| Author | De Silva, Induruwage Prabhath Darshana |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.ET-85-16 |
| Subject(s) | Solar heating--Simulation methods
|
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Sinusoidal representation of the monthly mean diurnal variation of solar radiation for both horizonal and for equator facing tilted surfaces is proposed. The sinusoidal functions so constructed are found to give very good agreement with the empirical correlations suggested by Collares-Pareira and Rabl, from actual data. Consequently, the necessity of using complex correlations for transforming horizontal radiation onto tilted surfaces is reduced. Also a new procedure to determine the optimum angle of equator facing tilted collectors has been proposed, which can be applied to any time periods. (month, season of year) The single equation suggested, fits very well with the recommendation given by Evans. For widespread applications of solar energy, it is essential to have design methods by which solar energy installations can be sized rationally with a minimum of computational effort and expense. Though several such design methods have already been proposed, they are either system or load specific and cannot be used as versatile design methods. Two new methods, namely MIRA developed by Reddy and TMD Proposed by Feuermann et al. are presented, Compared and analysed for a wide range of system configurations and load patterns with existing radiation data for Bangkok. The predictions by both these methods are in good agreement with the hour by hour detailed simulation over the total time period and also with those of the o-f Chart method. For an example, in the hot water load considered in RUN 1, MIRA is within 2% of detailed simulation results and TMU is within about 4% but these figures change with the different input parameters. The methods require very little computational effort and data base as compared to standard detailed hour by hour computer simulation, while at the same time yielding the relevant system performance data required for solar system sizing. For certain RUNS, detailed simulation consumed about 60 times more CPU time, than TMD and MIRA do. The applications and the reliability for various input parameters (like storage volume, diurnal load pattern etc.) are also discussed |
| Year | 1985 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Other Field of Studies (No Department) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Energy Technology (ET) |
| Chairperson(s) | Reddy, T. A. |
| Examination Committee(s) | Prida Wibulswas ;Lasnier, France |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Canadian International Development Authority |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1985 |