Abstract: A new design of a solar collector is proposed in this paper. The introduced novelty consists on using low cost flat reflectors with adjustable inclination. A detailed description of the solar collector as well as its functioning are also provided in the paper. Moreover, a mathematical model, that takes into account the variation of the heat transfer coefficients, is proposed and validated experimentally. Several experiments were also done in order to determine the influence of the new parameters that were induced by the use of reflectors. The parameters that were considered for this study are: the use or no-use of outer reflectors, the number of reflectors equipping the solar collector, and finally the reflectors inclination. The obtained results showed that the enhancement had a great effect on the performance of the solar collector. Indeed, the operating temperature range as well as the availability of the solar collector had increased. This allows the solar collector to work even during days with low solar radiation.

Keywords: New design; solar collector; flat outer reflectors; performance; experiment.