Abstract
Using asphalt pavement as a solar collector is a technology of increasing interest in China. Researchers have pointed out that the heat quality of the coolant medium needed further investigation for inter-seasonal storage, though the energy potential of an asphalt solar collector was considerable. In this paper, a three-dimensional unsteady model is developed to investigate the heat-collecting properties of asphalt solar collector at typical Chinese summer time. The temperature rise of outlet water (ΔT) is used as the indicator of heat quality. The results from a big-scale slab of 4 m × 4 m show that ΔT reaches over than 10°C, while the asphalt pavement is cooled down effectively. In addition, the higher the ambient temperature is, the better the heat-collecting properties of asphalt solar collector achieves. It can be concluded that the heat-collecting properties of asphalt solar collector are good enough to provide high-quality heat under certain conditions.
Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the Science and Technology Plan Projects of the Ministry of Transport of China (no. 2013 318 811 250) and International S&T Cooperation Program of China (ISTCP, No. 2013DFE83100). Their support is gratefully acknowledged.