CFD Simulation of the Natural Convection of Pinned Plate Solar Absorber

This paper corresponds to the natural convection heat transfer study on Solar Panel
technology. Main principle of this study is to increase efficiency of solar panel rate
of absorption by studying heat transfer activity on solar absorber plate. Introduction
of modification on solar absorber plate induced variance heat transfer activity. The
study aims to exhibit effect of these variables modification on natural convection
heat transfer activity on solar absorber plate.
CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) Simulation is tool to study the fluid flow
properties by simulating model with various variables. In this experiment, ANSYS
14 is used for simulation and raw data of temperature and velocity at outlet imported
into calculation part which configured earlier. Final result of Nusselt number,
Rayleigh number, and Reynolds Number then tabulated in tables and plotted in
graphs. These dimensionless numbers represent heat transfer activity, which
discussed thoroughly.
There are four (4) manipulated variables in this experiment, 1) degree of absorber
plate inclination, 2) height of cone-shape pin installed on absorber plate, 3) passage
length of absorber plate and 4) solar irradiance input.
Finally, all the result then compared with other correlations configured earlier and
convection flow properties studied for comprehensive study.