Energy Conversion and Management 43 (2002) 549555

www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Heat ow in a horizontal solar thermal storage tank with an

auxiliary heater
A.-J.N. Khalifa *, M.A. Hussian
Solar Energy Research Center, Jadiriya, P.O. Box 13026, Baghdad, Iraq
Received 2 September 2000; accepted 18 December 2000

Abstract
An experimental and numerical study is conducted to verify the applicability of a one dimensional heat
ow model in a horizontal storage tank of a thermosyphon solar system equipped with an auxiliary heater.
Measurements of temperature are conducted in the vertical, axial and radial directions to examine the
temperature stratication in the tank. A maximum average temperature deviation of 3.6% is found
throughout the tank. 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Horizontal tank; Solar thermosyphon system; Temperature prole; Auxiliary heat

1. Introduction
Most experimental solar storage temperature proles are available for vertical tanks. Few
studies on a horizontal tank are available. Wu and Bannerot [1] found that a single temperature
prole may not be sucient for accurate estimation of the average storage temperature. In another study, Bannerot [2] found that signicant errors are possible in determining the average
storage temperature in a horizontal tank. In a previous study by Khalifa and Mehdi [3], heat ow
in a horizontal solar storage tank was investigated numerically and experimentally. Temperature
measurements were taken in the axial and radial directions under no load and load conditions for
three dierent withdrawal patterns. The study concluded that a good approximation to the mass
weighted average temperature may be obtained from the vertical temperature prole at the center
of the tank.

Corresponding author. Tel.: +964-776-1990.

0196-8904/02/$ - see front matter 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 1 9 6 - 8 9 0 4 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 0 0 2 - 4

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A.-J.N. Khalifa, M.A. Hussian / Energy Conversion and Management 43 (2002) 549555

Nomenclature
A
B1 B4
Cp
D
dy
H
k
m_
M
N
P
q
t
T
UL
V
W
Y
q

cross sectional area

mixing constants
specic heat
tank diameter
dierential of y
tank height
thermal conductivity
mass ow rate
mass
number of vertical increments
perimeter
auxiliary heat
time
temperature
overall heat transfer coecient
volume
thermal capacity ( Cp V )
vertical coordinate
density

Subscripts
1
node 1
a
ambient
av
average
c
collector
i
node i
L
load
mw
make up water
N
node N
tot
total

Solar thermosyphon systems are usually equipped with an auxiliary electric heater for use in
cases of inadequate solar contribution. For such systems, a single temperature prole may not be
sucient to estimate the average storage temperature satisfactorily.
The objective of this work is to examine, through numerical and experimental study
of a thermosyphon solar hot water system, the validity of the one dimensional heat ow assumption in a horizontal storage tank equipped with an auxiliary heater. Another objective of
the study is the estimation of the mixing constants at the tank boundaries under the given conditions.

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551

2. The experimental rig

The thermosyphon system consisted of two at plate solar collectors with overall frontal dimensions of 1:80  0:79 m2 each and a 170 l capacity storage tank which is instrumented with 24
thermocouples, mounted in six vertical probes, as shown in Fig. 3. Probes A, B and C are placed
along the centerline of the tank with each probe holding ve thermocouples. The thermocouples
are distributed on the probe at distances of 5, 15, 25, 35 and 45 cm from the bottom of the tank.
Probes D, E and F are placed at a radial distance of 17 cm from the three central probes with each
probe holding three thermocouples. The three thermocouples of these probes are located at the
same elevations as the three central thermocouples of the central probes. The 2 kW auxiliary heater
is located at the elevation shown in Fig. 3. More details of the system are given elsewhere [3].
3. System modeling
The storage tank is modeled as a transient one dimensional stratied tank with interior convection and conduction between tank nodes. Thermal losses from the tank surface, as well as
mixing at the tank inlet and outlet boundaries, are considered in the model. The tank is divided into
N equal vertical increments, each being Dy high. An energy balance on an intermediate node yields:
qi Cpi Ai dyoT =ot

_ pi dyoT =oy ki Ai dyo2 T =oy 2

mC

ULi Pi dyT

Ta

By applying an explicit technique to Eq. (1), the following relationships are obtained for the top
y 0 and the bottom y D temperatures, respectively, (refer to Ref. [3] for more details);
T1n1 T1n Dt=W1 UL1 P1 Y T1
m_ L Cp1 =B2 T1 T2

Ta k1 A1 T2

T1 m_ c Cp1 =B1 Tc

n
TNn1
Ta kN AN TN1 TN
1 TN 1 Dt=WN ULN PN Y TN1
m_ c CpN =B3 TN 1 TN m_ L CpN =B4 Tmw TN 1

T1 q=B1
2
3

The boundary mixing constants (B1 B4 ) are highly system dependent and can be adjusted to
give the best agreement between theory and experiment using a least square criterion.
An iterative manner is used to solve the resulting set of equations as explained in Ref. [3]. The
mixing constants which give the best agreement with the experimental temperature proles in the
auxiliary equipped horizontal tank of this study are found to be B1 14:84 and B3 35, while B2
and B4 are xed, as in the previous studies, at a value of 1. The values of B1 and B3 for the same
tank when tested without the auxiliary heater [3] are found as 10.54 and 34.52, respectively. For
the vertical tank of the system of Ref. [4], the constants were B1 15 and B3 50.
4. Results and discussion
The tests are conducted on selected clear days through January to April using four dierent
withdrawal patterns with a total hot water use ranging from 214 to 326 l/day. The results for two
of these patterns will be presented in this paper.

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A.-J.N. Khalifa, M.A. Hussian / Energy Conversion and Management 43 (2002) 549555

4.1. Vertical temperature distribution

The vertical temperature distributions in the location of the six probes A to F are obtained from
the temperature measurements along each probe. Such distributions are shown for three dierent
elevations of probe B in Part C of Figs. 1 and 2. A sample of the temperature distribution inside
the tank is shown in Fig. 3. Excellent agreement between the experimental and numerical estimation can be noticed for all levels.
4.2. Axial and radial temperature distribution
The temperature distribution in the axial direction at any of the ve elevations of probes A, B
and C are obtained from the temperature measurements at the desired elevation. To judge the

Fig. 1. Comparison of measured and calculated temperatures withdrawal pattern-1: (a) withdrawal pattern 1, (b) time
variation of mass weighted average temperature in the storage tank and (c) time variation of selected storage tank
temperatures along probe (B).

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553

Fig. 2. Comparison of measured and calculated temperatures withdrawal pattern-2: (a) withdrawal pattern 2, (b) time
variation of mass weighted average temperature in the storage tank and (c) time variation of selected storage tank
temperatures along probe (B).

signicance of the temperature gradient in this direction, the temperature measured along probes
A and C are compared to those measured along the middle probe B. The maximum absolute
percentage deviation between the temperatures of probes A and B and those between probes C
and B is obtained for each test (see Table 1).
The radial temperature distribution at any of the three elevations of probes D, E and F is obtained from the measurements along these probes and the corresponding points on the central
probes A, B and C. Again, the signicance of the temperature gradient in this direction is judged by
comparing the maximum absolute percentage deviation in temperature between the central probe
A and the corresponding lateral probe D and that between B and E and C and F (see Table 1).
It is interesting to compare the temperature deviations of the present study with those obtained
previously [3] for the same system, but with no auxiliary heater. Although the withdrawal patterns
are dierent for the two cases, the results may still be compared to give a general view of the
degree of stratication in both cases. It is noticed (as can be seen from Table 2) that the tank
becomes less stratied in the portion of the tank where the heater is located while it is more

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Fig. 3. A sample of temperature stratication measured in the storage tank.

Table 1
The maximum absolute temperature deviation between probes in the axial and radial directions of the tank, percent
Pattern

Axial direction

Radial direction

A and B

C and B

D and A

E and B

F and C

1
2

1.28
2.32

3.07
4.76

1.47
2.21

1.76
2.72

2.81
4.68

Average of four
patterns

1.55

3.53

1.67

1.90

3.60

Table 2
A comparison between the average deviations for a thermosyphon tank with and without auxiliary heater
Conguration

A and B

C and B

D and A

E and B

F and C

Tank without auxiliary [3]

Tank with auxiliary (present study)

2.17
1.55

2.43
3.53

2.57
1.67

2.66
1.90

2.74
3.60

stratied in the rest of the tank. This is true in both the axial and radial directions. The maximum
deviation obtained is 3.6%, which is more than three times the accuracy in the temperature

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555

measurement of 1.05%. For such cases, the assumption of one dimensional heat ow in the tank,
which is found acceptable for the tank with no auxiliary heater in Ref. [3], may not stand.
Nevertheless, the stratication is still not severe, and the necessity for a two dimensional heat ow
model needs to be investigated further.
4.3. Mass weighted average temperature
The mass weighted average temperature is calculated from the relation [2]:
N 1
X
Tav
Mi Ti =Mtot

i1

The experimental average storage temperature (the points in part b of Figs. 1 and 2) is calculated from the 24 temperature measurements in the tank, while their numerical estimation (the
solid lines in the gures) is based on the temperature distribution predicted along the central probe
B. The dierence between the two values represents the error which may be caused by taking the
vertical temperature distribution at the center of the tank as an approximation to the tank average
storage temperature.

5. Conclusions
The experimental and numerical investigation of the heat ow in a horizontal thermosyphon
solar thermal storage tank which is equipped with an auxiliary heater yielded the following
conclusions:
1. In comparison to a tank with no auxiliary heater, the tank is found to be less stratied in the
portion of the tank where the heater is located, while it is more stratied in the rest of the tank.
This is true for both the axial and radial directions.
2. The maximum average temperature deviation under the given conditions is found to be a maximum of 3.6%. The necessity for a two dimensional heat ow model in such a tank needs to be
investigated further. the numerical model, however, has shown excellent agreement with the experimental measurements.

References
[1] Wu LY, Bannerot RB. Solar Engineering. Proc ASME, JSME, JSES Solar Energy Conf, Honolulu, 2227 March,
1987. p. 44551.
[2] Bannerot RB. Trans ASME J Sol Energy Engng 1992;114:1827.
[3] Khalifa AJN, Mehdi MM. Energy Convers Mgmt 1999;40:96174.
[4] Young MF, Berguam J. Trans ASME J Sol Energy Engng 1981;103:193200.