Weight Consideration in the Design of Absorber Plates

Abstract

A preliminary investigation (that has to supported later by economic analysis) on the design of an absorber plate for use in a liquid-cooled flat plate solar collector is considered. The objective of the design is to maximize collector efficiency factor, F', while simultaneously minimizing the plate weight. By varying the plate thickness, tube spacing and tube diameter weight considerations indicate that tube spacing of 100 mm and plate thickness of 0.25 mm give a fairly large F' while the usage of 10 mm tubes give a reasonable low pressure loss and high inside tube heat transfer coefficient.