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Theoretical investigation on thermal performance of heat pipe flat plate solar collector with cross flow heat exchanger

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Abstract

Based on the heat transfer characteristics of absorber plate and the heat transfer effectiveness-number of heat transfer unit method of heat exchanger, a new theoretical method of analyzing the thermal performance of heat pipe flat plate solar collector with cross flow heat exchanger has been put forward and validated by comparisons with the experimental and numerical results in pre-existing literature. The proposed theoretical method can be used to analyze and discuss the influence of relevant parameters on the thermal performance of heat pipe flat plate solar collector.

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Abbreviations

C p :

Specific heat capacity at constant pressure (J kg−1 K−1)

D :

Heat pipe diameter (m)

G :

Mass flow rate of heated fluid, (kg s−1)

I o :

Solar intensity (W m−2)

L e :

Length of heat pipe evaporator section (m)

L c :

Length of heat pipe condenser section (m)

N :

Heat pipe number

NTU :

Number of heat transfer unit

Nu :

Nusselt number

Pr :

Prandtl number

Re :

Reynolds number

S :

Absorbed solar intensity (W m−2)

T a :

Ambient temperature (K)

T b :

Wall temperature of heat pipe region (K)

T hp :

Working fluid temperature of heat pipe (K)

T i :

Heated fluid inlet temperature (K)

U L :

Collector overall heat loss coefficient (W m−2 K−1)

U :

Heat convection coefficient, (W m−2 K−1)

W :

Pitch distance between the heat pipe (m)

α :

Absorptivity

δ :

Absorber plate thickness (m)

λ :

Thermal conductivity (W m−1 K−1)

τ :

Transmissivity of glass cover, local time (h)

ε :

Heat transfer effectiveness

η :

Thermal efficiency

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No.51076171). The authors also wish to thank the support from Natural Science Foundation Project of CQ CSTC (CSTC, 2010BB6062) and Project No. CDJXS 10141147 supported by Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Low-grade Energy Utilization Technologies and Systems, Ministry of Education, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China

    Lan Xiao, Shuang-Ying Wu, Qiao-Ling Zhang & You-Rong Li

  2. College of Power Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China

    Lan Xiao, Shuang-Ying Wu, Qiao-Ling Zhang & You-Rong Li

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  1. Lan Xiao
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  2. Shuang-Ying Wu
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  3. Qiao-Ling Zhang
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Correspondence to Shuang-Ying Wu.

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Xiao, L., Wu, SY., Zhang, QL. et al. Theoretical investigation on thermal performance of heat pipe flat plate solar collector with cross flow heat exchanger. Heat Mass Transfer 48, 1167–1176 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-012-0972-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-012-0972-3

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