Geometrical Optimization Study of a Tubular Adsorber of a Solid Adsorption Solar Cooling Machine

Abstract

This paper presents the study of a tubular adsorber of solar adsorption cooling machine. The modelling and the analysis of the adsorber are the key point of such studies, because of the complex coupled heat and mass transfer phenomena that occur during the working cycle. The adsorber is heated by solar energy and contains a porous medium constituted of activated carbon AC-35 reacting by adsorption with methanol. The simulation technique takes into account the variation of ambient temperature and solar intensity along a simulated day, which is corresponds to a total daily insolation of 26,12 MJ/m2 and an average ambient temperature of 27.7 °C. The obtained solution allows to know the daily thermal behaviour of the tubular adsorber.The dimensioning of the solar reactor (internal adsorber radius and collector surface area) is done after an optimization study. It has been found that the solar and the thermal performance coefficient of the system are 0.135 and 0.308, respectively