Estudio Comparativo de la Eficiencia de Colectores Solares de Placa Plana Rectangular y Triangular Mediante el Método de Elementos Finitos

In this research, the efficiency of a flat plate solar collector with triangular and square geometry was compared using the finite element method (FEM). The design of the geometries and the parameters used for the simulation were obtained from previous publications. SolidWorks software was used for the modeling of the two collectors, while the Fluent module of the ANSYS software was used for the simulation by the FEM method. For the collectors, a pipe with an internal diameter of 7 mm was used, with a plate thickness of 11 mm and the defined material was aluminum. Ambient temperature of 20 °C was considered, with a solar radiation of 1000 W m -2 and heat transfer surfaces of 61 250 and 122 500 mm 2 for the triangular and square collector, respectively. The mesh quality was excellent, obtaining a skewness of 0.2486, which gave efficiencies of 62 and 39 % and maximum temperatures of 27 and 25.5 °C for the triangular and square collectors, respectively. Because the geometries act as fins, temperatures are higher at the corners and therefore it is not possible to achieve higher efficiency.