Parametric Study of a Flat Plate Wick Assisted Heat Pipe Solar Collector

The use of heat pipes in solar collectors offers several advantages regarding flexibility in operation and application, as they are very efficient in transporting heat even under a small temperature difference. Compared with other systems powered by evacuated tube collectors or flat plate solar collectors using a wickless heat pipe, little attention has been paid to a flat plate solar collectors wick assisted heat pipe. In this paper an analytical model based on energy balance equations assuming a steady state condition was developed to evaluate the thermal efficiency of a flat plate wick assisted heat pipe solar collector. Parameters which affect the collector efficiency are identified, such as tube spacing distance, gap spacing between the absorber plate and the glazing cover, and the emissivity of the absorber plate. The results reflect the contribution and significance of each of these parameters to the collector overall heat loss coefficients. Three heat pipe working fluids are examined and results show that acetone performs better than methanol and ethanol.