This work studies the performance of heat pipe solar collector for water heating. Experimental results are validated using numerical modeling. Homemade heat pipes with distilled water as a working fluid were used for experimental tests. Both natural and forced convective heat pipe condensing mechanisms are studied and their results are compared with conventional natural circulation solar water heating system. Cross flow and parallel flow heat exchanger were tested in forced type heat pipe condensing mechanism. Experimental and numerical results showed good agreement. Heat pipe solar collectors outperformed conventional solar collector because of their efficient heat transport method. Forced convective heat exchanger was found to give higher efficiency compared to natural convective heat pipe condensing system. However, natural convective heat pipe condensing is free from parasitic power and low system weight. It also showed appreciable system efficiency and can be further developed to be used in rural areas where grid electricity is scarce. Cross flow and parallel flow heat exchanger have been tested for forced convective heat pipe condensing mechanism and no appreciable difference was found due to higher fluid velocity in heat exchangers.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:kth-77378 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Endalew, Abebe |
| Publisher | KTH, Tillämpad termodynamik och kylteknik |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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