MODELING AND SIMULATION OF A SOLAR POWERED ADSORPTION REFRIGERATION SYSTEM
MODELING AND SIMULATION OF A SOLAR POWERED ADSORPTION REFRIGERATION SYSTEM
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Date
2011-06
Authors
SULEIMAN, Rekiyat Bgirl Omohu
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Abstract
The search for renewable, eco-friendly energy source other than fossil fuels which is ozone
depleting and responsible for climate change to power refrigeration systems has led to the
present research.
The modeling and simulation of a solar powered adsorption refrigeration system using
three types of collectors (flat plate, evacuated tube, and parabolic trough collectors), with
activated carbon/methanol as the adsorbent/adsorbate pair has been undertaken in this
study.
A study of the adsorption bed was carried out to determine the effects of generation,
evaporation and condensation temperatures on the performance of the cooling system. This
was then used in the optimization of the solar thermal system in the sizing of the collector
area and hot water storage tank. A transient simulation of the cooling system with an
evaporator temperature of 0oC and condenser temperature of 25oC was subsequently carried
out with the TRNSYS software over a period of a typical year.
The Flat plate collector system gave average values of refrigeration effect of 4814.83 kJ,
solar coefficient of performance (COPs) of 0.024, a cooling coefficient of performance
(COP) of 0.608 and a heating efficiency of 0.46. The Evacuated tube collector powered
system achieved average values of refrigeration effect of 5528.05 kJ, COPs of 0.025, a COP
of 0.612 and a heating efficiency of 0.61. The Parabolic trough collector powered system
however gave average values of refrigeration effect of 5654.73 kJ, COPs of 0.025, a COP
of 0.613 and a heating efficiency of 0.76. The three systems were able to achieve a cold
room temperature of about 1oC.
Some experimental results were used to validate the simulation results and they were
determined to have a good level of agreement with a consistent overestimation of COP of
29.9%
Description
A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE
POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA
NIGERIA
IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT FOR THE AWARD
OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA
NIGERIA
JUNE 2011
Keywords
MODELING,, SIMULATION,, SOLAR POWERED,, ADSORPTION,, REFRIGERATION SYSTEM