Theoretical model of an evacuated tube heat pipe solar collector integrated with phase change material

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to model theoretically a solar hot water system consisting of an array of ETHPSC (evacuated tube heat pipe solar collectors) connected to a common manifold filled with phase change material and acting as a LHTES (latent heat thermal energy storage) tank. Solar energy incident on the ETHPSC is collected and stored in the LHTES tank. The stored heat is then transferred to the domestic hot water supply via a finned heat exchanger pipe placed inside the tank. A combination of mathematical algorithms is used to model a complete process of the heat absorption, storage and release modes of the proposed system. The results show that for a large range of flow rates, the thermal performance of the ETHPSC-LHTES system is higher than that of a similar system without latent heat storage. Furthermore, the analysis shows that the efficiency of the introduced system is less sensitive to the draw off water flowrate than a conventional system. Analysis indicates that this system could be applicable as a complementary part to conventional ETHPSC systems to be able to produce hot water at night time or at times with weak radiation.