TRNSYS simulation of a solar cooling system

• Main Author: Cheng, Zesen.
• Other Authors: Tan Fock Lai
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Alternative, renewable energy sources
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/46076
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

A solar ejector cooling system is simulated throughout the year in order to study the feasibility of its application to cool a HDB bedroom of cooling load 3.5 kW from 8.00 pm to 7.00 am daily and to cool a small office of cooling load 6.0 kW from 8.00 am to 7.00 pm daily. The system is simulated using the TRNSYS program and with the solar ejector cooling system being modeled by a mathematical software, Engineering Equations Solver (EES). A parametric study was first carried out to investigate the effect of collector slope, collector area and storage tank size on the amount of useful heat gained by the system and to select the optimal size of each parameter. Further investigation was carried out to compare the performance of the flat plat collector with the evacuated tube collector. The optimal system was determined to have a collector angle of 22°, evacuated tube collector area of 50 m2, hot water storage tank size of 1.0 m3 and mass flow ratio of 8. Simulations were then carried out for the HDB bedroom and the office. For a solar ejector cooling system working on operating conditions Tg = 80 °C, Te = 8 °C, Tc = 32 °C and a COP of 0.39, simulation of the system on the HDB bedroom gave an annual solar fraction of 0.20 while the office gave an annual solar fraction of 0.38. This shows that the system is more applicable for use during the office hours as it shows reasonably good conservation of energy of about 38% annually and this in turn helps to reduce fossil fuels consumption and harmful emissions to the environment.