Study on Water Flow Dynamics Inside Asphalt Solar Collector to Optimize Pipe Burial Depth: An Experimental and Numerical Study

Asphalt pavements are exposed to solar heat flux irradiation for long periods of time during the day and are heated up to ۶۰ oC. Consequently, they can be converted to an affordable solar collector by accumulating thermal energy. The present study experimentally and numerically investigates the effects of pipe burial depth on the performance of asphalt solar collectors (ASCs). In this study, a test set-up with a surface area of ۱.۲ m۲ and pipe network length of ۱۲ m was constructed to evaluate the performance of the constructed collector. The obtained results proved that the performance of ASCs improves bydecreasing the pipe burial depth