heat transfer coefficient of single glaze system was calculated using
thermal network concept.
1
Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient , U single = ; whereby
R1 + R2

R1 = Thermal Resistance between the ambient temperature to glass cover1

= combination of wind and radiation effects

1
=
hw +h a. g 1

R2 = Thermal Resistance between the glass cover1 to absorber plates

= combination of free convection and radiation heat transfer

1
=
hc +h g 1. p

According to manufacturer of Diamond Glass, the single glazing glass performance is

justified by its U-value (overall heat transfer coefficient). In the case of 4mm clear
glass single glazed,

U single = 5.8 W/m2 K

Solar Energy absorbed by Absorber Plate
Based on table 1: specification of solar flat plate collector,

collector area, Ac= 2.03 m2 ; Absorption Rate, α =0.94 ; Transmittance , τ =

0.89

Based on table 4, solar radiation intensity, I = 491.67 W/m2

Q solar =I A c ατ

= 491.67 (2.03) 0.94 (0.89)

= 835W

Heat loss from absorber plate

Based on table 4, ambient temperature, Ta = 27.025 °C

Based on the journal “Comparison Study of Solar Flat Plate Collector with Single and
Double Glazing Systems” by H.Vettrivel and P.Mathiazhagan,, temperature of glass1
surface T g 1 = 76 °C

Q loss=U single A c (T g 1−T a )

= 5.8 (2.03) (76 – 27.025)

= 576.63W

Useful Heat Gain from Absorber Plate

Quseful =Qsolar −Qloss

= 835 – 576.63

= 258.37W

Efficiency of solar plate collector

Q useful
η single= ×100%
Q solar

258.37
= ×100 %
835

= 30.94%
3.2.2 Double Glaze System

Figure 3: Thermal resistance of double glaze flat plate collector

Similarly, by using thermal network concept, the overall heat transfer coefficient of
double glaze system is denoted as U double
1
Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient , U double = ; whereby
R1 + R2 + R3

R1 = Thermal Resistance between the ambient temperature to glass cover1

= combination of wind and radiation effects

1
=
hw +hr .a . g 1

R2 = Thermal Resistance between the glass cover1 to glass cover2

= combination of free convection and radiation heat transfer

1
=
hc . g1 g 2+ hr . g 1 g 2

R3 = Thermal Resistance between the glass cover2 to absorber plates

= combination of free convection and radiation heat transfer

1
=
hc +hr . g 2. p
According to manufacturer of Diamond Glass, the double glazing glass performance
is justified by its U-value (overall heat transfer coefficient). In the case of 4mm clear
double glazed,

U double = 2.8 W/m2 K

Solar Energy absorbed by Absorber Plate

Based on table 1: specification of solar flat plate collector,

collector area, Ac= 2.03 m2 ; Absorption Rate, α =0.94 ; Transmittance , τ =

0.89

Based on table 4, solar radiation intensity, I = 491.67 W/m2

Qsolar =I A c ατ

= 491.67 (2.03) 0.94 (0.89)

= 835W

Heat loss from absorber plate

Based on table 4, ambient temperature, Ta = 27.025 °C

Based on the journal “Comparison Study of Solar Flat Plate Collector with Single and
Double Glazing Systems” by H.Vettrivel and P.Mathiazhagan,, temperature of glass2
surface , temperature of glass2 surface T g 2 = 65.7 °C

Qloss=U double A c (T g 2−T a )

= 2.8 (2.03) (65.7 – 27.025)

= 219.83W

Useful Heat Gain from Absorber Plate

Q useful =Q solar −Q loss

= 835 – 219.83

= 615.17W

Efficiency of solar plate collector

 Q useful
ηdouble = ×100%
Q solar

615.17
= ×100 %
835

= 73.67%

3.3 Cost Consideration

Solar panel cost varies depending on size and type of system. In the table below,
average price of solar PV system and estimated cost and return.

Roof space System Size Estimated Cost First Year Return

(m2) (kW) (RM) (RM)

8 1 14400 888

14 2 19200 1771.2

21 3 28800 2563.2

28 4 38410 3360

The price of double glazed glass will depend on its quality but overall the price is at
least 25%-35% more than single glaze glass. Although , solar panel cost is not cheap
but after solar panel installation the cost will be recovered back , and user can start
saving and make money out of it.
4.0 Discuss the effect of glass thickness and number (single, double, triple, and
quadruple glazing) on heat transfer
The thickness of glass would affect the heat transfer and the amount of useful energy
collected. The amount of solar radiated on the absorption plates would be lowered
when the glass is thicker due to the higher thermal resistance of the glass. However,
the effect of higher thermal resistance can be compensated with more heat can be
stored due to lower heat loss from the solar collector when the glass is thicker.

2.4 1.1

2.2 1 Heat transfer per

unit length of edge

U-value (W/Km²)
(W/m)
Heat transfer

2 0.9
Heat transfer
through glazing
system (W)
1.8 0.8
U-value through
one pillar
1.6 0.7
U-value of glazing
system
1.4 0.6
0.003 0.004 0.005 0.006

Thickness of glass panes (m)

Figure 4: The effect of glass sheet thickness on the thermal performance of an

evacuated glazing calculated by analytic model and finite volume models
Figure 4 shows the results of research done on the title of influence of insolation level
and glass thickness on the thermal performance of evacuated glazing. It can be seen
from Figure 4 that with increasing glass sheet thickness, the air to air U-value through
a single pillar decreases, this is because the greater glass thickness increases the
thermal resistance above the pillar ends.
With increasing glass sheet thickness, the heat transfer per unit length of the edge due
to edge conduction increases, its rate of increase is larger than the rate of decrease of
heat transfer through the pillar array, this leads to the heat transfer rate through the
whole glazing increasing, so the U-value of the whole glazing system increases.
Furthermore, in the study done by Ramadhani Bakari which the optimum thickness of
the glass is determined through experiment, we can see that as the glass becomes
thicker, the collector energy is higher.
 Figure 5: Graph of energy collected by different thickness of glass
Effect of Glass Number
The glazing acts to prevent heat losses from the collector plate to the environment via
convection and radiation. Theoretically, the heat loss from the top of the glazing layer
can be reduced by using multiple glass layers. However, from the study as shown
below, the efficiency of the thermal solar collector with different number of glass is
shown in the Figure 5 below.

Figure 6: Solar collector efficiency performance with different number of glasses

As we can see in the study, we found that it is contradicting with the prediction done
before. Unfortunately, the additional glass doesn’t improve the efficiency of the
solar collector with ‘single glazing’ and this result shows the same for triple and
quadruple glazing.
In fact, the effect of adding glass to the solar collector is decreasing the efficiency of
the solar collector. This might due to the addition of commercial glass panels acts as
resistance to the spread of energy of solar radiation transmitted into the absorption
plate. This shows that the addition of glass might decrease the efficiency of solar
collector as more radiation transmission is blocked than the heat losses prevented by
the glasses. However, this is only applied to the condition of using halogen lamp in
this study.

5.0 Conclusion

By comparing the performance between the single and double glazing glass, the
double glazing glass is definitely perform better than single glazing glass in terms of
storing the useful energy. The double glazing glass has 73.67% efficiency of solar
plate collector compared to single glazing glass which has 30.94% of efficiency of
solar collector. This indicates that the double gazing glass can capture more solar
radiation onto its absorption plate and lower amount of heat from the top of the solar
collector.
In terms of the cost of the single and double glazing glass, the double glazing glass is
usually more expensive than the single glazing glass. However, although the cost of
double glazing glass is high, it can be invested in long term because it has a higher
performance or efficiency than the single glazing glass.
Since Malaysia is tropical country with sufficient solar radiation throughout the whole
year, the double glazing glass is suitable because it reduces heat loss and capture more
heat from solar radiation through the greenhouse effect. Therefore, in term of the
suitability of solar flat plate collector in Malaysia, double glazing glass is more
suitable.
Reference:

1. https://www.yr.no/place/Malaysia/Penang/Nibong_Tebal/statistics.html
2. https://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weatherall.php3?
s=486010&cityname=Bayan+Lepas%2C+Penang
%2C+Malaysia&units=http://www.diamondglass.ie/single-double-triple-easy-123/
3. http://www.solarmate.com.my/classic_panel.php
4. H.Vettrivel and P.Mathiazhagan, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pondicherry
Engineering College, India: 2017, Comparison Study of Solar Flat Plate Collector with
Single and Double Glazing Systems
5. Kalidasan, B., and T. Srinivas. "Study on Effect of Number of Transparent Covers and
Refractive Index on Performance of Solar Water Heater." Journal of Renewable Energy
(2014).
6. Yueping Fang, P. C. Eames and B. Norton, 2000. Influence of Insolation Level and
Glass Thickness on the Thermal Performance of Evacuated Glazing.
7. Fang, Y., Eames, P.C. and Norton, B., 2007. Effect of glass thickness on the thermal
performance of evacuated glazing. Solar Energy, 81(3), pp.395-404.
8. Ihaddadene, N., Ihaddadene, R. and Mahdi, A., 2014, March. Effect of glazing number
on the performance of a solar thermal collector. In Renewable Energy Congress (IREC),
2014 5th International (pp. 1-6). IEEE.