Effect of Corrugated Cover Directional Transmittance on the Thermal Performance of a Solar Collector

The benefits of light weight, structural strength, and reduced costs without significant reduction of transmission of solar energy of a corrugated fiberglass composite cover promise wide utilization of this cover in solar collectors to suppress convective and radiative heat losses from the absorber panel. In order to evaluate the thermal performance of a collector with a corrugated cover, the directional transmittance of the cover must be available. A study was undertaken to develop a model for the directional transmittance of a corrugated cover as represented by a sinusoidal periodic function. As an application of this model, hourly and daily thermal efficiencies of a solar collector with a corrugated cover are presented.