Three dimensional heat transfer analysis of combined conduction and radiation in honeycomb transparent insulation
Kessentini, H., Capdevila, R., Castro, J., Oliva, A. and Bouden, C.
2014 Solar Energy, Volume 105, July 2014, Pages 58-70
Transparent insulation materials; Numerical simulation; Validation with experiments; Parametric study
Kessentini, H., Capdevila, R., Castro, J., Oliva, A. and Bouden, C., (2014), "Three dimensional heat transfer analysis of combined conduction and radiation in honeycomb transparent insulation", Solar Energy, Volume 105, July 2014, Pages 58-70.
Abstract
In this work a three dimensional heat transfer analysis of honeycomb Transparent Insulation Materials (TIM) destined for improving the efficiency of flat plate solar collectors is performed. The cellular and repetitive nature of the TIM structure has allowed simplify the problem and simulate a single isolated cell with opaque and adiabatic walls. The combined heat transfer by radiation and conduction across the isolated cell is treated by means of the solution of the energy equation in its three dimensional form which is coupled to the Radiative Transfer Equation (RTE). The Finite Volume Method is used for the resolution of the RTE. The numerical results are compared to experimental measurements of the heat transfer coefficient on various honeycomb TIM given by different authors in the literature showing a reasonable agreement. The 3D simulations have allowed to study in detail the thermal behavior of the TIM and to understand the real physics of the problem. Finally, a parametric study is conducted in order to investigate the effect of the variation of the most relevant optical and dimensional parameters of the TIM on the heat transfer.
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