Abstract
A transpired solar-collector is a device, which is attached to building walls, that uses solar energy to provide preheated fresh outdoor-air before it is drawn into the building through the ventilation system. A transpired collector consists of a heat-collection plate with infiltration holes, an air layer, an air outlet, and other auxiliary components. A transpired solar collector with non-uniform holes is investigated in this paper, and a physical model for it is developed. The model is then simplified to enable effective simulation and subsequently verified by experiments to evaluate the reliability of the simulation results. Furthermore, a multi-factor sensitivity analysis of a transpired solar collector, with respect to airflow and thermal characteristics, is performed using a numerical simulation. In addition, the application of the device is combined with the thermal requirements of the actual building. The results show that the air-layer thickness has the strongest effect on the heat-collection efficiency, which can be increased to 93% when thickness is 30 mm and height ratio is 0.30. This effect is obvious only in the case of non-uniform perforation. Although a high air-velocity can increase the daily heat-exchange by 595.2 W, the average daily air-supply temperature decreases by 34.2 °C. Even though the temperature-target may not be reached when more fresh air is introduced, the reduction of the fresh air heating-load is substantial.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program (No. 2016YFC0700400), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51678468), and the key research and development program of Shaanxi Province, China (2018ZDCXL-SF-03-01).
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Wang, D., Gao, M., Gao, Q. et al. Experimental and numerical study of the airflow and thermal characteristic of non-uniform transpired solar collector. Build. Simul. 13, 1305–1319 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-020-0634-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-020-0634-1