ZEMCH 2019 International Conference Proceedings April.2020 | Page 435
Table 3. The result of uniformity of flow rate.
Position of
sheet
Reach time 2
Bottom
Left corner
56 sec
Bottom Center
58 sec
Bottom
Right corner
56 sec
Time to reach the bottom of the seat after water is injected into the upper inlet.
2
The Bottom center position had no water outlet, so the water arrived the latest, with a speed
difference of 3% compared to the edge by about 2 seconds. Also, no dead zone was observed with no
water flowing or stopped.
3.3. Differential pressure change experiment with variable flow rate
We expected the differential pressure to be less than 0.2kgf/cm 2 when water was flowed on the
basis of 3LPM, and less than 0.2kgf/cm 2 was obtained for all patterns and materials.
Table 4. The result of differential pressure change experiment with variable flow rate.
Item
Differential
Pressure
(kgf/cm 2 )
Flow
rate
(LPM)
1(LPM)
2
3
4
5
PVC
sheet
single
layer PVC
sheet
single
layer
Oval
Pattern
0.054
0.119
0.150
0.248
0.335 Circle
pattern
0.054
0.107
0.162
0.215
0.326
Multi‐
layer
(PVC
sheet +
Fabric)
Oval
pattern
0.049
0.106
0.116
0.208
0.295
Multi‐
layer
(PVC
sheet +
Fabric)
Circle
pattern
0.042
0.111
0.138
0.238
0.296
4. Discussion
Three basic tests confirmed the feasibility of the PVC sheet. We found that a multilayered fabric
PVC sheet is better. The possibility of application with PVT thermal collector was verified by testing
pressure resistance, flow uniformity and pressure loss through differential pressure. However, it is still
necessary to further verify whether the material is mass‐produced through experiments such as heat
transfer rate through coupling with PV panel, structure for preventing sag and reliability by external
temperature.
5. Conclusions
The PVT application feasibility of the PVC flexible sheet was confirmed by basic tests. In addition,
the pressure durable test results show that the material (multilayer or single layer) is more important
than the pattern shape. The shape of the two patterns we tested (circle and oval) did not significantly
affect the differential pressure.
Funding: This research received no external funding.
Acknowledgments: The authors are grateful to Kyung Hwang Lee, OHFA‐Tech for supporting the drawing design.
Conflicts of Interest: Authors declare no conflict of interest.
A study on the Feasibility of Applying PVC Flexible Sheet for PVT collector
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