Thermal Performance Prediction of Indoor Swimming Pool Solar Heating System Using Different Types of Flat-Plate Solar Collectors

Abstract

The current study includes a theoretical study of the enfluence of different types of flat-plate
solar collector on the solar fraction factor (ƒ) of a proposed solar heating system used for heating "alShaab Olympic Indoor Swimming Pool" located in Baghdad (Iraq) at a latitude of 33.32˚N. The
swimming pool building has external dimensions of 95 m length, 51 m width, and 16.5 m height, it
contains two pools, the first is for swimming with dimensions of (50 m * 21 m) with fixed depth of 1.8 m,
the second is for diving with an irregular surface area of (351) m2 and with depth of 5 m. The Total
thermal losses from the two pools to the pool hall and from the pool hall to the outdoor environment were
calculated for four months of winter season (November, December, January and February) and a computer
program was built using the MATLAB (R2008a) environment to solve the mathematical model equations
in order to calculate the solar fraction facor (ƒ) of the proposed solar heating system at different solar
collecting areas which are (2000,2500,3000,3500,4000,4500,5000,6000,7000,8000,9000,10000) m2 and at
five different types of flat-plate solar collector which are (A: one cover black solar collector, B: one cover
selective absorber solar collector, C: two cover black solar collector, D: two cover selective absorber solar
collector, and E: pool absorber (PVC) solar collector). The results obtained showed that the highest values
of solar fraction factor were obtained when using the solar collector type D, and the lowest values
obtained when using the solar collector type E. The values of solar fraction factor (ƒ) of the proposed solar
heating system, at solar collecting area of 10000m2 and at mass storage of water in the storage tank of 25
kg/m2 collecting area, for type D are 84.27 % for November, 72.74% for December, 69.4% for January,
and 82.91% for February, and for type E are 56.14% for November, 41.15% for December, 37.17% for
January, and 50.6% for February.