Performance Analysis and Optimization of a Vapor-filled Flat-plate Solar Collector

Solar thermal collectors are certain to play a primaryrole in reducingenergy consumption in buildings. At present, significant efforts are being made to findnew ways to enhance their performance. An emergingtechniqueis studied in this work based on thermodynamic analysis.The study shows how thermodynamic 2nd-law analysiscan be used to complement the 1st law analysisapproach for a FPSC (flat-plate solar collector) in which the confined air in the spacing between the absorber and glass cover is replaced by water-vapor. In the analysis, the influence of key parameters such solar irradiation, inclination angle, as well as the use of absorbers with different emissivity values, are investigated.