Numerical Analysis on Heat Gain of Liquid from Ambient Air with Various Fin Heights and Pitches of Fin-and-Tube Heat Exchanger in Hybrid Solar Collector

Solar assisted heat pump system uses solar thermal energy as a heat source of evaporator of heat pump. So, COP can be enhanced as well as collector efficiency. For improving performance of this system, some research about hybrid solar collector that has fin-and-tube heat exchanger has been conducted. This collector can get a thermal energy from ambient air for liquid heating, so heated liquid can be used as a heat source of evaporator in heat pump even the solar radiation is not enough. In this study, numerical analysis was conducted for confirming heat gain of liquid according to fin height and pitch of fin-and-tube heat exchanger in collector. As a result, higher heat gain was obtained on lower fin height and narrow fin pitch, but the pressure drop also increased with increment of heat gain. Thus the JF factor considering both heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop was investigated and the maximum value was shown when the fin height and pitch were 40mm and 45mm. So it is considered that this installation condition has a highest heat transfer improvement when comparing with pressure drop. However heat gain of liquid at this condition was less than the other installation conditions of fin pitch on same height. Then, after establishing a proper minimum heat gain of liquid, actual production and experiment of collector will be conducted with fin height and pitch showing maximum JF factor and satisfying selected minimum heat gain of liquid on the basis of results of this study.