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Solar Energy 109 (2014) 82–92
www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

Performance evaluation of a solar water heater integrated

with a PCM nanocomposite TES at various inclinations
Hussain H. Al-Kayiem a,⇑, Saw C. Lin b
a
Mech. Eng. Dept., Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 31750 Tronoh, Perak, Malaysia
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Politeknik Ungku Omar, 31400 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia

Received 10 June 2014; received in revised form 11 August 2014; accepted 12 August 2014

Communicated by: Associate Editor Yanjun Dai

Abstract

The present work presents and analyzes the results acquired from outdoor experimental measurements of a flat plate solar collector
integrated with built-in thermal energy storage. Paraffin wax as a PCM and a nanocomposite of paraffin wax with 1.0 wt% of 20-nm
nano-Cu particles were tested as the energy storage medium for TES. Three cases have been investigated, namely without PCM, with
PCM, and with the Cu-PCM nanocomposite, at 10°, 20°, and 30° inclination angles of each case. The system performance was evaluated
for water heating. The process involved a total change of the 60-l water tank at 7:00 PM and 7:00 AM. The use of water circulation of
0.5 kg/min and setting the collector at a 10° inclination angle was found to be the best operational condition. The measurement result of
the tank water temperature at 7:00 AM, after 24 h of operation, was 35.1 °C when the system operated without TES, while the operation
with the PCM and with the Cu-PCM nanocomposite resulted in 40.1 °C and 40.7 °C tank water temperatures, respectively. The best
performances analyzed were at 10°, with efficiencies of 47.6%, 51.1% and 52.0% for the cases without PCM, with PCM and with
Cu-PCM nanocomposite, respectively. This indicates that the enhancement of the system using TES with paraffin wax is considerable,
while further enhancement is not significant in the case of nanocomposite. Further measurements with various flow rates are
recommended to investigate the performance of the developed solar-TES integrated system.
Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: PCM; Solar collector; Nanocomposite; TES

1. Introduction during the night. As a solution, thermal energy storage

(TES) techniques have been proposed and evaluated from
The use of domestic water heating utilizing solar energy the points of view of the storage materials, the storage
for residential and industrial consumption is increasing in design, and the integration methods with the solar collector.
demand due to awareness of renewable energy technologies
and their beneficial impact on the environment. However,
1.1. Integrated solar-TES
the drawback of using solar energy systems is the non-
continuous operation due to the lack of solar irradiation
The advantage of using TES as an energy storage
method is the absorption of the extra heat at peak radia-
⇑ Corresponding author. tion hours that is released when the solar radiation is
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (H.H. Al-Kayiem), absent. The purpose of TES is to reduce the temperature
[email protected] (S.C. Lin). fluctuations during the peak solar radiation hours. The

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2014.08.021
0038-092X/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 H.H. Al-Kayiem, S.C. Lin / Solar Energy 109 (2014) 82–92 83

Nomenclature

Ac area of solar collector (m2) Subscripts

Cp specific heat (J/kg °C) c collector
CpLH specific latent heat (J/kg) PCM PCM
m mass (kg) Nanocomp. Cu-PCM nanocomposite
m_ mass flow rate (kg/s) W water
gc collector efficiency (%) l,PCM PCM during liquid phase
DT temperature different (°C) l,Nanocomp Cu-PCM nanocomposite during liquid
IT total solar radiation (W/m2) phase
Qu useful heat gain (W) s,PCM PCM during solid phase
T temperature (°C) s,Nanocomp Cu-PCM nanocomposite during solid
Bg, Pg random and systematic uncertainty phase
Wg total uncertainty or error (%)

second reason to use TES is to minimize the heat loss from PCM, which can offer high storage capacity per unit vol-
the solar collector by absorbing the excess heat from the ume and per unit mass. The melting of a phase change
absorber plate. As such, Kürklü et al. (2002) integrated material (PCM) enables the absorption of larger amounts
50 kg of paraffin into a 1.8 m  1.8 m solar collector area of heat, which can be excessively available during the day-
to investigate the system performance experimentally on time. This stored heat can then be released to the surround-
a 24-h basis. The experimental results indicated that 60% ing medium during the evening and night hours as the
collector efficiency was obtained. The collector also exhib- PCM changes its phase again from liquid to solid. Another
ited high heat loss of 12.5 W/m2 °C and 9.0 °C of temper- way to improve the heat storage medium is by using nano-
ature drop. To improve the performance, Khalifa et al. additives. Various nano-fluids and nanocomposites have
(2013) replaced the flat absorber plate with 6 circular pipe been reported, primarily for enhancement of the thermal
absorber plates and integrated it with 43 kg of paraffin conductivity. The thermal conductivity of paraffin wax
wax. The experimental investigation was performed from was enhanced by 35% and 40% when mixed with multi-
January 2012 until March 2012. The results indicated that walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) of 1% and 2%,
the collector efficiencies ranged from 45.0% to 54.0% with a respectively (Wang et al., 2009). The researcher doped 1%
1.6 m  0.8 m collector size. The solar collector top loss carbon nanotubes (CNTs) into an acid-based phase change
coefficients were 6.22 W/m2 °C, 6.39 W/m2 °C and material and found that the thermal conductivity was
6.23 W/m2 °C for the month of January, February and enhanced by 30.0% (Wang et al., 2010). Song and Youn
March, respectively. The high top loss coefficient in Febru- (2005) reported an enhancement of 100% when epoxy
ary was due to the high intensity of solar radiation, which was mixed with 1.5% carbon nanotube (CNT) mass
increased the absorber plate temperature compared to the fraction.
other months. Al-Hinti et al. (2010) stored paraffin wax The specific heat capacity, Cp, of base materials exhib-
inside the water storage tank instead of inside the solar col- ited enhancement by mixing with nanoparticles. Zhou
lector. A total of 49 kg of paraffin wax was used and con- and Zhao (2011) and Vajjha et al. (2010) reported
nected with 4 units of 1.5 m2 area for the solar collector. By decreased values of Cp of aqueous nanofluids. In contrast,
including the drawn off effect, the experimental investiga- Nelson et al. (2009) reported that the Cp of poly-alpha-ole-
tion indicated that 55 °C of hot water temperature can be fin (PAO) was enhanced by 50.0% when mixed with 0.6%
produced in the daytime, while 30 °C of hot water was of graphite nanoparticles.
obtained for the next morning. However, no collector effi- To date, nanofluid experimental investigations related to
ciency was reported. Recently, Bouadila et al. (2014) pub- solar collectors have been reported, but no attempt has
lished experimental results of a solar water heater integrated been made on the use of a nanocomposite as a PCM in
with latent heat TES in a configuration of two rectangular an integrated TES with solar collector experimental
cavities. They concluded that their TES approach extended work. Most of the reported works mainly focus on the
the operation of the system after sunset by approximately laboratory characterization of the nanocomposite material
5.0 h. The system efficiency varied from 25.0% to 35.0%. properties.
Yousefi et al. (2012a,b) used MWCNT and Al2O3 nano-
1.2. PCM in TES fluid of 0.2% and 0.4% weight fractions to improve the
fluid heat absorption. The experimental measurements
Thermal energy can be stored in the form of latent heat revealed that the use of 0.2% MWCNTs as a surfactant
by using suitable phase change materials (PCMs), such as improved the collector efficiency, but a decrease was found
inorganic PCM, organic PCM and organic–inorganic when 0.4 wt% was used.
84 H.H. Al-Kayiem, S.C. Lin / Solar Energy 109 (2014) 82–92

More details on the application of the nanofluids and the adhered to the upper surface of the absorber plate, and
nanocomposites in the TES and thermal energy transporta- 37 extended surface fins are fixed onto the lower surface
tion applications are reported by Al-Kayiem et al. (2013). of the absorber plate. The fins are used to increase the heat
The objective of the present work is to investigate the transfer surface area between the PCM or the nanocom-
possibility of enhancing the performance of a flat plate solar posite and the absorber plate.
collector for water heating by using TES, with an emphasis The paraffin is in direct contact with the lower surface of
on the effect of the inclination angles of the system. Hence, the absorber plate. During the daytime, a portion of the
three inclination angles were chosen, specifically 10°, 20° solar radiation heats the water in the riser pipes, whereas
and 30°, at three operational modes at each one of the incli- the rest of solar radiation melts the PCM or nanocompos-
nation angles. The operational modes are without PCM, ite in the TES as a charging process. During the nighttime,
with pure paraffin wax and with a nanocomposite of paraf- the discharging process occurs. The PCM or the nanocom-
fin wax with 1.0 wt% 20-nm nano-Cu additive. posite in the TES releases the stored thermal energy to heat
the water in the riser pipes. The configuration of the riser-
2. Experimental implementations absorber-fins is designed as a heat exchanger unit, which
exchanges thermal energy between the TES medium and
The experiments to evaluate the system performance the water. This system was tested at three inclination angles
were performed using an in-house designed and fabricated of 10°, 20° and 30° at a flow rate of 0.5 kg/min, which is the
setup. The laboratory experiments were performed using minimum capacity of the water the pump. The system per-
sophisticated equipment to characterize the PCM and the formance was evaluated for a full-day cycle.
PCM nanocomposite. The experimental measurement pro- The dimensions of the integrated solar collector are
gram was carried out over one year starting from May, shown in Fig. 2. Twenty-three thermocouples are attached
2011 until April, 2012. Eight (8) months, from May until to the solar collector for temperature measurements. A
December 2011, were accounted for the phase change GRAPHTEC data logger is used to capture the tempera-
material (PCM–TES) and four (4) months, from January ture signal for 24 h with an accuracy of 0.1 °C ± 0.8%. A
to April 2012, were accounted for the nanoparticles- SHENITEC ultrasonic flow meter is used to measure and
enhanced phase change material (nano-PCM–TES). control the water flow rate with an accuracy of
0.0001 m3/s ± 0.5%. Solar radiation is captured by
2.1. The experimental setup using KIMO solarimeter SL200 with an accuracy of
0.01 W/m2 ± 5%.
A PCM-integrated solar collector was designed and fab- The calculated paraffin wax required is 26 kg; however,
ricated for the experimental measurements in the solar because the volume of liquid paraffin wax can contract by
research site (SRS) in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS 12% of its volume when its phase changes from liquid to
(UTP). The site was located at the Eastern longitude 101° solid, the amount of paraffin wax added was in excess of
and Northern latitude 4.38° with an altitude of 32 m above 2 kg. The excess volume of paraffin wax added was to
sea level. The system is placed facing south to capture opti- ensure good surface contact area between the TES and
mum solar radiation. However, because of dust and rain the surface of the absorber plate. This good surface contact
water retention, it is recommended that the solar collector is required to improve the conduction/convection heat
be tilted between 5° to 10° higher than the latitude transfer between the TES and the absorber plate. Hence,
(Henderson et al., 2007; Kalogirou, 2004). Such arrange- a total of 28 kg of paraffin wax was used as the TES med-
ment is advised for low latitude regions like Malaysia ium for operation with the PCM.
where the investigations have been carried out. Based on independent investigations by Lin and
The energy storage system in the present experimental Al-Kayiem (2012), the results encouraged the use the
investigation is integrated with a flat plate collector in 1%wt nano Cu + Paraffin wax nanocomposite. An
one single unit, as shown in Fig. 1. Nine riser tubes are additional 1.0% weight fraction, i.e., 280 g of copper

Outer glazing Inner glazing Absorber plate 9 Riser tubes

37 Fins/extended surface PCM / nano-PCM Insulaon Casing

Fig. 1. Schematic view of the solar-TES integrated collector.

 H.H. Al-Kayiem, S.C. Lin / Solar Energy 109 (2014) 82–92 85

Ø 15 mm Ø 9 mm

Hot water Solar Collector

out Data Acquision system

Water Storage Tank

950 mm

1000 mm
Cold
water in

1000 mm

Fig. 2. Dimensions of the riser tubes and the absorber plate.

Ultrasonic Flow Sensor
nanoparticles, was added to the PCM for the nanocompos- Pump
ite. Twenty-nanometer copper powder was dispersed into
the paraffin wax because 20 nm is the smallest size of cop- Fig. 3. The experimental setup of the integrated solar collector-TES water
heater.
per nanoparticles that can be produced and supplied by the
Hongwu Nanometer Co. calculated by considering the systematic uncertainty, Bg,
In this experiment, 60 l of water is filled in the tank and and random uncertainty, Pg. The systematic uncertainty
circulated through the solar collector for 24 h. A 0.5-HP in the predicted efficiency values is due to the accumulated
pump is used to circulate water for 15 min and then is uncertainties in the measured mass flow rate, the tempera-
stopped for 30 min using a timer that is set for the 24-h ture differences of the water flowing in the risers, and the
experimentation period. This process helps to reduce the measured solar intensity, in the form
electricity consumption and provides a longer lifetime of " 2  2  2 #
the water pump. Table 1 shows the specifications and dg dg dg
Bg ¼  Bm_ þ  BDT þ  BI t
details of the integrated solar-TES collector system. dm_ dDT dI t
The 60 l of water is capable of supplying hot water for
four persons in a family (Srinivas, 2011; Veeraboina and which is predicted to be 0.2001.
Ratnam, 2012). Water is scheduled for withdrawal at The random error associated with data measurements is
7:00 AM and 7:00 PM, every day. All of the 60 l of water evaluated with 95% confidence levels, or 5% error, as:
is withdrawn and replaced by new fresh tap water every tS g
12 h. The integrated solar-TES experimental setup is shown Random Uncertainty; P g ¼
M 1=2
in Fig. 3.
where t is an empirical constant equal to 2.776 for data
repeatability of 5 times and 95% confidence level
2.2. Uncertainty analysis (Coleman and Steele, 2009), and Sg is the total error in
the efficiency prediction. The calculated random uncer-
To reduce the error in the results, each measurement tainty is 0.47. Finally, the maximum possible error in the
case is repeated over four days and the average values efficiency predicted values is obtained from
are considered for presentation in the figures and tables. qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
However, uncertainty analysis for the measurement was 2
W g ¼ ðBg Þ þ ðP g Þ
2
ð1Þ
Table 1
Specifications of the integrated solar-TES collector. The total maximum possible uncertainty, Wg, is
Specification Description Dimension
estimated to be ±0.5% of the efficiency values.
Glass covers Window glass 3 mm
Collector frame Wood 1.2 m  1.2 m  0.15 m 2.3. PCM Characterization
Frame Wood –
Absorber plate Copper 1.0 m  1.0 m  0.001 m The 20-nm copper powder was chosen as the nanoaddi-
Insulation Glass wool 100 mm tive because it is very small and has high thermal conduc-
Riser pipe Copper Ø 10 mm
tivity compared to other metal nanoparticles. In the
Header pipe Copper Ø 15 mm
Coating Black paint – experiment, a PerkinElmer DSC-1 device with an accuracy
Water tank PVC 180 l of 0.01 °C ± 5% is used to measure the melting point, solid-
PCM storage tank Copper 1.0 m  1.0 m  0.04 m ification point, latent heat and specific heat of the PCM
PCM Pure Paraffin wax 28 kg and Nano-PCM. The Ultrapycnometer 1000 device with
Nano-Cu powder 20-nm size 2.8 g
an accuracy of 0.0001 kg/m3 ± 0.02% is used to measure
86 H.H. Al-Kayiem, S.C. Lin / Solar Energy 109 (2014) 82–92

the density of the PCM and Nano-PCM. A clamp press The daytime heat source is solar radiation, whereas heating
thermal conductivity device with an accuracy of 0.01 W/ during the nighttime is obtained from the PCM.
m °C ± 0.5% is used to measure the thermal conductivity The prediction of the solar collector efficiency, g, is
of the PCM and Nano-PCM. The thermophysical property evaluated as below:
data are important for the calculation of the system effi- Day and nighttime efficiency, case 1 (without PCM),
ciencies presented in this section. The measurement results Qgain;w
of the properties of the paraffin wax and the 1.0 wt% nano- gc ¼ ð6Þ
Ac I T
Cu in PCM as the nanocomposite are presented in Table 2.
Eq. (6) is used to predict the daytime efficiency for all
3. Performance evaluation procedures cases without PCM, with PCM and with nano-PCM. The
nighttime efficiency prediction is represented below, where
The performance of the integrated solar-TES water hea- the heating of water is due to the discharged heat from the
ter is evaluated by determination of the system efficiency PCM or the nanocomposite.
using the energy and mass balances involved in the system. Day and nighttime efficiency, case 2 (with PCM),
The useful energy converted, during one hour, from the Qgain;w
solar radiation to useful energy to heat the water is: gc ¼      DT  ð7Þ
mC p DT
Ac I T þ 3600
þ mC PLH
3600 PCM
þ mC3600
P
s;PCM
l;PCM
Heat Gain; Qgain;w ¼ m_ w Cpw DT w ð2Þ
Day and nighttime efficiency, case 3 (with
The above general equation of useful heat gain can be nanocomposite).
further specified into three equations when the PCM or
Qu
the nanocomposite is involved. Because the paraffin wax gc ¼   mCPLH   
mC p DT mC p DT
and the nanocomposite are phase change materials, the Ac I T þ 3600
þ 3600 nanocomp:
þ 3600
l;nanocomp s;nanocomp:
thermal processes in these materials consist of the gain
ð8Þ
and loss of the sensible heat and the latent heat. Hence,
for one hour of operation, we have the following.
Heat gain when PCM is in the solid state, 4. Results and discussion
mCps ðT S2  T S1 Þ
Sensible Heat ¼ ð3Þ To reduce the uncertainty in the measurement results,
3600
the mean values of five days of data for each operational
Heat gain during phase change, case were collected for two months, starting May 2012 until
June 2012. The system was tested at a fixed water circula-
mCpLH
Latent Heat ¼ ð4Þ tion flow rate of 0.5 kg/min and with 10°, 20°, and 30°
3600
inclination angles of the collector, facing south.
Heat gain when PCM is in the liquid state, The ASHRAE Standard 93-2003 (2003) was followed as
the standard measurement and analysis procedure. Accord-
mCpl;PCM ðT l;PCM2  T l;PCM 1 Þ ing to ASHRAE 93-2003, at least four sets of repeatability
Sensible Heat ¼ ð5Þ
3600 data with a minimum of four symmetry points are required
before and after solar noon to plot the collector efficiency
where subscripts 1 and 2 are the measured temperatures of
graph. In this study, the data are recorded at 11:00 AM,
the TES materials at the start of the hour and at the end of
12:00 PM, 1:00 PM, 2:00 PM, 3:00 PM, 4:00 PM,
the hour, respectively.
8:00 PM and 9:00 PM as standard local time and are
The solar water heater operation in the experiment is
repeated for five different days. The plotted data at
examined over 24 h, for day and night time evaluation.
11:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 1:00 PM, and 2:00 PM are the times
before and after the solar noon. The data for 3:00 PM and
4:00 PM are used to plot the data because the TES was at
Table 2
its highest charging rate, while the data at 8:00 PM and
Thermophysical properties of the PCM and the nanocomposite of 1.0 wt%
nano-Cu blended with the PCM. 9:00 PM are at the highest discharging rate of the TES
period.
Thermophysical properties Storage medium
PCM Nanocomposite
4.1. Efficiency analysis of the system
Melting temperature (°C) 60.5 59.6
Solidification temperature (°C) 58.7 58.4
Latent heat (kJ/kg) 166.7 160.3 The collector efficiency, gc, for the overall daytime and
Specific heat, solid phase (kJ/kg °C) 1905 1850 nighttime for the three cases are plotted at 10°, 20° and
Specific heat, liquid phase (kJ/kg °C) 2200 2100 30° inclination angles in Figs. 4–6, respectively. The maxi-
Thermal conductivity (W/m°C) 0.172 0.226 mum efficiencies of the solar collector for case 1, case 2,
Density (kg/m3) 908.6 976.5
and case 3 are 68.8%, 69.0%, and 69.7%, respectively, for
 H.H. Al-Kayiem, S.C. Lin / Solar Energy 109 (2014) 82–92 87

operation at the 10° inclination angle, as shown in Fig. 4.

This observation is due to the higher absorber plate tem-
perature that increases the heat loss coefficient for the case
without PCM. For case 2 and case 3, some of the captured
solar radiation is converted to thermal energy, which trans-
fers to the water, and the other part is transferred to melt
and heat the PCM and nanocomposite in the TES. For
these cases, the absorber plate operating temperature can
be reduced and the heat loss to the surroundings can be
minimized by storing the thermal energy in the PCM and
in the nanocomposite. When the absorber plate is operat-
ing at high temperature, the heat loss from the absorber
plate will also be high (Bisen et al., 2011). Nevertheless,
the efficient solar collector will capture more solar radia-
tion rather than lose it to the environment through convec-
tion, conduction and radiation.
Fig. 4. Collector efficiency at a flow rate of 0.5 kg/min and an inclination
The results of the system efficiency at the 20° inclination
angle of 10°.
angle are plotted in Fig. 5. A slightly lower efficiency was
observed in the case of the 20° inclination angle compared
to the 10° inclination angle. This difference is due to the
lower solar radiation captured by the solar collector at
the 20° inclination angle.
By setting the inclination of the collector to 30°, further
reduction in the efficiency was observed, as shown in the
plots in Fig. 5. Due to the lower solar radiation harvested,
the solar collector performance is reduced; the mean effi-
ciency values are reduced to 37.1%, 39.0% and 39.6% for
case 1, case 2, and case 3, respectively.
Table 3 summarizes the results in terms of the maximum
and average efficiency values at each tested case for the
three tested angles. The best efficiency values are recorded
at the 10° inclination angle when the solar water heater is
integrated with the nanocomposite TES, i.e., case 3. In this
case, the maximum efficiency is 69.7%, and the mean day
Fig. 5. Collector efficiency at a flow rate of 0.5 kg/min and an inclination
and night efficiency is 52.0%.
angle of 20°. Despite the thermal conductivity of the nanocomposite
being increased to 0.22 W/m2 °C compared to 0.176 W/
m2 °C for the pure paraffin, the system efficiency is
improved only slightly by approximately 0.9%. This slight
improvement is due to the low percentage of nano-Cu sus-
pended at the top layer of the nanocomposite. The hetero-
geneous nature of the mixture of paraffin wax and copper
nanoparticles caused a small percentage of the suspension
of copper nanoparticles to be on top of the mixture. This
heterogeneity indicates that the interactions of the mole-
cules are weak, which reduces the enhancement of the ther-
mophysical properties of the nanocomposite, particularly
the thermal conductivity.
Operation of the system with the nanocomposite, i.e.,
case 3, with 10° inclination exhibited the best enhancement
of the collector efficiency, for which the overall efficiency is
improved by 8.5% compared to case 1, i.e., the case without
the contribution of TES. The integrated solar water heater
configurations have efficiencies ranging from 51.1% to 52%
at the 10° inclination angle, which are higher compared
Fig. 6. Collector efficiency at a flow rate of 0.5 kg/min and an inclination with the system reported by Bouadila et al., 2014, which
angle of 30°. exhibited efficiencies ranging from 25.0% to 35.0%. The
88 H.H. Al-Kayiem, S.C. Lin / Solar Energy 109 (2014) 82–92

Table 3
Summary of the measured efficiencies of the system at all integration operational cases at inclination angles of 10°, 20°, and 30°.
Case Max eff. (%) % Of improvement Overall eff. (%) % Of improvement
At 10° inclination
Case 1 68.8 – 47.6 –
Case 2 69.0 0.3 51.1 6.8
Case 3 69.7 1.3 52.0 8.5
At 20° inclination
Case 1 65.8 – 44.8 –
Case 2 66.2 0.6 47.6 5.9
Case 3 66.8 1.5 48.0 6.7
At 30° inclination
Case 1 56.0 – 37.1 –
Case 2 57.0 1.8 39.0 4.9
Case 3 58.0 3.4 39.6 6.3

reason for this improvement is that in the present design,

the absorber has a larger contact area with the PCM or
nanocomposite through the extended surfaces in the lower Table 4
Performance results of the integrated solar-TES water heater.
surface of the absorber.
h FRsa FRUL (W/m2 °C)
4.2. Performance analysis of the system Case 1: Without PCM
10° 0.688 5.831
20° 0.658 5.631
The instantaneous performance of the system is evalu- 30° 0.560 5.365
ated through an analysis of the heat removal factor and Case 2: With PCM
the overall heat loss coefficient. The FRUL represents the 10° 0.690 5.369
heat loss from the solar collector, which the researchers 20° 0.662 5.235
are attempting to minimize, while FRsa represents the heat 30° 0.570 5.144
Case 3: Nanocomposite
absorbed from the solar collector. A higher value of FRsa 10° 0.697 5.291
means a higher instantaneous efficiency of the solar collec- 20° 0.668 5.197
tor. In contrast, a lower value of FRUL means a higher 30° 0.580 5.088
instantaneous efficiency of the solar collector (Duffie and
Beckman, 2006). FRUL and FRsa are important parameters
for the evaluation of the performance of the solar collector. loss to the surroundings. Cases 2 and 3 have a lower absor-
The two parameters are commonly used in the prediction ber plate temperature because part of the thermal energy
of the solar collector instantaneous efficiency, as from solar radiation is transferred to the PCM and to the
nanocomposite, respectively, which prevents the absorber
Ac F R ðI T ðsaÞ  U L ½T i  T a Þ
gi ¼ ð9Þ plate from overheating, thereby minimizing the heat loss
Ac I T to the surroundings.
which can be arranged as For increased inclination, the overall heat loss coefficient
  parameter and heat removal factor exhibited decreases in
Ti  Ta
gi ¼ F R U L þ F R sa ð10Þ their values. This decrease is due to the lower solar radiation
IT
intensity harvested by the absorber, which reduces the heat
Eqs. (6)–(8) are manipulated to estimate FR and UL for absorption coefficient. Although the system at 10° inclina-
each case by fitting each equation to the linear equation of tion exhibits a higher value of heat loss coefficient, the value
the form of the heat removal factor also increased. When the TES is
y ¼ F R U L x þ F R sa filled with PCM and nanocomposite, the heat removal fac-

tor is further improved by absorbing the excess heat from
Ti  Ta
where y ¼ gi and x ¼ the absorber plate. Thus, PCM and the nanocomposite help
IT to minimize the heat loss to the surroundings by reducing
where Ti = inlet water temperature, Ta = ambient temper- the absorber plate temperature.
ature and IT = hourly solar radiation. It can be concluded that the integration of the TES, in
The values of the performance parameters FRULx and the configuration of a single compact unit, not only extends
FRsa are tabulated in Table 4 for the three TES cases at the operation time after sunset but also during the daytime,
the inclination angles of 10°, 20°, and 30°. Values of the the transfer of the thermal energy to the TES material
heat loss coefficient for case 1 are higher than those of case reduces the temperature of the absorber plate. Accordingly,
2 and case 3. The reason for this difference is due to the losses to the environment are reduced and the system per-
higher absorber plate temperature that causes higher heat formance is improved.
 H.H. Al-Kayiem, S.C. Lin / Solar Energy 109 (2014) 82–92 89

Fig. 7. Absorber plate and temperatures at the 10° inclination angle for the three operational cases.

4.3. Thermal analysis of the system paraffin wax and the nanocomposite temperature could
reach as high as 60.5 °C and 61.0 °C, at approximately
Fig. 7 shows the absorber plate temperature during 24 h, 3:00 PM. Subsequently, the TES temperature starts to
starting from 7:00 AM to the next day at 7:00 AM, for the reduce gradually until the time of the water change at
case of 10° inclination. The figure displays the results of the 7:00 PM. After changing the water, the TES temperature
hourly measurements of the three cases of the TES. Each reduces steeply and reaches an equilibrium state at approx-
data point represents an average of at least four days of imately midnight. From 7:00 PM until 7:00 AM, the TES
repeatability. The absorber temperature was sharply fall discharges heat to increase the temperature of the water
after 7.00 AM and 7.00 PM and continue falling for in the risers through the absorber plate.
around one hour. This is because the sharp reduction in The measurement results of the water temperature in the
the temperature of the replaced water in the water tank. tank during the day, on an hourly basis, are plotted in
The transfer of thermal energy from the absorber to the Figs. 9–11 for case 1, case 2, and case 3, respectively, to
water in the risers is not immediate and the heating process reveal the effect of the inclination angle on the water heat-
requires some time to reach thermal balance. The results ing. Each data point represents the mean of four days of
indicate that the absorber plate temperatures for case 1 data acquisition. For the three cases of TES filling, the
are higher than those of the other two cases during the day- highest tank water temperatures are recorded from
time from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. This result is because all of 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM. The maximum hot water tempera-
the solar radiation reaching the absorber plate is converted tures generated in case 1 are 59.1 °C, 57.1 °C and 52.5 °C
to thermal energy in the absorber plate. In cases 2 and 3, for 10°, 20° and 30° inclinations, respectively, as shown
part of the solar radiation is charged to the PCM and the in Fig. 9. Fig. 10 shows case 2 results, where the maximum
nanocomposite, causing the PCM to melt. As discussed hot water temperatures obtained are 57.4 °C, 55.7 °C and
previously, this melting will increase the losses to the sur- 51.5 °C for 10°, 20° and 30° inclinations, respectively.
roundings of the system. After sunset, a considerable differ- Fig. 11 shows the case 3 results, where the highest hot
ence is found in the measured absorber temperature among water temperatures are 58.0 °C, 55.6 °C and 51.7 °C, which
the cases. After 6:00 PM and until 7:00 AM the next morn- are only slightly different from the results of case 2. The
ing, the absorber plate temperatures for cases 2 and 3 are temperature difference between case 1 and case 2 was
higher than for case 1. During the nighttime, the TES ±1.7 °C because part of the solar radiation was absorbed
releases thermal energy to the absorber plate, which by the PCM and the PCM nanocomposite, respectively.
enhances the operation of the system, where a higher water During the nighttime, case 2 and case 3 performed better
temperature is obtained, as will be described in the next than case 1. The results indicated that at 10°, 20° and 30°
section. The maximum absorber plate temperatures are inclinations, the hot water temperatures retained the next
recorded at approximately 2:00 PM, with values of morning were 40.2 °C, 39.0 °C and 35.2 °C, respectively,
62.7 °C, 62.1 °C, and 61.0 °C for case 1, case 2, and case for case 2, and the values for 10°, 20° and 30° inclinations
3, respectively, where the measured solar intensity is at a were 40.8 °C, 39.2 °C and 35.3 °C, respectively, for case 3.
maximum value of 762.0 W/m2. A slight increase of 0.5 °C was observed due to improve-
The other thermal performance indicator is the TES ment of the thermal conductivity of the nanocomposite.
behavior. Temperature measurements for paraffin wax, The case 1 hot water temperatures reported the next
i.e., case 2, and the nanocomposite, i.e., case 3, are shown morning were 35.1 °C, 33.9 °C and 32.2 °C for 10°, 20°
in Fig. 8 for a full day record. During the daytime, the and 30° inclinations, respectively. The contribution of
90 H.H. Al-Kayiem, S.C. Lin / Solar Energy 109 (2014) 82–92

Fig. 8. TES temperatures at 10° inclination angle, for the operational cases of the use of the PCM and the nanocomposite.

Fig. 9. Hourly measurements results of the water temperature in the tank at 10°, 20°, and 30° inclination angles for case 1.

Fig. 10. Hourly measurement results of the water temperature in the tank at 10°, 20°, and 30° inclination angles for case 2.

TES to the solar water heater indicated that the hot water tem- water at 7:00 PM in the water tank. For the 10° inclination
perature can be retained the next morning to enable the tem- angle, the water temperature drop after the water change is
perature to be increased by 5.7 °C when compared to case 1. from 52.6 °C to 36.5 °C, from 54.9 °C to 39.3 °C, and
The noticeable enhancement gained from the TES is from 54.7.3 °C to 35.4 °C for case 1, case 2, and case 3,
clear in the measured temperatures after changing the respectively.
 H.H. Al-Kayiem, S.C. Lin / Solar Energy 109 (2014) 82–92 91

Fig. 11. Hourly measurement results of the water temperature in the tank at 10°, 20°, and 30° inclination angles for case 3.

For case 1, the water temperatures increased from 36.5 (4) After the water was changed at 7:00 PM, the inte-
at 8:00 PM to 38.6 at 9:00 PM due to the small thermal grated system produced hot water at 40.1 °C and
energy transfer from the absorber to the water in the risers. 40.7 °C the next morning by utilizing the discharged
After 9:00 PM, the water temperature started to drop by thermal energy from the TES overnight.
approximately 1.5–2.0 °C per hour, reaching its minimum
value at 7:00 AM. The mean value of the water tempera- Acknowledgments
ture in the night is approximately 35.0 ± 3.5 °C. However,
in case 2 and case 3, the water temperatures increase again The main author expresses his thanks to the Malaysian
after 8:00 PM to over 40.0 °C. The thermal energy stored in Ministry of Higher Education for sponsoring the scholar-
the TES is released to the water in the risers and maintains ship of his Ph.D. study. Additionally, the authors acknowl-
the tank water temperature over 40.0 °C until the next edge the Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS for their
morning. technical and financial support to conduct the research
By inspecting the water temperature in the tank after under the internal research grant STIRF 44/08-09.
7:00 PM for the three cases, it is quite clear that the TES con-
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