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Measurement and simulation of flow rate in a water-in-glass evacuated tube

solar water heater

Article  in  Solar Energy · February 2005

DOI: 10.1016/j.solener.2004.09.005

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 MEASUREMENT AND SIMULATION OF FLOW RATE IN A WATER-IN-GLASS EVACUATED TUBE
SOLAR WATER HEATER

Indra Budihardjo, Graham L. Morrison and Masud Behnia

School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia,
Phone +61 2 9385 5127, Fax +61 2 9663 1222, e-mail z2198130@student.unsw.edu.au

Abstract - This paper evaluates the characteristics of water-in-glass solar water heaters including
assessment of the circulation rate through single ended tubes. The effect of circulation rate through
direct-coupled water-in-glass evacuated tubes on the degree of stratification in the storage tank is
examined. The effect of varying solar concentration and tank temperature on the flow rate through an
opened tube into the storage tank is also considered. A numerical model of the heat transfer and fluid
flow inside a water-in-glass tube connected to a horizontal tank has been developed, assuming no
interaction between adjacent tubes. Flow measurement using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) has been
undertaken to validate the numerical model. The experimental rig consists of a single full-scale tube
coupled to a storage tank. Simulation results show that the natural convection flow rate in the tube is high
enough to de-stratify the storage tank and that the tank temperature strongly affects the circulation flow
rate through the tubes.

1. INTRODUCTION

The world market for solar water heaters has expanded

significantly in the last decade. As a result, there have
been large-scale developments of new-technology and
improved-quality products. The development of low cost
manufacturing processes for evacuated tubular solar
collectors has been the main feature of recent changes in
the solar water heater market. Evacuated tube solar
collectors have better performance than flat plate solar
collectors in particular for high temperature operations.
One of the most significant developments is the use of
double-glass evacuated tubular solar water heaters, which
now comprise 65% of 6.5million m2/year solar water
heater market in China. Production capacity of all-glass
evacuated tubes in China was estimated to be more than
40,000,000 tubes/year in 2001 [China Industry, 2001]. Fig. 1. Outdoor test facility at School of Mechanical
Water-in-glass solar water heaters consist of all-glass and Manufacturing Engineering, UNSW, showing a
vacuum tubes inserted directly into a storage tank, with water-in-glass solar water heater being tested.
water in direct contact with the absorber surface. The
major difficulty with the application of all glass
evacuated tube collectors is the problem of heat The initial stage of this study involves the measurement
extraction from the long thin single-ended absorber tube. of the daily performance of this type of solar water
Many heat extraction methods such as heat-pipes, U-tube heating system, and was reported by Morrison et al.
flow tube or integrated collector/storage in the tube have (2001). The system being tested (Figure 1) consists of 21
been developed [International Energy Agency, 1988], water-in-glass evacuated tubes, directly coupled to a 150-
however, the most successful is the simple water-in-glass litre horizontal tank. The tubes are 1.42 m long, have
concept. Heat extraction from a water-in-glass evacuated absorber diameter of 37 mm and are mounted over a
tube is driven by natural circulation of the fluid between diffuse reflector. The tube centerline spacing is 70 mm.
the collector and the storage tank. The limitation of this This commercial water-in-glass water heater was
concept is that it can only be used for a low-pressure assessed for operation as a solar preheater using the
system, as the tubes can only withstand a few metres of ISO9459-2 (1994) test method and potential difficulties
water head. in heat extraction from the long single ended
thermosyphon absorber tubes were reported [Morrison et
al. (2001) & Gaa et al. (1996)]. Further experimental simulations presented here. The simulation of the whole
studies were presented in Budihardjo et al. (2002) who collector with 21 tubes is not possible due to limitation in
evaluated the collector optical efficiency and the heat loss computational time, therefore in the initial stage of the
characteristics both from the individual tubes and the project simplified computational models are needed.
storage tank. The experimental results from the
individual components were combined in a computer
simulation model developed in TRNSYS, to obtain long-
term predictions of system performance for a wide range
of meteorological conditions, loads, load profiles and
operating set points. Numerical simulations were
performed to investigate the flow structure and the
circulation rate in a system of tubes connected to a
horizontal tank. The results indicated that the tube inlet
conditions have a strong influence on the circulation rate.
In this paper, an evaluation of the rate of natural
circulation in water-in-glass evacuated tubes is presented.
Little has been published about the natural convection in
and out of collector tubes with direct connection to a
reservoir. Although measurements of circulation rate
through the evacuated tube have been reported in Yin et
al. (1984) and Harding and Yin (1985), those are for a Fig. 2. Heat transfer mechanism and the resulting
system with indirect connection to a tank via a copper natural circulation in water-in-glass collector.
manifold. In the current study a Computational Fluid
Dynamics (CFD) package, FLUENT 6 is used to simulate
the heat transfer and fluid flow in the collector tubes. The
numerical model has been validated against experimental
results obtained by optical flow measurement (PIV).
Natural circulation rate through an individual tube under
a number of operating conditions is presented.

2. NUMERICAL MODELLING

Heat transfer and fluid flow processes in a water-in-

glass solar water heater are illustrated in Figure 2. Water
in the tubes is heated by solar radiation received by the
absorber surface, creating a stream of hot fluid rising
along the top section of the tube, replaced by colder fluid
from the tank entering the bottom section of the tube. The
rate of natural circulation through the tubes depends on
the solar flux, heat distribution around the tube and
storage-tank temperature. The effect of varying heat
distribution on the natural convection flow rate inside an
inclined tube with direct connection to a tank has not
been reported elsewhere. The distribution of solar
radiation falling onto the absorber surface of an
evacuated tube collector depends on a number of factors,
namely the tube diameter, tube spacing and backing
reflector, whether it is a concentrating reflector or a
diffuse reflector. Cabanillas et al. (1995) utilised a
photodiode measuring device and presented a plot of heat
flux distribution measured inside an evacuated tube of 30
mm diameter, mounted 70 mm above a flat reflective
surface (Figure 3). The result was similar to the ray-
tracing simulation result reported by Window (1983).
For solar irradiation of 1 kW/m2 Cabanillas’ results show
that the average absorbed heat flux around the tube
circumference is approximately 500 W/m2. This value is
used as a benchmark heat input throughout the
Fig. 3. Radiation intensity around the
circumference of an evacuated tube collector
mounted over a diffuse reflector (adopted from
Cabanillas et al., 1995).
The first option is to simulate a single-ended tube with a
constant pressure boundary condition on the open end
(Figure 4). Open thermosyphons have been studied
extensively by Lighthill (1953) and extended by Leslie
(1959) and Japikse and Winter (1971). Chan and Tien
(1985) and Polat and Bilgen (2002) investigated laminar
natural convection in a two-dimensional open cavity,
both incorporated a constant pressure boundary condition
across the open surface. The tube being simulated has a
diameter 37 mm and length 1.42 m, inclined at 45° to
vertical. A constant pressure boundary condition is
implemented on the open end of the tube, whilst the
sealed end is assumed to be adiabatic. In this simulation,
the in-flow and out-flow from the tube domain were
assumed to be normal to the surface. In order to
investigate the effect of heat distribution, the tube model
was simulated for a constant total heat input of 82W with
heat distributions between the top half and bottom half of
the tube circumference of 100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75 and
0:100.
Fig. 4. Open thermosyphon computational
domain showing various boundary conditions
used.
Fig. 5. Single-tube coupled to a section of a horizontal
tank.
Although the open thermosyphon model has been
extensively used in various studies, a lower circulation
rate resulting from the false boundary condition has been
reported in Budihardjo et al., 2002. It indicates that tank
thermal condition has a significant effect on the
circulation rate through the tubes. A single-tube and
horizontal tank model as shown in Figure 5 has also been
simulated to investigate the effect of tank temperature
variation on the natural convection rate through the tube.
In this stage of the research, simulation is limited to a
single tube, assuming the circulation rate through the
individual tube is not affected by the flow from the
adjacent tubes. The computational domain consists of a
tube coupled to a section of horizontal tank, diameter 360
mm and width 100 mm. The model was simulated at
three tank temperatures, 300 K, 313 K and 323 K.
Overall tank heat loss coefficient of U=0.79 W/m2K
obtained from the outdoor measurement (Budihardjo et
al., 2002) is incorporated into the model. Throughout the
simulations, the discretisation scheme used to compute
momentum is second order upwind, and the method of
pressure-velocity coupling is SIMPLEC. As the
temperature range being investigated in the simulation is
broad the Boussinesq approximation cannot be used to
calculate the buoyancy. Therefore variations of all fluid
properties are modeled using piecewise linear functions
over the range of temperatures considered here.
3. VALIDATION OF CFD MODEL
Although CFD techniques are widely accepted such
numerical models need to be validated against
experiments in order to gain some confidence in the
results. The flow in the evacuated tube is driven by
natural convection and the magnitude is relatively low,
therefore a non-intrusive measurement is required. Laser
Doppler Anemometer (LDA) has been used by Gaa et al.
(1996) to measure the axial velocity at the central vertical
plane of the opening. PIV has an advantage over LDA in
that the instantaneous flow field over an extensive area
can be determined at a single measurement. Whilst LDA
is a point measurement technique, PIV can generate
velocity vectors over the flow domain in a single
measurement, and hence is a better tool to be used in this
research.
3.1 Experimental model
To study the flow in single ended evacuated tubes a
laboratory model of a single tube was constructed with
electrical heating to simulate solar heat gain. The rig,
shown in Figure 6, consists of a 1.4-metre long copper
pipe, 37 mm ID, connected to a Perspex rectangular tank.
Silicon rubber heaters were used to simulate the heat
from solar radiation. The heat flux around the
circumference of the tube was controlled by a multi-
channel power supply so that different heat flux
distributions could be produced. The tank has a 550 x
550 mm cross section with the centre of the tube opening
positioned 200 mm from the bottom of the tank and 225
mm from the open surface.
The velocity at the open end of the tube was measured
using a 2D nonintrusive PIV technique. PIV is an optical
technique of velocity measurement that is able to measure
velocity over a large 2D area of a flow field at one
instant. The PIV system consists of a dual pulse YAG
Laser, a digital CCD camera and a synchronizer and
processor. The synchronizer is the timing unit for the
whole PIV system, coordinating the laser flash lamps and
Q-switches as well as the image capture by the camera.
Double-frame images of particles in the flow can be
captured at a rate of 4 double exposures per second.
Time separation between the laser pulses can be adjusted
according to the velocity range being measured. During
this experiment, the pulse separation was 15 ms. The
displacement of particles in the flow between laser pulses
is analysed to determine the velocity field over the
section of flow in view of the camera. During these
investigations a vertical section through the middle of the
tube entrance was monitored. Water in the tank is seeded
with Polyamid Seeding Particles (PSP), 50 µm in
diameter to provide illuminated points for the optical
flow measurement system. The camera has a resolution
of 1280 x 1020 pixels and a lens focal-length of 35 mm.
When positioned at a distance of 700 mm from the
measurement plane, it results in a resolution of 10 pixels /
mm. Two high-intensity laser pulses are fired to
illuminate the seeding particles on the central plane of the
tube opening. When cross-correlation analysis of the
particle image positions is applied, the flow domain is
divided into smaller sub-areas, typically 8x8 pixels or
16x16 pixels in size; the flow field was averaged over
fifty pairs of images. Velocity-filtering and smoothing
were done before the averaging was made. The thermal
stratification condition in the tank was measured using
thermocouples placed at 6 positions inside the tank; the
temperatures were monitored throughout the PIV
measurements.
Fig. 6. Laboratory model of a single evacuated tube
and the optical flow measuring system used to
measure circulation through the tube.
For validation purposes, the tank and room temperatures
are both set at 25°C. Heating conditions were varied
using separate heaters on the top and bottom half of the
tube. The heat flux entering the tube could be uniformly
distributed over the tube circumference or controlled to
have different top and bottom half heating to simulate the
effects of different solar concentration distribution onto
the tube. Taking the inner surface in contact with the
fluid, the typical 82 W input to the tube was distributed
over 0.165 m2 surface area, that corresponds to an
average heat flux of 500 W/m2. Before the measurement,
the transient development of the flow was checked by
monitoring the outlet temperature using a thermocouple
near the top edge of the tube opening. The temperature
of the tube outlet was monitored and found to take
between 30 and 40 minutes to reach a steady condition as
shown in Figure 7 depending on the temperature
difference between cold water and the desired
temperature at the start.
27
Outlet temperature (C)
26
25
24
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Time (h)
Fig. 7. Transient development of the flow before
the measurement was taken.
There are a number of factors which are difficult to
quantify in the experiment. Although the heater is
insulated on the outside, there is some heat loss, which is
difficult to determine due to temperature gradients along
the tube. Secondly, although some tests involve heating
only the top half of the tube, there will be some
conduction around the wall of the tube and the bottom
half of the tube will be slightly heated as well. The
numerical model does not take circumferential wall
conduction into account. Thirdly, although the total
power input to the heater in the experiment setup is
maintained to be the same as in the simulation model, the
heat input in the experiment is only distributed over 90%
of the tube length due to difficulties in mounting the
heaters on the end of the tube.
3.2 Simulation of circulation rate through a single-tube
A numerical model was developed for the laboratory
scale experiment for the purpose of validation of the
numerical analysis. The numerical model consists of a
tube with the same dimensions as the laboratory model
attached to a rectangular tank. The tank domain in the
numerical model has dimensions of 325 mm x 175 mm x
140 mm, and the centre of tube opening is positioned 225
mm from the top surface. The grid is structured over the
whole solution domain with radial-arrangement where the
tube domain projects into the tank domain aligned with
the hot fluid plume from the tube as shown in Figure 8.
The simulation was started with the tank and ambient
temperatures of 298 K. At the start of the simulation, a
time step of 0.2 s was used and after the flow structure
was developed the time step size was increased to 0.5 s.
Tank heat loss coefficient is assumed to be 5 W/m2K on
the side and bottom walls, and 10 W/m2K from the open
top. The grid used had 500,000 elements, concentrated
mainly near the opening of the tube and the region where
hot fluid stream rises up the tank. Typical run-time of this
model on a 2.4 GHz processor with 1 GB RAM is one
month.
Vertical symmetry plane
Tube cross section
Fig. 8. Computational grid.
3.3 Comparison of measured and simulated circulation
rate
The velocity profile of the flow entering and leaving the
tube were compared between the experimental and
numerical models including the region where the
maximum velocity occurs, the direction of the hot fluid
plume, and the cross-sectional area of the hot flow. The
measurements indicate that top heating creates a thin
relative high velocity layer of hot fluid near the top of the
tube. The hot fluid plume moves away from the tank
wall. Figure 9 shows the velocity distribution at the
centre-plane of the tube opening for top heating of the
tube as determined by PIV measurements and the
simulation model. Both results indicate that the flow is
bi-filamental, with hot fluid leaving the top section of the
tube opening, replaced by cold fluid from the tank
entering in the bottom half of the tube.
50
Position across tube opening (mm)
40
30
20
simulation experiment
10
0
-15 -5 5 15 25 35
Velocity magnitude(mm/s)
Fig. 9. Comparison of the simulated velocity
profile at the tube opening with PIV
measurement.
The maximum velocity predicted by the numerical
model is 32.5 mm/s, obtained by averaging the velocity
profiles over 5-mm thickness in the centre of the tube.
When the heat flux on the top half of the tube is 500
W/m2 and the bottom half is not heated a maximum
velocity of 32 mm/s was obtained from the PIV
measurement. Repeatability of the measurement is
difficult to achieve, as the flow is sensitive to residual
circulation in the tank. Variations of the order of 5 mm/s
occur between repeated tests with PIV measurements
consistently showing a lower peak velocity. Other factors
that contribute to the errors are the tracking particle
resolution and the determination of heat loss through the
tube insulation. The numerical results show that on the
symmetry plane the hot fluid stream occupies the top
45% of the opening, while PIV measurements suggest a
slightly narrower flow stream. There is a slight
disagreement near the bottom wall of the tube, where the
CFD model predicts a peak velocity that does not appear
as significant in the PIV results. The velocity contour
measured near the tube opening and near the tank surface
(Figure 10 (a)) is compared against the simulated result
(Figure 10 (b)). There is a good agreement in the flow
structure, showing that for heating on the top half of the
tube, a thin layer of hot fluid is formed, and it moves
away from the tank wall, creating a small region of
recirculation near the surface.
(a) (b)
Fig. 10. Velocity contour for heating on the top half
of the tube: (a) from PIV measurement (b) from
CFD simulation.
Circulation rate (kg/h)
In the comparison of the experimental measurement and
simulation, errors need to be taken into consideration. In
the simulation, errors can result from an inaccurate
representation of boundary conditions and numerical
errors during the computation. The PIV measurement has
limited resolution, problems with particle density in the
measurement area and difficulties in determining the heat
loss from the electric heaters. Nonetheless, it has been
demonstrated in this section, that the measurement and
simulation results do have a good agreement in the
following parameters: the magnitude and the position of
the peak velocity, the position of cross over point
between the in-flow and out-flow, the 2-D cross sectional
area of the heated fluid and the overall structure of the
flow as it leaves the tube and rises up the tank. Therefore,
this validation provides us with some confidence in the
accuracy of the numerical results.
4. NUMERICAL RESULTS
In this section, results from the numerical analysis
described in section 2 are presented. Two numerical
models, namely the open thermosyphon model and a
single-tube coupled to a tank were simulated in FLUENT,
and the effect of circumferential heat distribution and
tank temperature on natural circulation through a single
tube was determined.
The flow in the tube is bi-filamental, consisting of two
main streams, the heated ascending fluid, replaced by a
colder fluid from the reservoir. The two opposing streams
co-exist with a shear layer between them. The bulk fluid
coming in from the reservoir penetrates down the core of
the tube as it is heated by the wall. Heat extraction from
the long and thin tubes under heat flux conditions is more
efficient than under isothermal conditions. Simulation
results show that the flow rate increases as the heat
distribution shifts from the bottom to the top half of the
tube (Figure 11). When heating is concentrated at the top
half, there is a fast stream near the top of the tube. The
hot fluid stream is clearly separated from the cold fluid.
However, when the heating is concentrated in the bottom
half of the tube, the hot stream leaving the tube is slower,
occupying a larger cross sectional area (Figure 12). For
evacuated tube collectors with a diffuse reflector, 50-80%
of the radiation falls on the top half of the tube
circumference. Figure 11 shows that between the
uniform heating case and the top heating case, there is
only 15% variation of the thermosyphon rate through the
tube. This justifies the choice of uniform heat input as a
valid estimation in simulating solar heat gain by
evacuated tube collectors, particularly in a more complex
tube-and-tank model, where simulating a number of
heating distribution schemes is time consuming.
25
20
15
10
5
0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Percentage of heating at the top half of the tube
Fig. 11. Circulation rate through the tube under
uniform heating 500 W/m2 as heat input is shifted
from extreme bottom heating to extreme top heating.
The increase of circulation rate through the tube as the
tank temperature increases is shown in Figure 13 for two
heating conditions, 100 W/m2 and 500 W/m2. The
corresponding velocity profiles across the opening are
shown in Figure 14. The results suggest there is more
than 50% increase of circulation through a single tube as
the tank temperature increases by 25 K, mainly because
over that range the viscosity of water drops by 40% as
temperature increases. Resulting velocity profiles show
that when the tank is at 300 K, the heated fluid occupies
the top 45% of the tube. Cold water entering the tube 35
approaches the inlet at lower velocity over a larger area.
30
As the tank temperature increases, the hot stream

Circulation rate (kg/h)

becomes thinner and a rapid increase in peak velocity is 25
observed.
20

15

10

5
100 W/m2 500 W/m2
0
295 300 305 310 315 320 325
Tank temperature (K)

Fig. 13. Circulation rate through a single tube

under uniform heating for various tank
temperatures.

0.02

Top heating
Position across opening (m)
0.01

0
-0.03 -0.02 -0.01 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07

-0.01

300 K 313 K 323 K

-0.02
Velocity magnitude (m/s)

Fig. 14. Velocity profiles across the centreline of

tube opening for uniform heating case 500 W/m2 as
Uniform heating
tank temperature is varied.

5. CONCLUSIONS

This paper presents both measurement and numerical

Bottom heating
Fig. 12. Normalised velocity profiles at the tube
opening for various heating distributions (Vmax =
50 mm/s).
modelling of circulation rate in a water-in-glass
evacuated tube solar collector. For the purpose of
simulation, two computational domains are examined.
The first is an open thermosyphon model and the second
is a single-tube model coupled to a section of horizontal
tank. These domains have a relatively small number of
mesh elements, and therefore are more computationally
efficient than simulating a complete tube and tank
system.
The CFD model was validated against PIV
measurements. Good agreement between the
experimental and simulation results was achieved in a
number of qualitative and quantitative parameters,
namely the peak velocity of the heated fluid stream, the
location of the peak velocity, the cross-over point
between the two opposing streams and the flow structure
 as the hot fluid rises up the tank. The validation results
serve as a basis for using CFD analysis with reasonable
confidence in further parametric studies.
The effect of varying tank temperature and heat
distribution around the absorber tube circumference on
the natural convection rate in a single tube was
investigated. Simulation results show that when heating
is concentrated on the top half of the tube, a thin and fast
stream of heated fluid is formed, whilst bottom heating
creates a slower and deeper flow at the outlet. Variation
of tank temperature was found to have a significant effect
on the circulation rate. A 25 K increase in tank
temperature significantly reduces water viscosity,
resulting in more than 50% increase in the rate of
circulation through the tube.
The high flow rates observed in these investigations
would result in a fully mixed state for the storage tank.
Although stratification is important for optimum
performance of flat plate collector systems the lack of
stratification for an evacuated tube collector may not be
significant due to the lower heat loss from the tubes. A
model of a horizontal tank direct coupled to 20 evacuated
tubes is now being developed for predicting annual
performance. The model will include the effect of the
collector circulation rates reported in this study.
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