Applied Thermal Engineering 118 (2017) 113–126

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Research Paper

Numerical simulation investigation on thermal performance of heat pipe

flat-plate solar collector
Dongwei Zhang a, Hanzhong Tao a,⇑, Mimi Wang a, Zishuai Sun b, Chuan Jiang c
a
College of Energy Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 211800, China
b
The Corporation of Towngas, Changzhou, Jiangsu 213000, China
c
Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Solar Energy Science and Technology, College of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210096, China

h i g h l i g h t s g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t

Thermal performance of heat pipe
flat-pipe solar collector is studied by
CFD method.

Physical model of heat pipe is
established by thermal resistance
networks.

Structural parameter analysis are
helpful to design and optimize the
collector.
Heat pipe flat-plate solar collector provides a method to solve the problems of the fouling, frost-heave
deformation and low thermal efficiency of flat-plate solar collector. Temperature field of the absorber
plate, flow condition and temperature counter of the air gap are described. The effects of heat pipe diam-
eter, evaporator length, absorber plate thickness and inclination angle on the thermal performance of col-
lector are studied, the results of which provide guidance for the design and optimization of the heat pipe
flat-plate solar collector.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Based on finite volume method, the thermal performance of three-dimensional heat pipe flat-plate solar
Received 24 April 2016 collector is studied under steady-state. A physical model of two-phase closed thermosyphon is estab-
Revised 8 February 2017 lished by taking account of the thermal resistance networks. The temperature field of absorber plate
Accepted 19 February 2017
and flow condition as well as temperature counter of the air gap between the absorber plate and glass
Available online 24 February 2017
cover of a simulation case are described. Structure parameters such as the heat pipe diameter, the evap-
orator length, the absorber plate thickness and the inclination angle on the thermal performance of the
Keywords:
collector are deeply discussed and analyzed. The results show that: The heat pipe diameter of 12 mm is
Numerical simulation
Heat pipe
helpful for increasing the useful heat gain of water and instantaneous efficiency. Increasing the evapora-
Flat-plate solar collector tor length can increase the average useful heat gain of water but decrease the instantaneous efficiency of
Thermal resistance network the collector. Increasing the absorber plate thickness can both improve the average useful heat gain of
Useful heat gain water and instantaneous efficiency of the collector. The inclination angle between 30° and 45° is appro-
Instantaneous efficiency priate when the collector placed towards south in Nanjing of China. The research results are helpful to
design and optimize the heat pipe flat-plate solar collector.
Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: taohanzhong@njtech.edu.cn (H. Tao).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2017.02.089
1359-4311/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
114 D. Zhang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 118 (2017) 113–126

Nomenclature

A area, m2 Greek symbols

b glass cover thickness, mm a absorption rate, %
c air gap thickness, mm b expansion coefficient of thermal tilt angle, degree
c1 empirical constant, c1 ¼ 1:44 e turbulent dissipation rate
c2 empirical constant, c2 ¼ 1:92 eg glass cover emissivity
cl empirical constant, cl ¼ 0:09 ep absorber plate emissivity
cp specific heat capacity of fluid, J/(kgK) h deviation, %
D out diameter of heat pipe, mm g instantaneous efficiency of collector
Di inner diameter of heat pipe, mm k thermal conductivity, W/(mK)
e insulation thickness, mm l dynamic viscosity, kg/(ms)
g acceleration of gravity, m/s2 q density, kg/m3
h heat transfer coefficient, W/(m2K) r Stephen - Boltzmann constant; 5.67  108 W/(m2K4)
hc heat transfer coefficient of outer surface in condense of rk turbulent kinetic energy corresponding to Prandtl num-
heat pipe, W/(m2K) ber, rk ¼ 1:0
hfg latent heat, J/kg re turbulent dissipation rate corresponding to Prandtl
hga convective heat transfer coefficient between ambient air number, re ¼ 1:3
and the glass cover, W/(m2K) d absorber plate thickness, mm
I total solar radiation intensity, W/m2 sg glass cover transmittance
k turbulent kinetic energy w average deviation, %
L heat pipe length, mm
Lc length of condenser, mm Subscripts
Le length of evaporator, mm a ambient, air
qm mass flow, kg/s c condenser
p pressure, Pa e evaporator
Q solar thermal energy absorbed by absorber plate, W f fluid
Qw useful heat gain of water, W g glass cover
qe heat flux, W ga glass cover-ambient
R thermal resistance, °C/W i inlet, inner, interface
s heat pipe wall thickness, mm l liquid
T temperature, K v vapor
T average temperature, K o constant, out
~
U velocity vector p absorber plate
u velocity of x direction, m/s pg absorber plate-glass cover
v velocity of y direction, m/s s solid
Vw ambient wind speed, m/s sat saturated state
W collector tube spacing, m tot total
w velocity of z direction, m/s w wind, water, wall

1. Introduction
Solar thermal utilization is an effective way to reduce the tradi-
tional fossil energy consumption and it has a broad development
prospect. Compared with other types of solar thermal utilization,
solar water heating system has been the most developed renew-
able energy technologies and widely used all over the world. As
is known to all, the most important factor affecting the thermal
performance of the solar water heating system is the efficiency
of the solar energy collector. Various collectors have been well
studied and developed in the past several years, including all glass
vacuum tubes collectors [1,2], glass vacuum collector with U-type
tubes [3–5] and conventional flat-plate collectors [6–10], etc. Many
factors such as the relative high efficiency, simple structure, low
manufacture and maintenance cost have made the collectors very
competitive especially for the low-temperature thermal systems
fields. However, the tubes are full of water when the collector is
working, which would result in two main problems. The first is
the fouling phenomenon on the inner surface of the tube after long
time operation and the second is the frost-heave deformation hap-
pened in the cold high latitudes areas, both of which are the root of
low heat exchange efficiency of the flat-plate collector. In order to
solve these two problems above, combining the heat pipe and con-
ventional flat-plate collector is coming. As we all know that the
heat pipe is a high efficient heat transfer component through the
phase-changing of the working fluid, including the evaporation
and condensation. The heat transfer efficiency of the heat pipe is
much higher than that of any other metal materials have been
studied [11]. Heat pipe technology has been utilized in many kinds
of industries until now, such as the aerospace [12,13], the electron-
ics cooling [14–16] and the waste heat recovery [17–19]. However,
the two-phase closed thermosyphon wickless heat pipe is widely
used in solar energy thermal application and the theoretical and
experimental research on the heat pipe in solar thermal utilization
can be found in recent open literature.
Many researchers have made a lot of theoretical analysis [20,21]
and experimental studies [22,23] on the heat pipe flat-plate solar
collector in the past few decades. For example: Ayompe et al.
[20] studied the heat pipe evacuated tube collectors in water heat-
ing systems through the TRNSYS model. Xiao et al. [21] proposed a
theoretical method to analyze and discussed the influence of rele-
vant parameters on the thermal performance of heat pipe flat-plate
solar collector. Jalilian et al. [22] experimentally investigated the
behavior of a Pulsating Heat Pipe Flat-Plate Solar Collector, the
 D. Zhang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 118 (2017) 113–126
behavior of which was trained, predicted and optimized by the
multilayer perceptron neural network. Azad [23] both theoretically
and experimentally investigated the heat pipe solar collector on
the thermal efficiency of the collector and studied the inlet and
outlet water temperatures as well as the heat pipe temperature
fields in a water heating system.
With the development of computer technology and CFD technol-
ogy, numerical simulation investigation has been playing more and
more important role in heat and mass transfer fields. But it is diffi-
cult to achieve the direct simulation of heat pipe because of the
complexity of the phase-changing and flowing of the working fluid
in the heat pipe. For example: Faghri [24] put forward the concept of
the thermal resistance networks of the heat pipe, which provided
convenience for the numerical simulation of the heat pipe and
neglected the complex phase change process inside the heat pipe.
There are also researchers [25–32] who have attempted to
study the heat pipe through the thermal resistance networks. For
example: Hussein [25] studied the performance of wickless heat
pipe for solar water heating using transient heat transfer models
and optimized different system parameters. Mathioulakis and
Belessiotis [26] investigated new ethanol heat pipe solar collector
for water heating by assuming a steady state condition in the heat
pipe both theoretically and experimentally, in which the working
fluid operates at a saturated pressure and temperature with no
thermal capacitance in the heat pipe sections. The evaporation heat
transfer resistance of this study has been considered with no infor-
mation given on the condensation and vapor heat transfer resis-
tances. Chen et al. [27] studied a two-phase thermosyphon solar
collector with the alcohol as working fluid. Thermal resistance-
capacitance model was developed and the working fluid capaci-
tance was negligible and it was found that the thermal resistance
of the working fluid vapor resistance was far smaller than that of
evaporation and condensation. Wei et al. [28] studied the flat-
plate collector by using one large integrated wickless heat pipe
instead of side-by-side separate heat pipe. But the risk of invalida-
tion of the whole collector would be higher than that of the side-
by-side separate heat pipe collectors. Experimental and theoretical
analysis of the effect of Lc/Le ratio of the elliptical heat pipe with
stainless steel wick under different cooling water mass flow rates
and inlet cooling water temperature have been analyzed by
Sivakumar [29]. Moreover, the effect of radiation, ambient temper-
ature, and the tilt angle on the solar collectors were numerically
and experimentally investigated in Ref. [30]. Tardy et al. [31] and
Ismail [32] have also studied the heat pipe for thermal storage
and solar collector respectively. Saturated temperature and pres-
sure were assumed of the working fluid inside the heat pipe and
only the evaporation and condensation thermal resistances have
been considered in their models.
The physical model of two-phase closed thermosyphon heat
pipe is established through the thermal resistance networks in this
paper. The collector is numerically simulated based on the finite
volume method. The operation and geometric parameters, includ-
ing the solar radiation intensity, the diameter of the heat pipe, the
length of evaporation, the thickness of absorber plate and the incli-
nation angle are investigated on the useful heat gain of water and
the instantaneous efficiency of the collector, which can be helpful
to optimize the design parameters of the heat pipe flat-plate solar
collector.
2. Description of the simulation
2.1. Geometrical and physical model
The model of the heat pipe flat-plate solar collector is shown in
Fig. 1, which is consist of two-phase closed thermosyphon heat
115
pipe, absorber plate, insulation layer, glass cover, cross flow heat
exchanger and shell, etc. The construction and geometric parame-
ters of the model are shown in Fig. 2 and Table 1 respectively. The
heat pipe was welded on the outer wall of absorber plate and the
material of the heat pipe wall and the absorber plate is cooper.
So the contact thermal resistance between the absorber plate and
heat pipe wall can be ignored. The condenser section of the heat
pipes is placed at the cross flow of heat exchanger at the top of
the collector, the adiabatic section between the evaporator and
condenser of the heat pipe is insulated by the rock wool. Water
is used as the working fluid of the cross flow heat exchanger and
the physical parameters of materials used in this study are listed
in Table 2. The operation process of the collector is described as fol-
lowing: The absorber plate is heated by the solar radiation, which
is radiated through the glass cover. The thermal energy is con-
ducted to the outer surface of the evaporator wall through the
absorber plate and then transferred to the inner surface of the
evaporator. The working fluid of the heat pipe is heated to vaporize
through the convection heat transfer and the water vapor rapidly
flows from the evaporator to the condenser of the heat pipe
through the adiabatic section driven by the pressure difference.
From this, the thermal energy is transferred to the inner surface
of the condenser with the method of phase changing from vapor
to liquid water. And then the energy is transferred to the water
of the cross flow heat exchanger by the thermal conduction from
inner to outer surface of the condenser and convection transfer
from the outer surface to the water [11]. Thus, the thermal energy
is transferred from the absorber plate to the water and the heat
transfer process is realized.
In order to simplify the collector model, several assumptions
are necessary and listed as follows:
(1) The thermal resistance of vapor flow is assumed to be
negligible.
(2) The heat loss in the adiabatic section of the heat pipe is
ignored.
(3) The heat transfer between the solar collector and heat pipe is
steady.
(4) The whole sides and edges of the collector are well insulated,
so the heat loss in these section can be neglected.
(5) No temperature gradient exists along with the axial direc-
tion in each section of the heat pipe.
(6) Ignoring the contact thermal resistance between the absor-
ber plate and heat pipe wall.
(7) The physical properties of the solid material and water used
in the simulation of this paper are constant.
The model of two-phase closed thermosyphon heat pipe in the
solar collector is constructed by thermal resistance networks [24]
(see in Fig. 3) and the total thermal resistance of the heat pipe
can be calculated by the following equation:
Rtot ¼ Re þ Rw;e þ Ri;e þ Rv oap þ Ri;c þ Rw;c þ Rc ð1Þ
The Re and Rc are the evaporator and condenser convection heat
transfer thermal resistance on the outer surface respectively,
which are calculated by Eq. (2).
Q 1 Q 1
Re ¼ ¼ and Rc ¼ ¼ ð2Þ
T p  T w;o;e he Ae T w;o;c  T w hc Ac
where Ae , Ac are the evaporator and condenser area of the outer sur-
face, T p , T w are the average temperature of the absorber plate and
water, T w;o;e , T w;o;c are the evaporator and condenser temperature
of the outer surface.
116 D. Zhang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 118 (2017) 113–126

Fig. 1. Heat pipe flat-plate solar collector. (a) Heat pipe flat-plate solar collector. (b) Unit structure diagram of heat pipe flat-plate solar collector (enlarged).

Fig. 2. Sketch of heat pipe flat-plate solar collector.

 D. Zhang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 118 (2017) 113–126 117

!
0:7 0:2 0:4  0:3
Table 1 q0:65
l k0:3
l c pl g qe psat
Dimensions of the collector (unit: mm). hi;e ¼ 0:32 0:4 0:1
ð5Þ
v hfg l
q0:25 pa
l
Name of parameter Symbol Value
Heat pipe length L 650–900 and the average heat transfer coefficient of the condensation is cal-
Collector tube spacing W 135 culated by:
Collector tube diameter D 8–16
( )0:25
Heat pipe wall thickness s 1
ql gk3l ðql  qv Þ½hfg þ 0:68cpl ðT sat  T w Þ
Absorber plate thickness d 0.1–2.2 hi;c ¼ 0:943 ð6Þ
Insulation thickness e 30 ll Lc ðT sat  T w Þ
Glass cover thickness b 4
Air gap thickness c 45 Finally, due to that the vapor is saturated and the vapor temper-
ature difference in the evaporator and the condenser is neglected.
Zuo and Faghri [33] suggested that the vapor flow thermal resis-
tance Rv can be neglected without causing significant errors.
Table 2
Physical parameters of materials. 2.2. Mathematical model
Copper Rockwool Glass cover
For three-dimensional steady flow and heat transfer of the heat
Density, kg/m3 8920 140 2220
Specific heat capacity, J/(kgK) 385 1220 830 pipe flat-plate solar collector, the governing equations are listed as
Thermal conductivity, J/(mK) 398 0.039 0.76 followings:
Transmissivity 0 0 0.9
Emissivity 0.1 – 0.9
(1) Mass conservation equation:
Absorptivity 0.9 – 0.1

div ðUÞ ¼ 0 ð7Þ

(2) Momentum conservation equations:
1 @p
div ðuUÞ
~ ¼ div ðv graduÞ  ð8aÞ
q @x

1 @p
div ðv UÞ
~ ¼ div ðv gradv Þ  ð8bÞ
q @y

1 @p
div ðwUÞ
~ ¼ div ðv gradwÞ  ð8cÞ
q @z
(3) Energy conservation equation of fluid and solid are
respectively:
 
k
div ðUTÞ
~ ¼ div gradT ð9Þ
qcp

@T 2 @T 2 @T 2
þ þ ¼0 ð10Þ
Fig. 3. Heat pipe thermal resistance networks. @x2 @y2 @z2
The numerical computation of fluid flow is presented using
The Rw;e and Rw;c are the wall conduction thermal resistance of standard k  e model and the k, e equations [34] are listed as
the evaporator and condenser respectively, which are calculated follows:
by Eq. (3).
  
@ @ lt @k


 ðqkui Þ ¼ lþ þ Gk  qe ð11Þ
D D
@xi @xj rk @xj
Q ln Di Q ln Di
Rw;e ¼ ¼ and Rw;c ¼ ¼   
T w;o;e  T w;i;e 2pkw Le T w;i;c  T w;o;c 2pkw Lc @ @ lt @ e e e2
ðqkui Þ ¼ lþ þ c 1 Gk  c 2 q ð12Þ
ð3Þ @xi @xj re @xj k k

where T w;i;e , T w;i;c are the inner surface temperature of the evapora- where Gk represents the average velocity gradient generated by the
tor and condenser. turbulent kinetic energy caused by k, which is calculated by Eq.
The Ri;e is the thermal resistance of evaporation section in heat (13).
pipe and Ri;c is the heat transfer thermal resistance of inner wall of ( "   2  2 #
@v
2 2
the condenser section, which are calculated by Eq. (4). k @u @w
Gk ¼ qcl 2 þ þ
e @x @y @z
Ri;e ¼
Q
¼
1
and Ri;c ¼
Q
¼
1
ð4Þ  2  2  2 )
T w;i;e  T v ;e hi;e Ai;e T v ;c  T w;i;c hi;c Ai;c @u @ v @u @w @ v @w
þ þ þ þ þ þ ð13Þ
@y @x @z @x @z @y
where T v ;e , T v ;c are the vapor temperature in the evaporator and
condenser respectively, hi;e , hi;c are the heat transfer coefficients of the coefficients of Eqs. (11–13) are given by: c1 ¼ 1:44,
evaporation and condensation section, both of which are suggested c2 ¼ 1:92, cl ¼ 0:99, rk ¼ 1:0 and re ¼ 1:3.
by Zhuang et al. [11] to be replaced by the average heat transfer The governing equations are discretized by the finite volume
coefficient calculated in Eqs. (5) and (6) respectively. method and the discrete equations are selected by the second-
The average heat transfer coefficient of the evaporation is calcu- order upwind difference scheme. The SIMPLE (Simi-Implicit Pres-
lated by: sure Linked Equation) algorithm of Patankar [35] is used to deal
118 D. Zhang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 118 (2017) 113–126

" #
1:6  þ
with the pressure-velocity coupling. In the solving process, when hpg c 1708ðsin 1:8bÞ 1708
the variables residual of continuity equation, momentum equation, Nu ¼ ¼ 1 þ 1:44 1  1
kair Ra cos b Ra cos b
k equation and e equation are less than 107 and the residual error " 1=3 #þ
of energy equations is less than 1010 that it is considered conver- Ra cos b
þ 1 ð23Þ
gence of the calculation. 5830
Boussinesq assumption equation [36] on air is defined as:

ðqa;T  qTa Þg  qTa ba ðT  T a Þg ð14Þ where V w is the wind velocity, b is the tilt angle between the collec-
tor and the horizontal plane. The notation [ ]+ designates that the
where qa;T is the density of air temperature, qTa is the density of air quantity in the square bracket is setting to zero if it is negative.
at ambient temperature and ba is the thermal expansion coefficient The energy balance equation of the water in the cross flow heat
of air. exchanger is:
The boundary conditions for the solar collector are as follows:
Velocity inlet boundary condition is adopted at the inlet of the qm;w cp;w ðT w;o  T w;i Þ ¼ Ac hc ðT c  T w Þ ð24Þ
cross flow heat exchanger:
u ¼ ui ; v ¼ 0; v ¼ 0 ð15Þ where T W is qualitative temperature of water, which is defined as:

T ¼ Ti ð16Þ T w;i þ T w;o

TW ¼ ð25Þ
2
Pressure outlet boundary condition is adopted at the outlet of
When the collector operates under the steady-state condition,
the cross flow heat exchanger:
the useful energy absorbed by water per unit time is calculated by:
po ¼ pa ¼ 0:1013 MPa ð17Þ
Q w ¼ qm;w cp;w ðT w;o  T w;i Þ ð26Þ
The coupling wall boundary at the solid-fluid interface is
applied. The solar radiation heat on the collector absorber plate per unit
time is:
Ts ¼ Tf ð18Þ
Q solar ¼ IAp ð27Þ
u¼v ¼w¼0 ð19Þ
The instantaneous efficiency of the solar collector expresses the
No-slip boundary condition is used close to the wall of the fluid,
ratio of useful heat gain of water from the radiation energy falling
as shown in Eq. (19).
on the absorber plate, which is shown in Eq. (28).
Symmetry boundary conditions are adopted to both sides of the
model (see Fig. 1(b)). In order to simplify the simulation model, the
Q_ w
radiation intensity is loaded on the upper surface of the absorber g¼ ð28Þ
plate directly. Q solar
According to the Chinese standard [37], European standard [38]
and Jiandong et al. [6], the wind speed of the ambient is assumed
as 4 m/s. 4. Grid independence test

3. Theoretical analysis It is divided of using the hexahedral structured grid for the heat
pipe flat-plate solar collector. The grid near the heat pipe was
The theoretical analysis on the heat transfer process of the heat encrypted in order to improve the calculation accuracy of heat
pipe flat-plate solar collector is focusing on three main parts, transfer around the heat pipe. Both the grid distribution of the
including the glass cover, the heat pipe absorber plate and the numerical model and an enlarged view of the boundary layers
water in the cross flow heat exchanger. around the heat pipe (shown in yellow1 area) are shown in Fig. 4,
where the minimum and maximum size of the mesh elements is
(1) The energy balance equation on the glass cover is: 0.2 mm and 7 mm respectively and the growth rate of boundary lay-
ers is 1.2. The geometric parameters used in the verification model
T 4p  T 4g are listed in Table 3 and the grid independence test results are
ag IAg þ Ag hpg ðT p  T g Þ þ rAp 1 shown in Fig. 5, where the instantaneous efficiency deviation with
ep þ e1g  1
the number of mesh nodes is defined as:
¼ Ag hga ðT g  T a Þ þ Ag eg rðT 4g  T 4a Þ ð20Þ
gnþ1  gn
where ag , eg are the absorption and emissivity rate of glass and I is h¼  100% ð29Þ
gn
the total solar radiation intensity.
(2) The energy balance equation on the absorber plate is: Computing results of the instantaneous efficiency under differ-
ent numbers of grids are shown in Table 4, from which it can be
T 4p  T 4g
Ag sg ap I ¼ Ag hpg ðT p  T g Þ þ Ap r þ nAh;e K nh;e ðT p  T w;i Þ seen that the efficiency changes quite slowly when the number
1
ep þ eg  1
1
of mesh nodes exceeds to 1.77 million. The instantaneous effi-
ð21Þ ciency of error between the calculation results of grid number of
1.77 million and 2.29 million is only 0.24%. Therefore, it was found
The heat transfer coefficients (hga and hpg ) in Eq. (21) were that when the number of grid is 1.77 million, it can satisfy the
calculated according to the empirical correlations proposed by Hol- requirement of calculation accuracy. In other words, the solution
lands et al. [39], both of which are calculated by Eqs. (22) and (23) of grid independence has been acquired.
respectively.
1
For interpretation of color in Fig. 4, the reader is referred to the web version of
hga ¼ 2:8 þ 3:0V w ð22Þ
this article.
 D. Zhang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 118 (2017) 113–126 119

(b) Enlarged view of boundey layers around the

heat pipe.

(a) The grid distribution of heat pipe

flat-plate solar collector.
Fig. 4. Mesh distribution in x direction.

Table 3
Model parameters (unit: mm).

Le Lc D W t c b e
750 100 12.7 135 0.9 50 4 50

5. Reliability tests of the numerical simulation
Several verification approaches are carried out to validate the
accuracy of the physical and mathematical models of the numeri-
cal simulations. In order to verify the accuracy of the calculation
results, the instantaneous efficiency of numerical simulation were
compared with the experimental results in the Ref. [25], which is
shown in Fig. 6.
The verification process between numerical simulation and
experiment results can be explained from the following four
aspects. The first is the model structure. Namely: the experiments
mentioned in Ref. [25] refers to a wickless heat pipes flat-plate
solar collector with a cross heat exchanger, which has the same
structure with the numerical simulation models shown in
Figs. 1 and 2. The second is the geometric model. Namely: the
dimension of the experiment including the absorber plate, the
wickless heat pipe and heat exchanger etc. has the same values
with that in Tables 1 and 3. The third is the physical parameter.
Namely: the physical properties of the material used in the exper-
imental system is the same with that in Table 2. The fourth is data
120 D. Zhang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 118 (2017) 113–126

0.55 6. Results and discussion

0.54 6.1. Absorber plate temperature fields

0.53 The absorber plate temperature fields of the collector at three

solar radiation intensity conditions are shown in Fig. 7 respec-
0.52 tively. As can been seen from the figure, the temperature at the
η

top of the absorber plate far away from the heat pipe is higher than
0.51 that at the bottom of the absorber plate close to the heat pipe. This
is due to that the evaporator of the heat pipe and the air gap are
0.50 both heated by the absorber plate. Under the action of buoyancy
force, the temperature difference between the air and the plate
0.49 at the bottom of the gap is higher than that in the upper of the
gap. Therefore, the heat transfer at the bottom of the air gap is
0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0 2.2 2.4
more intensive than that at the upper of the gap. The temperature
Number of mesh nodes / million of the absorber plate near the bottom of the evaporator is lower
Fig. 5. Instantaneous efficiency vs. number of mesh nodes.
than that near the middle and top of the evaporation section. The
literature [9] also described the temperature field of the absorber
plate of the conventional flat-plate collector and got the similar
Table 4 conclusions as above.
The coefficient gradient change ratio with the number of mesh nodes.

No. Number of mesh nodes/million g h, % 6.2. The temperature and velocity field of the symmetry face of the air
1 0.83 0.4915 – gap
2 1.07 0.5073 3.21
3 1.30 0.5254 3.57
The temperature and velocity contours of the symmetry plane
4 1.49 0.53567 1.95
5 1.77 0.54258 1.29 in the air gap space are shown in Figs. 8 and 9 separately. As can
6 2.04 0.54368 0.20 be seen from Fig. 8, the range of air temperature distribution
7 2.29 0.5439 0.04 between the absorber plate and glass cover is increasing from
294 K to 338 K, the minimum and the maximum temperature are
located at the bottom close to the glass cover and at the top near
the absorber plate respectively. Under the comprehensive action
0.56
of natural convection and radiation heat transfer, the air at the bot-
0.54 tom of the gap close to the higher temperature absorber plate is
heated and then floats upwards. As can been from Fig. 9(c), the
0.52
air velocity reaches the maximum of 1.9 m/s near the middle of
0.50 the gap space. When the air reaches to the top of the gap, it is
forced to flow to the direction that close to the glass cover. Due
η

0.48
to the lower temperature of the glass cover and the effect of grav-
0.46 ity, the air is cooled by convection heat transfer through the cover
and sinks downward to the bottom of the gap space. So the tem-
0.44 ηnum.
perature of the air is decreased from 316 K to 294 K gradually
0.42 ηexp.[*] and the air at the bottom of the gap space is reheated by the absor-
0.40 ber plate and refloated upwards, where the air natural flow cycle is
established.
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Time / hr.
6.3. Effect of the heat pipe diameter on the efficiency of collector
Fig. 6. Comparisons of numerical results of instantaneous efficiency with the data
in Ref. [25]. The tendency curves of the useful heat gain of water and instan-
taneous efficiency of the collector change with the heat pipe diam-
eter are shown in Figs. 10and 11 respectively. Both the useful heat
analysis, which is calculated by Eq. (30). Namely: Making some
gain of water and the instantaneous efficiency of the collector
comparisons and analysis of the instantaneous efficiency obtained
increase at first and then decrease subsequently. When the heat
by numerical simulation and experiment. It can be seen from Fig. 6
pipe diameter increases from 8 mm to 12 mm, the average increase
that the maximum deviation of the instantaneous efficiency
rates of the useful heat gain of water and instantaneous efficiency
between simulation results and the data from Ref. [25] is 2.56%
of the collector at three different solar radiation intensities are
while the minimum deviation of which is only 0.76%, the results
7.28% and 10.77% respectively. When the heat pipe diameter
of which proved the validity of the physical and mathematical
increases from 12 mm to 16 mm, the average decrease rates of
models. Thus the physical model, the mathematical model, the
the useful heat gain of water and instantaneous efficiency of the
mesh structure and the order of magnitude of mesh nodes are also
collector at three different solar radiation intensities are 4.27%
applied to the other simulation models in this paper. Hence, the
and 1.05% respectively. The useful heat gain of water reaches the
present model is correct and it can be used for numerical simula-
maximum value of 49.8 W and the instantaneous efficiency of
tion on the heat pipe flat-plate solar collector.
!, the collector reaches the maximum value of 58.1% when the heat
X
n
gnum  gexp pipe diameter is 12 mm and the radiant heat flux is 1000 W/m2.
w¼  100% n ð30Þ In the heat pipe, the heat conduction thermal resistance of the heat
i¼1
gexp i pipe wall decreases with the increase of the diameter, which can
 D. Zhang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 118 (2017) 113–126 121

I=400W/m2 I=700W/m2 I=1000W/m2

Fig. 7. Temperature fields of the collector plate at three different radiation intensities. (D = 12 mm, Le = 700 mm, Lc = 100 mm, Tin = Ta = 20 °C).

Fig. 8. Temperature counters of the air gap on the symmetry face. (I = 1000 W/m2, D = 12 mm, Le = 700 mm, Lc = 100 mm, Tin = Ta = 20 °C, d = 1 mm).

enhance the heat transfer. At the same time, in the cross flow heat
exchanger, the increase of the heat pipe diameter leads to the
expanding heat transfer area and reducing of the flow cross section
area of water, which results in the enhancement of the heat trans-
fer in the cross flow heat exchanger. However, when the tube pitch
keeps constant, the increase of the heat pipe diameter also leads to
the reducing of the absorber plate area, which results in the reduc-
tion of the heat absorption amount of the absorber plate. The
enhancement on heat transfer plays a dominant role when the heat
pipe diameter is less than 12 mm and the reduction of absorber
122 D. Zhang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 118 (2017) 113–126

Fig. 9. Velocity counters of the air gap on the symmetry face. (I = 1000 W/m2, D = 12 mm, Le = 700 mm, Lc = 100 mm, Tin = Ta = 20 °C, d = 1 mm).

50
0.58
45

40 0.56

35
0.54
η
Qw

30
I=400W/m2
0.52
25 I=700W/m2 I=400W/m2
I=1000W/m2 I=700W/m2
20 0.50
I=1000W/m2
15 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
D / mm
D / mm
Fig. 11. Instantaneous efficiency vs. heat pipe diameter.
Fig. 10. Useful heat gain of water vs. heat pipe diameter.

plate heat absorption plays a dominant role when the diameter is
larger than 12 mm. So the optimal value of the heat pipe diameter
is 12 mm.
When the heat pipe diameter increases from 8 mm to 16 mm
and the solar radiation intensities increases from 400 W/m2 to
1000 W/m2, the maximum value of the useful heat gain of water
is 49.8 W and the maximum value of the instantaneous efficiency
of the collector is 58.1% under the heat pipe diameter of 12 mm
and the radiant heat flux of 1000 W/m2.
6.4. Effect of the evaporator length on the efficiency of collector
Figs. 12 and 13 show how the useful heat gain of water and
instantaneous efficiency of the collector change with the evapora-
tor length respectively. As can be seen from Fig. 12, the useful heat
gain of water increases almost linearly proportional to the evapo-
rator length. When the evaporator length increases from 500 mm
to 1000 mm, the average useful heat gain of water at three differ-
ent solar radiation intensities (I equals to 400 W/m2, 700 W/m2
and 1000 W/m2 respectively) is increased from 14.64 W/m to
24.69 W/m, from 25.70 W/m to 44.39 W/m and from 36.69 W/m
to 64.46 W/m respectively. Moreover, the increase gradients
between the average useful heat gain of water and the evaporator
length are all decreased at three different solar radiation intensi-
ties. This is due to that the phase changing thermal resistance in
evaporator section decreases with the increase of the evaporator
length (see in Eq. (4)). When the solar radiation intensity and the
heat pipe diameter keep constant, both of the total thermal energy
absorbed by the absorber plate and the useful heat gain of water
 D. Zhang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 118 (2017) 113–126 123

70 55
I=400W/m 2
50
60 I=700W/m2
45 I=400W/m2
I=1000W/m2
50 I=700W/m2
40
I=1000W/m2
40 35
Qw

Qw
30
30
25

20 20

15
10
500 600 700 800 900 1000 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
Length of evaporater (Le) / mm δ / mm

Fig. 12. Useful heat gain of water vs. evaporator length. (Lc = 100 mm, Tin = - Fig. 14. Useful heat gain of water vs. absorber plate thickness.
Ta = 20 °C, d = 1 mm).

0.58
0.60
0.56

0.58 0.54

0.56 0.52
η
η

0.50
0.54
0.48 I=400W/m2
0.52 I=400W/m 2
I=700W/m2
0.46
I=700W/m2 I=1000W/m2
0.50 I=1000W/m2 0.44
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
500 600 700 800 900 1000 δ / mm
Length of evaporater (Le) / mm
Fig. 15. Instantaneous efficiency vs. absorber plate thickness.
Fig. 13. Instantaneous efficiency vs. evaporator length. (Lc = 100 mm, Tin = Ta = 20 °-
C, d = 1 mm).
6.5. Effect of the absorber plate thickness on the efficiency of collector

increases with the increase of the evaporator length, which leads to
the expansion of the air gap space between the absorber plate and
the glass cover. Therefore, the natural convection heat transfer in
the air gap is enhanced and as a result the heat loss through the
glass cover is increased as well. In addition, the increase of the
solar radiation intensity results in the increase of the upper surface
of the absorber plate, which improved the natural convection and
radiation heat transfer of the air gap space and increased the heat
loss of the collector at the same time. The results discussed above
are shown in Fig. 13, when the evaporator length increases from
500 mm to 1000 mm, the instantaneous efficiency of the collector
at three different solar radiation intensities (I equals to 400 W/m2,
700 W/m2 and 1000 W/m2 respectively) is decreased from 59.49%
to 50.18%, from 59.69% to 51.56% and from 59.66% to 52.41%
respectively.
When the evaporator length increases from 500 mm to
1000 mm, the average useful heat gain of water and instantaneous
efficiency of the collector at three different solar radiation intensi-
ties (I equals to 400 W/m2, 700 W/m2 and 1000 W/m2 respectively)
is increased from 14.64 W/m to 24.69 W/m, from 25.70 W/m to
44.39 W/m and from 36.69 W/m to 64.46 W/m and decreased from
59.49% to 50.18%, from 59.69% to 51.56% and from 59.66% to
52.41% respectively.
Figs. 14 and 15 show how the useful heat gain of water and
instantaneous efficiency of the collector change with the absorber
plate thickness. As is shown in these two figures, when the absor-
ber plate thickness increases from 0.1 mm to 2.2 mm, the average
useful heat gain of water and instantaneous efficiency of the collec-
tor at three different solar radiation intensities (I equals to 400 W/
m2, 700 W/m2 and 1000 W/m2 respectively) is increased from
15.66 W/m to 19.51 W/m, from 30.52 W/m to 34.62 W/m and from
45.65 W/m to 49.93 W/m and increased from 45.47% to 56.64%,
from 50.64% to 57.44% and from 53.02% to 57.99% respectively.
This is due to that the increase of the absorber plate thickness
results in the expanding of the contact area between the absorber
plate and heat pipe wall, which leads to the decrease of the con-
duction thermal resistance. So the heat is more easily transferred
from the absorber plate to the bottom of the heat pipe and the
cooling effect of the heat pipe on the absorber plate is enhanced,
which leads to the weakening of the natural convection and radia-
tion heat transfer in the air gap space. However, when the absorber
plate thickness exceeds to 0.4 mm, the enhancement of the con-
duction thermal resistance on the heat pipe heat transfer is no
longer obvious and the instantaneous efficiency of the collector
tends to be stable, which is shown in Figs. 14 and 15 respectively.
When the absorber plate thickness increases from 0.1 mm to
2.2 mm, the average useful heat gain of water and instantaneous
124 D. Zhang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 118 (2017) 113–126

70 0.75

60 0.70
0.65
50
0.60
Qw

40 0.55

η
0.50
30
0.45
20 15° 30° 45° 15° 30° 45°
0.40
60° 75° 90° 60° 75° 90°
10 0.35
08:30 09:30 10:30 11:30 12:30 13:30 14:30 15:30 08:30 09:30 10:30 11:30 12:30 13:30 14:30 15:30
time / h time / h
(a 1) (a2)
60
0.70
50
0.65
40 0.60
0.55
Qw

30
η 0.50
20
0.45
10 15° 30° 45° 0.40 15° 30° 45°
60° 75° 90° 60° 75° 90°
0 0.35
08:30 09:30 10:30 11:30 12:30 13:30 14:30 15:30 08:30 09:30 10:30 11:30 12:30 13:30 14:30 15:30
time / h
time / h
(b1) (b2)
0.75
60
0.70
50 0.65
40 0.60
Qw

0.55
η

30
15 °
30 °
45° 0.50
20 60° 75° 90° 0.45
10 15 ° 30 ° 45 °
0.40
60 ° 75 ° 90 °
0 0.35
08:30 09:30 10:30 11:30 12:30 13:30 14:30 15:30 08:30 09:30 10:30 11:30 12:30 13:30 14:30 15:30
time / h time / h
(c1) (c 2)
70
0.70
60

50 0.65

40 0.60
Qw

30 0.55
15° 30° 45° 0.50
20
60° 75° 90°
10 0.45 15° 30° 45°
60° 75° 90°
0 0.40
08:30 09:30 10:30 11:30 12:30 13:30 14:30 15:30 08:30 09:30 10:30 11:30 12:30 13:30 14:30 15:30
time / h time / h

(d1) (d1)
Fig. 16. Useful heat gain of water and instantaneous efficiency of collector vs. time on four typical dates under different inclination angles.
 D. Zhang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 118 (2017) 113–126
efficiency of the collector at three different solar radiation intensi-
ties (I equals to 400 W/m2, 700 W/m2 and 1000 W/m2 respectively)
is increased from 15.66 W/m to 19.51 W/m, from 30.52 W/m to
34.62 W/m and from 45.65 W/m to 49.93 W/m and increased from
45.47% to 56.64%, from 50.64% to 57.44% and from 53.02% to
57.99% respectively.
6.6. Effect of the inclination angle on the efficiency of collector
Fig. 16 shows the useful heat gain of water and instantaneous
efficiency of heat pipe flat-plate solar collector under different
inclination angles placed towards south in Nanjing of China.
Numerical simulation for the operation status is based on the four
typical dates of a year such as the spring equinox, summer solstice,
autumnal equinox and winter solstice, the inclination angle and
time slot of which is from 15° to 90° and 09:00 to 15:00 respec-
tively. As can be seen from Fig. 16, both the useful heat gain of
water and instantaneous efficiency of the collector under different
inclination angles increase from 09:00 to 12:00 but decrease from
12:00 to 15:00 and the thermal performance curve of the collector
is basically symmetrical with the axis of 12:00 at noon. On the one
hand, on the spring equinox, the useful heat gain of water at incli-
nation angle of 45° is higher than others, the value of which
reaches up to the maximum (65.18 W) at 12:00 noon. However,
on the summer solstice, the autumnal equinox and the winter sol-
stice, the useful heat gain of water at inclination angle of 30° is
higher than other inclination angles and also reaches up to the
maximum values (58.48 W, 62.27 W and 66.29 W respectively) at
12:00 noon. This is due to that when the heat pipe flat-plate solar
collector placed towards south, the incidence angle between the
sun and the absorber plate is smaller closer to 12:00 noon. At
12:00 noon, the incidence angle reaches the minimum and the
solar radiation reaches the highest, so the useful heat gain of water
reaches the highest. On the other hand, The instantaneous effi-
ciency of the collector is higher than others when the inclination
angle is 75°. The instantaneous efficiency of collector on the four
typical dates (spring equinox, summer solstice, autumnal equinox
and the winter solstice) are 71.56%, 70.31%, 70.94% and 70.62%
respectively at 12:00 noon. In addition, the instantaneous effi-
ciency of collector increases from 15° to 75° and decreases 75° to
90°. The root of this phenomenon is associated with the heat trans-
fer characteristics of the gravity heat pipe. According to the work-
ing principle of the gravity heat pipe, the upper inner wall of the
heat pipe evaporator can achieve a better infiltration effect when
there is a certain inclination angle of the heat pipe. It accelerates
the phase change of heat transfer in evaporation section and also
enhances the heat transfer in condensation section, both of which
can reduce the overall thermal resistance of the heat pipe.
Considering the change rules of useful heat gain of water and
instantaneous efficiency changing with different time slots and
inclination angles, the inclination angle between 30° and 45° is
appropriate when the heat pipe flat-plate collector placed towards
south in Nanjing of China. Although the instantaneous efficiency of
the heat pipe flat-plate solar collector is not reaching the best in
this inclination range, the useful heat gain of water achieves a rel-
ative high level.
7. Conclusions
In this paper, the heat pipe flat-plate solar collector model is
constructed by considering the thermal resistance networks. Based
on the finite volume method, the collector is numerically simu-
lated under the steady state. The influencing factors on the useful
heat gain of water and instantaneous efficiency of heat pipe flat-
plate solar collector are deeply discussed. The results show that:
125
(1) The results from the numerical simulation of heat pipe flat-
plate solar collector are in good agreement with the openly
published literature.
(2) Both the heat pipe diameter of 12 mm and increasing the
solar radiation intensity are helpful for the increase of useful
heat gain of water and instantaneous efficiency. When the
heat pipe diameter increases from 8 mm to 16 mm and the
solar radiation intensities increases from 400 W/m2 to
1000 W/m2, the maximum value of the useful heat gain of
water is 49.8 W and the instantaneous efficiency of the heat
pipe flat-pipe collector is 58.1% under the heat pipe diameter
of 12 mm and the radiant heat flux of 1000 W/m2.
(3) Increasing the evaporator length can increase the average
useful heat gain of water but decrease the instantaneous
efficiency of the collector. When the evaporator length
increases from 500 mm to 1000 mm, the average useful heat
gain of water and instantaneous efficiency of the collector at
three different solar radiation intensities (I equals to 400 W/
m2, 700 W/m2 and 1000 W/m2 respectively) is increased
from 14.64 W/m to 24.69 W/m, from 25.70 W/m to
44.39 W/m and from 36.69 W/m to 64.46 W/m and
decreased from 59.49% to 50.18%, from 59.69% to 51.56%
and from 59.66% to 52.41% respectively.
(4) Increasing the absorber plate thickness can both improve
the average useful heat gain of water and instantaneous effi-
ciency of the collector. When the absorber plate thickness
increases from 0.1 mm to 2.2 mm, the average useful heat
gain of water and instantaneous efficiency of the collector
at three different solar radiation intensities (I equals to
400 W/m2, 700 W/m2 and 1000 W/m2 respectively) is
increased from 15.66 W/m to 19.51 W/m, from 30.52 W/m
to 34.62 W/m and from 45.65 W/m to 49.93 W/m and
increased from 45.47% to 56.64%, from 50.64% to 57.44%
and from 53.02% to 57.99% respectively.
(5) Considering the change rules of useful heat gain of water and
instantaneous efficiency changing with different time slots
and inclination angles, the inclination angle between 30°
and 45° is appropriate when the collector placed towards
south in Nanjing of China.
Acknowledgement
This research was supported by Jiangsu Provincial Key Labora-
tory of Solar Energy Science and Technology through Project with
Ref. JPKLSST201505.
References
[1] J.T. Kim, H.T. Ahn, H. Han, H.T. Kim, W. Chun, The performance simulation of
all-glass vacuum tubes with coaxial fluid conduit, Int. Commun. Heat Mass
Transfer 34 (2007) 587–597.
[2] Z. Li, C. Chen, H. Luo, Y. Zhang, Y. Xue, All-glass vacuum tube collector heat
transfer model used in forced-circulation solar water heating system, Sol.
Energy 84 (2010) 1413–1421.
[3] R.-B. Liang, J.-l. Zhang, L. Zhao, L.-D. Ma, Performance enhancement of filled-
type solar collector with U-tube, J. Central South Univ. 22 (2015) 1124–1131.
[4] Y. Tong, J. Kim, H. Cho, Effects of thermal performance of enclosed-type
evacuated U-tube solar collector with multi-walled carbon nanotube/water
nanofluid, Renew. Energy 83 (2015) 463–473.
[5] P. Eslami-nejad, M. Bernier, Coupling of geothermal heat pumps with thermal
solar collectors using double U-tube boreholes with two independent circuits,
Appl. Therm. Eng. 31 (2011) 3066–3077.
[6] Z. Jiandong, T. Hanzhong, C. Susu, Numerical simulation for structural
parameters of flat-plate solar collector, Sol. Energy 117 (2015) 192–202.
[7] Z. Jing, W. Zhiping, W. Kezhen, L. Jianbo, Dust effect on thermal performance of
flat plate solar collectors, J. Sol. Energy Eng. 137 (2014) 014502.
[8] D. Makhanlall, P. Jiang, Performance analysis and optimization of a vapor-filled
flat-plate solar collector, Energy Procedia 70 (2015) 95–102.
[9] J.F. Cerón, J. Pérez-García, J.P. Solano, A. García, R. Herrero-Martín, A coupled
numerical model for tube-on-sheet flat-plate solar liquid collectors. Analysis
126 D. Zhang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 118 (2017) 113–126

and validation of the heat transfer mechanisms, Appl. Energy 140 (2015) 275– using neural networks and genetic algorithm: a semi-experimental
287. investigation, Clean Technol. Environ. Policy (2016) 1–14.
[10] A. Subiantoro, K.T. Ooi, Analytical models for the computation and [23] E. Azad, Theoretical and experimental investigation of heat pipe solar
optimization of single and double glazing flat plate solar collectors with collector, Exp. Thermal Fluid Sci. 32 (2008) 1666–1672.
normal and small air gap spacing, Appl. Energy 104 (2013) 392–399. [24] A. Faghri, Heat Pipe Science and Technology, Taylor & Francis, Washington, DC,
[11] J. Zhuang, H. Zhang, Heat Pipe Technology and Engineering Application, 1995.
Chemical Industry Press, Beijing, 2001. [25] H.M.S. Hussein, Theoretical and experimental investigation of wickless heat
[12] P.R. Mashaei, M. Shahryari, Effect of nanofluid on thermal performance of heat pipes flat plate solar collector with cross flow heat exchanger, Energy Convers.
pipe with two evaporators; application to satellite equipment cooling, Acta Manage. 48 (2007) 1266–1272.
Astronaut. 111 (2015) 345–355. [26] E. Mathioulakis, V. Belessiotis, A new heat-pipe type solar domestic hot water
[13] Y. Park, S. Jun, S. Kim, D.-H. Lee, Design optimization of a loop heat pipe to cool system, Sol. Energy 72 (2002) 13–20.
a lithium ion battery onboard a military aircraft, J. Mech. Sci. Technol. 24 [27] B.-R. Chen, Y.-W. Chang, W.-S. Lee, S.-L. Chen, Long-term thermal performance
(2010) 609–618. of a two-phase thermosyphon solar water heater, Sol. Energy 83 (2009) 1048–
[14] J.-C. Wang, U- and L-shaped heat pipes heat sinks for cooling electronic 1055.
components employed a least square smoothing method, Microelectron. [28] L. Wei, D. Yuan, D. Tang, B. Wu, A study on a flat-plate type of solar heat
Reliab. 54 (2014) 1344–1354. collector with an integrated heat pipe, Sol. Energy 97 (2013) 19–25.
[15] X.-Y. Lu, T.-C. Hua, Y.-P. Wang, Thermal analysis of high power LED package [29] K. Sivakumar, Theoretical and experimental investigation of elliptical heat
with heat pipe heat sink, Microelectron. J. 42 (2011) 1257–1262. pipe flat plate solar collector, Int. J. Eng. Technol. 4 (1) (2012) 86–92.
[16] J. Li, F. Lin, D. Wang, W. Tian, A loop-heat-pipe heat sink with parallel [30] Y. Tong, H.M. Kim, H.H. Cho, Theoretical investigation of the thermal
condensers for high-power integrated LED chips, Appl. Therm. Eng. 56 (2013) performance of evacuated heat pipe solar collector with optimum tilt angle
18–26. under various operating conditions, J. Mech. Sci. Technol. 30 (2016) 903–913.
[17] F.P. Brito, J. Martins, E. Hançer, N. Antunes, L.M. Gonçalves, Thermoelectric [31] F. Tardy, S.M. Sami, Thermal analysis of heat pipes during thermal storage,
exhaust heat recovery with heat pipe-based thermal control, J. Electron. Mater. Appl. Therm. Eng. 29 (2009) 329–333.
44 (2015) 1984–1997. [32] K.A.R. Ismail, M. Abogderah, Performance of a heat pipe solar collector, Trans.
[18] Y.M. Barzi, M. Assadi, Evaluation of a thermosyphon heat pipe operation and ASME 120 (1998) 51–59.
application in a waste heat recovery system, Exp. Heat Transf. 28 (2015) 493– [33] Z.J. Zuo, A. Faghri, A network thermodynamic analysis of the heat pipe, Int. J.
510. Heat Mass Transf. 41 (1997) 1473–1484.
[19] M.F. Remeli, L. Tan, A. Date, B. Singh, A. Akbarzadeh, Simultaneous power [34] W. Tao, Numerical Heat Transfer Xi’an, Xi’an Jiaotong University Press, 2001.
generation and heat recovery using a heat pipe assisted thermoelectric [35] V. Ps, Numerical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1980.
generator system, Energy Convers. Manage. 91 (2015) 110–119. [36] FLUENT. FLUENT Theory Guide, 2003.
[20] L.M. Ayompe, A. Duffy, S.J. McCormack, M. Conlon, Validated TRNSYS model for [37] GB/T 4271, Chinese Standard, Test Method for the Thermal Performance 1 of
forced circulation solar water heating systems with flat plate and heat pipe Salor Collector, 2007.
evacuated tube 1 collectors, Appl. Therm. Eng. 31 (2011) 1536–1542. [38] EN 12975-2, European Standard, Thermal Solar Systems and Components-
[21] L. Xiao, S.Y. Wu, Q.L. Zhang, Y.R. Li, Theoretical investigation on thermal Solar Collectors-Part 2: Test Methods, 2006.
performance of heat pipe flat plate solar collector with cross flow heat [39] K.G.T. Hollands, T.E. Unny, G.D. Raithby, L. Konicek, Free convective heat
exchanger, Heat Mass Transf. 48 (2012) 1167–1176. transfer across inclined air layers, Trans. ASME J. Heat Transf. 98 (1976) 189–
[22] M. Jalilian, H. Kargarsharifabad, A.A. Godarzi, A. Ghofrani, M.B. Shafii, 197.
Simulation and optimization of pulsating heat pipe flat-plate solar collectors