• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.579-589
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• 1985

The storage tank of the natural-circulation-solar-hot-water system equipped with flat-plate solar collectors is located at higher elevation than the solar collectors. Therefore, the heat loss from the system due to a reversed flow during the night-time is an important factor as well as the day-time thermal performance of the system. The thermal performance of the natural-circulation-solar-hot-water system with flat-plate solar collectors during the day-time depends mainly on the heat collecting efficiency of the solar collectors, whereas its thermal performance during the night-time depends on the system configuration , such as the elevation of the water storage tank with respect to the solar collectors and the piping connections between the storage tank and the solar collectors, as well as thermo-physical properties of the circulating fluid. In the present work, a computer program has been developed to simulate a typical natural-circulation-solar-hot-water-system, and a series of simulation tests have been carried out with the computer program to examine the thermal performance of the system during the day-time as well as the hight-time. In addition , a series of experiment have been conducted under a real sun condition using a natural-circulation-solar-hot-water-system constructed and installed at the KAIST building to compare with the results obtained from computer simulations.

• Solar Energy
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.74-81
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• 1988

A preliminary study has been done to investigate the thermal performance of an indirect system. Direct systems are also analyzed and the results are compared with those of the indirect system where possible. Values from the numerical simulation show very good agreement with the measured data. Although the indirect system is generally expensive and not as efficient as direct systems, it is more reliable in frigid weather conditions like the winters in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.1-7
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• 2015

The operation of the natural circulation type solar heating systems with facade integrated collector was analyzed by experiment. Two different types of flat plate solar collectors were used for these experiments. One was for the normal flat plate solar collector with the size of 1m*2m and the other was for the large size solar collector with $4m^2$(1m*4m). The experiments were carried out to investigate the effect of the series or parallel connection method on the performance of the collectors. As a result, the solar thermal system which is installed on the wall or facade would be applicable for the natural circulation type if the system design reflects various parameters, including collector connecting method(series or parallel), to provide enough vertical height between collector and storage tank, and to reduce pressure loss due to collector and piping network, etc. The natural circulation type of solar thermal system as proposed in this study can increase the system reliability by removing or minimizing the use of the components such as pump, controller, sensors which may cause serious troubles of the system for a long-time operation

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.45-54
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• 2007

For a conventional natural-circulation type solar water heater, the pressure head is limited by the height between the storage tank and hot water tap. Therefore, it is difficult to provide sufficient hot water flow rate for general usage. This study deals with a design modification of the storage tank to utilize the tap-water pressure to increase hot-water supply Based on fluid dynamic and heat transfer theories, a series of modeling and simulation is conducted to achieve practical design requirements. An experimental setup is built and tested and the results are compared with theoretical simulation model. The storage tank capacity is 240 l and the outer diameter of piping was 15 mm. Number of tube turns tested are 5, 10, and 15. Starting with initial storage tank temperature of $80^{\circ}C$, the temperature variation of the supply hot water is investigated against time, while maintaining minimum flow rate of 10 1/min. Typical results show that the hot water supply of minimum $30^{\circ}C$ can be maintained for 34 min with tap-water supply pressure of 2.5 atm, The relative errors between modeling and experiments coincide well within 10% in most cases.

• Solar Energy
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.37-53
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• 1987

This study has been prepared for the purpose of developing the system performance prediction method of natural circulation solar hot water system. The storage tank of the natural circulation solar hot water system equipped with flat-plate solar collector is located at higher elevation than the solar collectors. Therefor, the storage tank temperature distribution formed accordance with configuration of storage tank by flow rate of circulating fluid affect system collection efficiency. In this study measure the storage tank temperature distribution with various experimental system under real sun condition and present the theoretical prediction method of the storage tank temperature. Moreover measure the flow rate not only day-time but also night-time reverse flow rate with die injection visual flow meter. Main conclusion obtain from the present study is as follows; 1) The storage tank temperature distribution above the connecting pipe connection position is the same as that of the fully mixed tank and below the connection position is the same as that of stratified tank. 2) The system performance sensitive to the storage tank temperature distribution. Therefore detailed tank model is necessary. Average storage tank temperature can be calculate 3% and storage tank temperature profile can get less than 10% difference with this model system.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.777-784
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• 2017

Energy harvesting through a thermoelectric module normally makes use of the temperature gradient in the system's operational environment. Therefore, it is difficult to obtain the desired output power when the system is subjected to an environment in which a low temperature gradient is generated across the module, because the power generation efficiency of the thermoelectric device is not optimized. The utilization of solar energy, which is a form of renewable energy abundant in nature, has mostly been limited to photovoltaic solar cells and solar thermal energy generation. However, photovoltaic power generation is capable of utilizing only a narrow wavelength band from the sunlight and, thus, the power generation efficiency might be lowered by light scattering. In the case of solar thermal energy generation, the system usually requires large-scale facilities. In this study, a simple and small size thermoelectric power generation system with a solar concentrator was designed to create a large temperature gradient for enhanced performance. A solar tracking system was used to concentrate the solar thermal energy during the experiments and a liquid circulating chiller was installed to maintain a large temperature gradient in order to avoid heat transfer to the bottom of the thermoelectric module. Then, the setup was tested through a series of experiments and the performance of the system was analyzed for the purpose of evaluating its feasibility and validity.