Modeling and Optimization of Solar Flat Plate Collector

Solar flat plate collector (SFPC) is a heat exchanger that transforms radiant solar energy into thermal energy in the form of heated fluid. The performance of SFPC is very much dependent on operating/input and response/output parameter which mainly affects the efficiency of SFPC. This chapter presented the modeling and optimization of SFPC system parameters (solar radiation [I], wind velocity [V], ambient temperature [Ta], and Inlet Temperature [Ti]) for SFPC. Modified-fuzzy set theory with MOOSRA (M-FST-MOOSRA) was employed to optimize the SFPC system. Based on results, trail no. 14 (i.e., I = 825 W/m2, V = 1.4 m/s, Ta = 28.8oC, and Ti = 66.4oC) gave highest RPI among the other trail nos. and shows the optimal setting which results in higher efficiency and better performance for the SFPC. Further, parametric analysis is also done to determine the most important parameter followed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) analysis. Last, confirmatory test are conducted to verify and validate the proposed method with the experimental results.