A solar collector system delivers heat to a power plant. It is well known that the thermal collection efficiency hsc of a solar collector diminishes with increasing solar collection output temperature TH , or hsc = A 2 BTH where A and B are known constants. The thermal efficiency of the power plant hth is a fixed fraction of the Carnot thermal efficiency, such that hth = F(1 2 TL/TH) where F is a known constant assumed here independent of temperatures and TL is the condenser temperature, also constant for this problem. Here, the solar collection temperature TH is also taken to be the source temperature for the power plant. (a) At what temperature TH should the solar collector be operated to obtain the maximum overall system efficiency? (b) Develop an expression for the maximum overall system efficiency.
A solar collector system delivers heat to a power
plant. It is well known that the thermal collection efficiency
hsc of a solar collector diminishes with increasing
solar collection output temperature TH , or hsc = A 2 BTH
where A and B are known constants. The thermal efficiency
of the power plant hth is a fixed fraction of the
Carnot thermal efficiency, such that hth = F(1 2 TL/TH)
where F is a known constant assumed here independent
of temperatures and TL is the condenser temperature, also
constant for this problem. Here, the solar collection temperature
TH is also taken to be the source temperature for
the power plant.
(a) At what temperature TH should the solar collector
be operated to obtain the maximum overall system
efficiency?
(b) Develop an expression for the maximum overall system
efficiency.
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