Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Energy and exergy evaluation of an integrated solar heat pipe wall system for space heating

  • Published:
Sādhanā Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this paper, an integrated solar heat pipe wall space heating system, employing double glazed heat pipe evacuated tube solar collector and forced convective heat transfer condenser, is introduced. Thermal performance of the heat pipe solar collector is studied and a numerical model is developed to investigate the thermal efficiency of the system, the inlet and outlet air temperatures and heat pipe temperature. Furthermore, the system performance is evaluated based on exergy efficiency. In order to verify the precision of the developed model, the numerical results are compared with experimental data. Parametric sensitivity for design features and material associated with the heat pipe, collector cover and insulation is evaluated to provide a combination with higher thermal performance. Simulation results show that applying a solar collector with more than 30 heat pipes is not efficient. The rate of increasing in temperature of air becomes negligible after 30 heat pipes and the trend of the thermal efficiency is descending with increasing heat pipes. The results also indicate that at a cold winter day of January, the proposed system with a 20 heat pipe collector shows maximum energy and exergy efficiency of 56.8% and 7.2%, which can afford warm air up to 30°C. At the end, the capability of the proposed system to meet the heating demand of a building is investigated. It is concluded that the best method to reach a higher thermal covered area is to apply parallel collectors.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7
Figure 8
Figure 9
Figure 10
Figure 11
Figure 12

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Dunn P D and Reay D A 1982 Heat pipe, 3rd edition, New York: Pergamon Press

    Google Scholar 

  2. Faghri A 1995 Heat pipe science and technology. London: Taylor & Francis

    Google Scholar 

  3. Corliss J M 1979 Evaluation of heat pipe application for passive solar systems. DOE Report Department of Energy, Washington DC

  4. Rice W J 1984 Performance of passive and hybrid solar heating systems. Int. J. Ambient Energy 5(4): 171–186

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Albanese M V, Robinson B S, Brehob E G and Sharp M K 2012 Simulated and experimental performance of a heat pipe assisted solar wall. Sol. Energy 86(5): 1552–1562

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Robinson B S, Chmielewski N E, Knox-Kelecy A, Brehob E G and Sharp M K 2013 Heating season performance of a full-scale heat pipe assisted solar wall. Sol. Energy 87: 76–83

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Du B, Hu E and Kolhe M 2013 An experimental platform for heat pipe solar collector testing. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 17: 119–125

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Varga S, Oliveira A C and Afonso C F 2002 Characterization of thermal diode panels for use in the cooling season in buildings. Energy Build. 34(3): 227–235

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Chan H Y, Riffat S B and Zhu J 2010 Review of passive solar heating and cooling technologies. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 14(2): 781–789

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Rosen M A and Dincer I 2003 Exergy methods for assessing and comparing thermal storage systems. Int. J. Energy Res. 27(4): 415–430

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Szargut J, Morris D R and Stewart F R 1998 Exergy analysis of thermal, chemical and metallurgical processes. USA: Edwards Brothers Inc

    Google Scholar 

  12. Akpinar E K and Koçyiğit F 2010 Energy and exergy analysis of a new flat-plate solar air heater having different obstacles on absorber plates. Appl. Energy 87(11): 3438–3450

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Bouadila S, Lazaar M, Skouri S, Kooli S and Farhat A 2014 Energy and exergy analysis of a new solar air heater with latent storage energy. Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 39(27): 15266–15274

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Gunerhan H and Hepbasli A 2007 Exergetic modeling and performance evaluation of solar water heating systems for building applications. Energy Build. 39(5): 509–516

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Bayrak F, Oztop H F and Hepbasli A 2013 Energy and exergy analyses of porous baffles inserted solar air heaters for building applications. Energy Build. 57: 338–345

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Wang Z, Duan Z, Zhao X and Chen M 2012 Dynamic performance of a facade-based solar loop heat pipe water heating system. J. Sol. Energy 86(5): 1632–1647

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Riffat S B, Zhao X and Doherty P S 2005 Developing a theoretical model to investigate thermal performance of a thin membrane heat-pipe solar collector. Appl. Therm. Eng. 25 (5–6): 899–915

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Lienhard J H IV and Lienhard J H V 2008 DOE fundamentals handbook: thermodynamics, heat transfer, and fluid flow. Washington, DC: US Department of Energy

    Google Scholar 

  19. Incropera F and DeWitt D 2002 Introduction to heat transfer, 5th edition, New York: Wiley

    Google Scholar 

  20. Azad E 2008 Theoretical and experimental investigation of heat pipe solar collector. Exp. Therm. Fluid Sci. 32(8): 1666–1672

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Bienert B 1973 Heat pipes for solar collectors. In: Proceedings of the 1st international heat pipe conference, Stuttgart, Germany

  22. Hartley A 2006 Fuel poverty. Birmingham: West Midlands Public Health Observatory

    Google Scholar 

  23. Tabatabaee M H 2008 Construction installation calculation. Tehran: Kelid Amoozesh pub

    Google Scholar 

  24. Singh N, Kaushik S C and Misra R D 2000 Exergetic analysis of a solar thermal power system. Renew. Energy 19(1–2): 135–143

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Petela R 2003 Exergy of undiluted thermal radiation. Sol. Energy 74(6): 469–488

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Peters Ca 2001 Statistics for analysis of experimental data. Champaign, IL: Environmental Engineering Processes Laboratory Manual, AEESP

    Google Scholar 

  27. Trnsys 16.00.0037, 2005 Weather data reading and processing

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Kurdistan, Kurdistan, Iran

    Roonak Daghigh & Abdellah Shafieian

Authors
  1. Roonak Daghigh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Abdellah Shafieian
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Roonak Daghigh.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Daghigh, R., Shafieian, A. Energy and exergy evaluation of an integrated solar heat pipe wall system for space heating. Sādhanā 41, 877–886 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12046-016-0517-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12046-016-0517-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation