Numerical Study of Harvesting Solar Energy from Small-Scale Asphalt Solar Collector

Abstract

This paper studied the heat transfer in an asphalt solar collector with small scale geometry. Solar energy reaches the earth and consequently increases the temperature of the ground, which then leads to the increase of the temperature of the air. Water circulates through a series of pipes embedded in the asphalt pavement for the extraction of solar energy. The radiation in this study was produced from the top asphalt pavement. In this study, the temperature of the asphalt pavement decreased when solar energy was collected from the circulating water. This reduces the heat island effect in the city and decreases the power consumption for air conditioning. The temperature is distributed between the asphalt pavement and the inner pipes. Increase of the flow rate has a great influence on the energy collection by reducing the temperature of the asphalt pavement. The result of this test was obtained using a small-scale asphalt pavement, which showed a high amount of heat collected.