Energy and Exergy Analysis of Evacuated Tubes Solar Air Collector with Micro-Heat Pipes Arrays (MHPA)

Abstract

Solar air collector (SAC) occupies an important place among solar air heating systems because of simpler structure and lower manufacturing costs compared with a solar water collector. In order to improve the performance of SAC, micro-heat pipe arrays (MHPA) technique has been introduced in the presented study. MHPA looks like a flat aluminum plate with several independent micro-heat pipes in it, which owned extremely high heat transfer efficiency based on the phase change heat transfer. In this study, a type of evacuated tubes solar air collector (ETSAC) with MHPA is investigated based on exergy analysis. ETSAC with MHPA mainly comprises with several heat-collecting units, an air duct and a fan. Each heat-collecting unit is made up of a glass evacuated tube, an MHPA and a set of fins attached on the condenser section of MHPA. Solar energy is absorbed and transferred by the collecting unit, and the air can be heated do not need flow into the evacuated tube directly, but just rely on the convective heat transfer occurred in the air duct between the air and condenser fins. A detailed parametric study is conducted to examine the effects of various operation parameters on energy and exergy efficiencies. Results indicated that the energy efficiency of the collector is approximately 69% and corresponding exergy efficiency is about 59%. Exergy efficiency can be used as the main criterion to evaluate the performance of MHPA-ETSAC. As an energy saving and emission reduction product, MHPA-ETSAC provide a new approach.



Author Information
Tingting Zhu, Beijing University of Technology, China
Yanhua Diao, Beijing University of Technology, China
Yaohua Zhao, Beijing University of Technology, China
Cheng Ma, Beijing University of Technology, China
Tengyue Wang, Beijing University of Technology, China

Paper Information
Conference: IICSEEHawaii2017
Stream: Energy: Renewable Energy and Environmental Solutions

This paper is part of the IICSEEHawaii2017 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon