An Experimental Study of an Evacuated Tube Solar Collector Using the Response Surface Methodology (RSM)

The purpose of this study is to investigate experimentally the performance of a solar hot water system with evacuated tube solar collector to obtain optimum process parameters by user-specified design. In these study parameters as solar radiation and fluid flow are optimized with the consideration of responses as outlet fluid temperature and bottom water temperature using the Response Surface Methodology (RSM). As a result, the optimal independent variables in the determined intervals are as follows: solar radiation is 850 w/m2 and fluid flow is 1, 36641 l/min; under these favorable conditions, the outlet fluid temperature can reach a maximum value of 75.9954 C whereas the bottom water temperature in the storage tank may attain a maximum value of 65.1443 C. It was found from the experimental design and ANOVA using the STATGRAPHICS Centurion (VERSION 18) program, that the solar radiation is the major parameter that influences of a solar hot water system performance.