Performance evaluation of single-glazed and double glazed collectors/regenerators for an open cycle absorption solar cooling system

Feasibility for an open-cycle absorption solar cooling 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 TMY data of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Three C/R models are considered in this study. They are the natural and the forced convection single-glazed Cs/Rs and 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 that the solar C/R is the key component of the cooling system and the open-cycle absorption system is a sound solar cooling system. It is shown that the double glazed forced convection C/R gives a better system performance. The simulation study is to evaluate the seasonal solar fraction, which is defined as F=(solar cooling load)/(total cooling load) Firstly, all three C/R models are simulated under the base case conditions. The seasonal averaged solar fraction for three models are found to be 0.7, 0.75 and 0.79, respectively, while the corresponding seasonal averaged C/R efficiencies are 15.7%, 18.4% and 20.6%. The double-glazedmore » forced convection system performs better than the other two systems. This is consistent with the results of previous experimental studies for the C/R. A nearly linear relationship between the C/R efficiency and the solar fraction is shown. 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. The solar fraction is relatively insensitive to the C/R area after a critical value is reached. A similar dependence is also found in other solar absorption air conditioning system alternatives.« less

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