Abstract

In this paper a mathematical formula was driven to estimate the tilt angle ofsurface from horizontal Σ and the surface azimuth angle Ψ for a flat plate solarcollector which gives maximum total incident solar radiation on a flat plate solarcollector designed for heating water. According to the formulas of estimating Σ and Ψwhich driven in this study a C++ program had been built and used to simulate theperformance of a sun trucking solar collector, so the collector orientation varies withday time to give maximum incident solar radiation at each hour (in this case one hourtime interval used) by estimating the surface azimuth angle and the tilt angle ofsurface from horizontal at the desired hour (time),and compare the results with thenormal case of using stationary solar collector (oriented to the south with tilt angleequal to latitude). All calculations done for the city of Baghdad in January .Resultsshow that the incident solar radiation and storage temperature in the case of suntrucking collector system is greater than it's in the case of stationary collector (normalcase) which gives system more stability.

The article was added to IASJ on 2012-05-30

207 Total full text downloads since the date of addition