SIMULATION OF A SENSIBLE HEAT THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEM USING MATLAB’S BLOCK-ORIENTED APPROACH

O. A. Akinola; A. M. Taiwo

O. A. Akinola Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria
A. M. Taiwo Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria

Keywords: Solar Collector, Storage tank, Modelling, Simulation, Simulink

Abstract

This paper presents the dynamic simulation of the mathematical model of a solar water heating (SWH) system consisting of a solar collector and a thermal storage tank developed using MATLAB's block-oriented technique according to the law of energy conservation. The governing heat balance equations are given along with the assumptions applied in the model. As a case study, this paper analysed the SWH system performance under the climatic condition of Abeokuta for the design month of December. Global Horizontal Irradiation data for Nigeria were used to determine the average daily solar radiation intensity for the month. The results shows that a collector tilt angle of 7degrees can receive more energy with a thermal efficiency of 0.8. The results demonstrate that at the highest solar radiation intensity, the system's maximum temperature output was 61.98 °C. From the result obtained, it can be concluded that a SWH system of collector area 1.5 m^2 has the ability to heat 150 liters of water to a temperature of 60℃ in the month with the highest average sunshine hours in Alabata, Abeokuta. The simulation results can support the selection of appropriate components and predict the operation of the solar water heating system to be built.