THE INVERTED TRICKLE FLAT PLATE SOLAR COLLECTOR

A new method, called the inverted water trickle method is developed for use in flat-plate collectors. This method basically depends on passing the heal transfer liquid on the back of the absorber plate. The liquid is kept attached to the plate by means of wire screen welded to it. Surface tension forces between the absorber-wire screen combined surface and the liquid prevents the latter from falling off the surface. A back plate, however, is provided below the trickling water, but without touching it. The purpose of this plate is to protect the insulation from wetting by drops that might fall from the trickle. In this method, the problem of conducting the heat through the width of the absorber plate is solved by eliminating it. Consequently the fin efficiency of this new configuration equals to 1.0. This approach resulted in a simple, cheap and far more efficient design. A collector based on the above idea is designed, built and tested. The performance of the new design is superior to the conventional one...