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Two-Phase Closed-Loop Thermosyphon Solar Water Heater with Porous Wick Structure: Performance and Start-Up Time

  • Research Article - Mechanical Engineering
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Abstract

Two-phase closed-loop thermosyphons (TPCLTs) are highly efficient heat transfer devices capable of transporting thermal energy over long distances without the need for other mechanical forces, such as pumPWS. This makes TPCLTs particularly suitable for applications involving solar water heaters. Our objective in this work was to increase the performance of TPCLT solar water heaters by using an evaporator with a porous wick structure (PWS) to achieve a low heat transfer coefficient. Experiments were conducted under three conditions: (1) 40% fill ratio using an evaporator without a PWS, (2) 60% fill ratio using an evaporator without a PWS, (3) 60% fill ratio using an evaporator with a PWS. Our results demonstrate that employing a PWS within the evaporator can enhance efficiency by 12.7% and decrease start-up time by 26.5% under low heating power.

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Abbreviations

\({C}_{{p}}\) :

Heat capacity of water (J/g K)

m :

Water quantity in the tank (g)

P :

Power supply output power (W)

Q :

Energy (J)

T :

Temperature (\({^{\circ }}\hbox {C}\))

V \(^{+}\) :

Filling ratio

V :

Volume \((\hbox {mm}^{3})\)

\({\eta }_{\mathrm{th}}\) :

Efficiency

filling:

Inventory of working fluid used to charge the loop

in:

Total input power

stored:

Thermal energy in water tank

t1:

Loop start time

t2:

End of data recording

total:

Total volume of the loop

w,t :

Average temperature of water tank at time t

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering and System Science, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu City, Taiwan

    Chien Huang, Wei-Keng Lin & Sung-Ren Wang

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  1. Chien Huang
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  2. Wei-Keng Lin
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Correspondence to Wei-Keng Lin.

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Huang, C., Lin, WK. & Wang, SR. Two-Phase Closed-Loop Thermosyphon Solar Water Heater with Porous Wick Structure: Performance and Start-Up Time. Arab J Sci Eng 42, 4885–4894 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-017-2660-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-017-2660-6

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