Correlation of experimental and theoretical heat transfer in mantle tanks used in low flow SDHW systems

Experimental and theoretical investigations of vertical mantle tanks for solar domestic hot water systems have been carried out. Differently designed mantle tanks have been evaluated in a laboratory test facility and a transient three-dimensional CFD-model of one of the mantle tanks is developed in the CFD-program CFX 4.1. The model is validated against the experimental tests and good agreement between measured and calculated results are achieved. The results from the CFD-calculations are used to illustrate the thermal behaviour and the fluid dynamics in the mantle and in the inner tank. The CFD-calculations are used to carry out a detailed analysis of the heat transfer from the solar collector fluid to the wall of the inner tank. The analysis has resulted in a local Nusselt-Rayleigh correlation for the heat transfer between the solar collector fluid and the wall of the inner tank.