Thermal performance of integrated collector storage solar water heater with corrugated absorber surface

An investigation is reported of the thermal performance of an integrated solar water heater with a corrugated absorber surface. The thermal performance of the rectangular collector/storage solar water heater depends significantly on the heat transfer rate between the absorber surface and the water, and on the amount of solar radiation incident on the absorber surface. In this investigation, the surface of the absorber is considered to be corrugated, with small indentation depths, instead of plane. The modified surface has a higher characteristic length for convective heat transfer from the absorber to the water, in addition to having more surface area exposed to solar radiation. The corrugated surface based solar water heater is determined to have a higher operating temperature for longer time than the plane surface. It means during the operation of water heater, more solar energy is converted into useful heat. However, this modification has reduces the efficiency of the system marginally. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.