Multi-thermal performance optimization of semi-circular heat pipes integrated with various solar collector profiles

Mohammed Yunus,Mohammad S Alsoufi

doi:10.1186/s40807-020-00066-3

Abstract

Solar collector (SC) technology has proved promising applications in heating, desalination, refrigeration of water, etc. Thermal performance (TP) of Heat Pipe (HP) improves by combining the various profiled absorber plate with a flat-plate collector. The objective is to study HP attributes' effect (heat inputs, pipe inclinations, and mass flow rates of water) with various profiles of absorber plates in a flat-plate SC on the TP. Semi-circular HP combining with the flat, V-grooved, and V-troughed absorber plates in a flat-plate collector improved TP. They are heat output, thermal resistance, and overall efficiency explored experimentally by adapting the response surface method's (RSM) central composite design. A major impacting applicant factor was heat input for improving TPs, and correlation models were generated from ANOVA. The optimal input attributes are obtained to minimize thermal resistance and maximize heat output and overall efficiency from RSM and desirability function. Confirmation test was conducted using optimal settings and their corresponding estimated values of the TP attributes to compare with the experimental results shown very close agreement between them established.

Highlights

The amount of renewable energy required for day-to-day activities is increasing, leading to a rise in global warming, carbon emissions, technological innovations, and the scarcity of fossil fuels due to rapid urbanization and industrialization worldwide
The wick has two layers of 50 in2 mesh formed by a stainlesssteel screen of 12 × 24 and thickness of 1.2 mm connected to the evaporator region, set in a flat, V-grooved, and V-trough absorber plates
Results of ANOVA for heat output (HO), thermal resistance (TR), and thermal efficiency (TE) The output characteristics of three absorber plates are given in the form of ANOVA (Tables 3, 4, and 5), showing the model F value more than four imply that the model is significant in the three types of absorber plates

Summary

Introduction

The amount of renewable energy required for day-to-day activities is increasing, leading to a rise in global warming, carbon emissions, technological innovations, and the scarcity of fossil fuels due to rapid urbanization and industrialization worldwide. In a quest for clean and renewable energy technology, solar collectors have been successfully used in the heating, refrigeration, desalination of water, heat pumps, etc. HP efficiency depends on the geometry (the area of condenser sectional surface) using a theoretical and experimental study of the wickless HP solar collectors used in water heating using a heat exchanger of the cross-flow condenser type (CFCHE) (Hussein 2003). The effect of the various cross section of HP (circular, elliptical, and semi-circular) and water at different filling ratios (10%, 20%, and 35%) was conducted experimentally by a fixed flow rate with declined input temperature of cooling water and at quasisteady-state condition during the morning and the afternoon, respectively (Hussein et al 2006)

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Conclusion