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ISOTHERMAL FLOW DISTRIBUTION IN HEADER SYSTEMS |
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| Authors: | X A WANG PEIZHEN YU |
| Affiliation: | 1. Solar Energy Research Laboratory , Shanghai Institute of Mechanical Engineering , Shanghai, P. R., 200093, China;2. Solar Energy Research Laboratory , Shanghai Institute of Mechanical Engineering , Shanghai, P. R., 200093, China;3. Solar Energy Research Laboratory , Shanghai Institute of Mechanical Engineering , Shanghai, P. R., 200093, China |
| Abstract: | Flow distribution in header systems is studied both numerically and experimentally in the present work. A discrete numerical model describing the flow behavior is formulated in terms of mass and momentum balance equations at every segment of the header system. The numerical results show that the header systems can be categorized as pressure regain type and pressure decrease type according to the static pressure distribution along the dividing manifold. A header system may transfer from pressure regain type to pressure decrease type while the resistance of the dividing manifold increases. The flow distribution of pressure regain header system is much more uniform than that of pressure decrease header system. It is found that the numerical results obtained by the present model are in good agreement with the experimental results for both types of header systems. A parametric study on the performances of header systems is also presented in this paper. |
| Keywords: | Flow distribution Flow nonuniformity Header system Solar collector Collector array Numerical model |