Relation between Collector Efficiency Factor and the Centre to Centre Distance of Absorber Tubes of Solar Flat-Plate Collector

Solar energy collectors are a special kind of heat exchangers that transform solar radiation energy to internal energy of the transport medium. The major component of any solar system is the solar collector. This is a device which absorbs the incoming solar radiation, converts it into heat, and transfers this heat to a fluid (usually air, water, or oil) flowing through the collector. The measurement of the flat plate collector performance is the collector efficiency. The collector efficiency is the ratio of the useful energy gain to the incident solar energy over a particular period of time. The useful energy gain is strongly depends on the collector efficiency factor and this factor directly influenced by few parameters i.e. the centre to centre distance of absorber tubes W , thickness of absorber plate δ and heat loss coefficient UL. This paper has been focused on the relation between W with collector efficiency factor of serpentine tube solar flat-plate collector. This study shows that if we increase the W then Fˈ decreases.