Numerical and experimental investigation of a thermosiphon solar water heater system thermal performance used in domestic applications

The thermosiphon is a passive heat exchange method, which circulates a fluid within a system without the need for any electrical or mechanical pumps. The thermosiphon is based on natural convection where the thermal expansion occurs when the temperature difference has a corresponding difference in density across the loop. Thermosiphons are used in different applications such as solar energy collection, automotive systems, and electronics. The current study aims to investigate thermosiphon thermal performance used in domestic applications. The thermal performance of a thermosiphon has been studied by many researchers; however, according to the knowledge of the authors, the influence of the amount of the working fluid on the thermal output has not yet been investigated. Therefore, the influence of the amount of working fluid within the riser pipe has been investigated on the thermal performance of the thermosiphon. In the current study, a computational fluid dynamics model is involved. This model has been validated by comparison with experimental findings. The maximum variation between numerical and experimental results is 14.2% and 11.2% for the working fluid at the inlet and outlet of the absorber pipe, respectively. Furthermore, the results show that the amount of working fluid inside the closed thermosiphon has a great influence on the thermal performance of the system. Additionally, it is found that Case-B, when the amount of working fluid is less than by 10% compared to the traditional model, is the best case among all cases under study. Furthermore, a correlation equation to predict water temperature at the exit of the absorber pipe has been established with an accuracy of 95.05%.     

Numerical and experimental analysis of the flat plate solar water heater systems' thermal performance

In this paper, improving the thermal performance of flat plate solar water heater systems by inserting different tube configurations inside the riser pipes has been numerically and experimentally studied. This study is focused on increasing the moving of energy from riser pipes to the operating fluid within the riser pipes. To achieve that, the diameter of the riser pipes was increased along with the insertion of different tube configurations within them, namely, smooth, helical, and wavy tubes, keeping the same amount of the operating liquid. A comparison was performed to determine the best in terms of coefficient of heat transfer of the operating liquid, mass flow rate of the operating liquid, pressure drop, and water temperature in the storage tank, as a thermal performance indication of the system under study. The findings show the model consisting of a straight tube inside the riser pipe provides the best thermal performance. In terms of thermal performance, the straight model outperforms the conventional model by 12.3%. An experimental and numerical comparison between the optimum model (straight model) was conducted. The study proves that the average difference between numerical results and experimental findings is 7.2%.     

Performance enhancement of high temperature latent heat thermal storage systems using heat pipes with and without fins for concentrating solar thermal power plants

A key drawback of using latent heat thermal storage systems for concentrating solar thermal power plants is the low thermal conductivity of the phase change material during the melting and solidification processes. This paper investigates an approach for reducing the thermal resistance by utilising axially finned heat pipes. A numerical model simulating the phase change material melting and solidification processes has been developed. This paper also includes the models of the evaporation and condensation of the heat pipe working fluid. The results show that by adding four axial fins and including the evaporation and condensation, the overall thermal performance of the storage system is enhanced significantly compared to having bare heat pipes. After 3 h a total of 106% increase in energy storage is obtained during the charging process. The results also show that the combined effect of incorporating the evaporation/condensation process and adding the fins leads to a threefold increase in the heat storage during the first 3 h. During the discharge process, there was a 79% increase in energy discharged and also the combined effect of incorporating the evaporation/condensation as well as adding the fins results in an almost four fold increase in the heat extracted within the first 3 h. A parametric analysis has also been carried out to analyse the effect of the finned heat pipe parameters after incorporating evaporation and condensation of the heat pipe working fluid.     

Effect of Inclination Angle and Filling Ratio on Thermal Performance of a Two-Phase Closed Thermosyphon under Normal Operating Conditions

In this paper, the effect of the inclination angle on the thermal performance of a two-phase closed thermosyphon with different filling ratios has been investigated experimentally under normal operating conditions. A series of experiments were carried out for inclination angle range of 5°–90° and filling ratios of 15%, 22%, and 30%. A copper thermosyphon with an outside diameter of 16 mm, an inside diameter of 14.5 mm, and a length of 1000 mm was employed. Distilled water was used as the working fluid. The results show that the two-phase closed thermosyphon has the highest thermal performance in the inclination angle range of 15°–60°. A good agreement was observed between the experimental results of this study and those available in the open literature. The interesting phenomenon of geyser boiling occurred in our experiments for filling ratios equal or greater than 30%. The geyser boiling puts no limitation on thermal performance of thermosyphon, but it should be avoided because it damages the condenser end cap due to the slug striking.     

PERFORMANCE OF A HEAT PIPE THERMOSYPHON RADIATOR

A heat pipe thermosyphon radiator for use in domestic and industrial heating applications is presented. A test cell for the radiator is described and various experimental tests have been performed to determine the feasibility and performance of a heat pipe thermosyphon radiator. The thermosyphon radiator has been tested with freon 11, acetone, methanol and water as working fluids, and was compared with a conventional radiator. Best performance was obtained using methanol and acetone, and compares well with the conventional radiator. In addition, with these working fluids the thermosyphon radiator, by design, has desirable isothermal surfaces. The worst performance was with water, where local hot and cold spots formed on the radiator surface and the performance was poor. A natural convection/radiation model is presented for the thermosyphon radiator, and good agreement between measured and calculated heat transfer is obtained. The model reveals that typically 60% of the heat is transferred by natural convection and the remaining 40% by radiation. Advantages and further development of the thermosyphon radiator are discussed. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

重力热管内部相变及传热传质过程的数值模拟

重力热管内部包含复杂的两相流动以及相变传热过程,传统理论分析及实验手段不能直观给出其内部流动、相变、热质传递的详细信息。采用VOF(volume of fluid)多相流模型对重力热管内气液两相流动及传热进行模拟,捕捉到蒸发段气泡产生、合并、长大、上升,以及冷凝段壁面附近液滴形成、合并、下滑、汇集到液池的全过程,得到的壁温分布与实验测量值对比体现良好一致性,表明数值模拟的正确性。同时,以热阻、传热量和热效率为评价标准,研究不同充液率和倾斜角度下对重力热管运行性能的影响。结果表明:在所研究的参数范围内,随着充液率的增加,热阻逐渐减小,冷凝段传热量逐渐增大。且工质初始充注量充满蒸发段时热管性能较好;倾角对热阻的影响不明显,冷凝段传热量和热效率均随倾角增加而增长。     

Thermal performance of a two-phase thermosyphon energy storage system

This article presents an energy storage system, which can be readily integrated with the building structure. It stores heat supplied by solar energy via the two-phase closed loop thermosyphon to storage tank and releases stored heat in energy storage material via two-phase closed thermosyphon to the heat exchanger through the flow of transport fluid. The functions of such energy storage system have three operating modes, i.e., heat charge, heat discharge, and simultaneous charge and discharge. The thermal performance of the system with alcohol and water as working fluid is experimentally investigated. The results show that the storage system employing alcohol as working fluid in the loop thermosyphon provides better performance; the system gives optimum heat charge and discharge performance under 35–40% fill ratio, regardless whether the working fluid is water or alcohol. The system displays optimum charge efficiency of 73% and optimum discharge efficiency of 85% with alcohol as working fluid.     

Parametric study on the performance of the earth‐to‐air heat exchanger for cooling and heating applications

To reduce energy consumption, the earth‐to‐air heat exchanger (EAHE) is a suitable technique for cooling and heating buildings. This paper studies numerically the effect of some design parameters (pipe diameter, inlet condition, pipe length, and outlet condition) on the overall performance of the EAHE system. Four diameters of the EAHE pipe (2, 3, 4, and 6 in) are studied and this numerical study has been done for summer and winter seasons for Nasiriyah city in southern Iraq. First, the built numerical model was validated against the experimental model, and the results of comparison showed a good consensus. After the validation and by using computational fluid dynamics modeling, the overall performance of the EAHE system with all pipe diameters was analyzed with ranges of air velocity, DBT or inlet temperature, and a pipe length of 50 m. The simulated results showed that the EAHE system with 6 in pipe diameter has the best values of overall performance, but from the thermal performance point of view, the 2 in pipe diameter is more suitable.     

Experimental investigation of small diameter two-phase closed thermosyphons charged with water,FC-84, FC-77 and FC-3283

An experimental investigation of the performance of thermosyphons charged with water as well as the dielectric heat transfer liquids FC-84, FC-77 and FC-3283 has been carried out. The copper thermosyphon was 200 mm long with an inner diameter of 6 mm, which can be considered quite small compared with the vast majority of thermosyphons reported in the open literature. The evaporator length was 40 mm and the condenser length was 60 mm which corresponds with what might be expected in compact heat exchangers. With water as the working fluid two fluid loadings were investigated, that being 0.6 ml and 1.8 ml, corresponding to approximately half filled and overfilled evaporator section in order to ensure combined pool boiling and thin film evaporation/boiling and pool boiling only conditions, respectively. For the Fluorinert? liquids, only the higher fill volume was tested as the aim was to investigate pool boiling opposed to thin film evaporation. Generally, the water-charged thermosyphon evaporator and condenser heat transfer characteristics compared well with available predictive correlations and theories. The thermal performance of the water-charged thermosyphon also outperformed the other three working fluids in both the effective thermal resistance as well as maximum heat transport capabilities. Even so, FC-84, the lowest saturation temperature fluid tested, shows marginal improvement in the heat transfer at low operating temperatures. All of the tested Fluorinert? liquids offer the advantage of being dielectric fluids, which may be better suited for sensitive electronics cooling applications and were all found to provide adequate thermal performance up to approximately 30–50 W after which liquid entrainment compromised their performance.     

Studies on heat transfer and friction factor characteristics of thermosyphon solar water heating system with helical twisted tapes

Experimental investigation of heat transfer, friction factor and thermal performance of thermosyphon solar water heater system fitted with helical twisted tape of various twist ratios has been performed and presented. The helical twisted tape induces swirl flow inside the riser tubes, which increases the heat transfer and pressure drop. The empirical correlations developed for Nusselt number and friction factor with various twist ratios (Y = 3, 4, 5, 6) are fitted with the experimental data with a discrepancy of less than ±4.54% and ±6.13% respectively. The results are compared with a plain tube collector at the same operating conditions. Conclusions made from the results show that heat transfer enhancement in twisted tape collector is higher than the plain tube collector with minimum twist ratio and gradually decreases with increase in twist ratio. The overall thermal performance of twisted tape collector is found to increase with increase in solar intensity.     

Experimental study of the thermal performance of thermosyphon heat pipe using iron oxide nanoparticles

This paper presents an experimental investigation regarding the use of solid nanoparticles added to water as a working fluid. Tests were made on a thermosyphon heat pipe. The experiment was performed in order to measure the temperature distribution and compare the heat transfer rate of the thermosyphon heat pipe with nanofluid and with DI-water. The iron oxide nanoparticles were obtained by the laser pyrolysis technique. The tested concentration level of nanoparticles is 0%, 2%, and 5.3%. Results show that the addition of 5.3% (by volume) of iron oxide nanoparticles in water presented improved thermal performance compared with the operation with DI-water.     

Modeling and optimization of hybrid solar thermoelectric systems with thermosyphons

We present the modeling and optimization of a new hybrid solar thermoelectric (HSTE) system which uses a thermosyphon to passively transfer heat to a bottoming cycle for various applications. A parabolic trough mirror concentrates solar energy onto a selective surface coated thermoelectric to produce electrical power. Meanwhile, a thermosyphon adjacent to the back side of the thermoelectric maintains the temperature of the cold junction and carries the remaining thermal energy to a bottoming cycle. Bismuth telluride, lead telluride, and silicon germanium thermoelectrics were studied with copper–water, stainless steel–mercury, and nickel–liquid potassium thermosyphon-working fluid combinations. An energy-based model of the HSTE system with a thermal resistance network was developed to determine overall performance. In addition, the HSTE system efficiency was investigated for temperatures of 300–1200 K, solar concentrations of 1–100 suns, and different thermosyphon and thermoelectric materials with a geometry resembling an evacuated tube solar collector. Optimizations of the HSTE show ideal system efficiencies as high as 52.6% can be achieved at solar concentrations of 100 suns and bottoming cycle temperatures of 776 K. For solar concentrations less than 4 suns, systems with thermosyphon wall thermal conductivities as low as 1.2 W/mK have comparable efficiencies to that of high conductivity material thermosyphons, i.e. copper, which suggests that lower cost materials including glass can be used. This work provides guidelines for the design, as well as the optimization and selection of thermoelectric and thermosyphon components for future high performance HSTE systems.     

热虹吸管传热过程中的熵增分析

以热力学理论为基础，对稳定操作条件下的热虹吸管的重要操作参数、工作特点及其内部工质循环过程进行详细分析，导出了由于存在温度差、工质流动摩擦损失、蒸气温度／压力降等因素而引起的熵增的表达式，并由此得到相应的最小熵增优化准则。所得到的热虹吸管重要操作条件，即蒸发段和冷凝段温度匹配关系以及其它重要影响参数的关系，可以为热管实际设计和应用提供重要的理论参考。     

Experimental studies on heat transfer and thermal performance characteristics of thermosyphon solar water heating system with helical and Left–Right twisted tapes

Experimental investigation of heat transfer, friction factor and thermal performance of thermosyphon solar water heater system fitted with helical and Left–Right twist of twist ratio 3 has been performed and presented. The helical twisted tape induces swirl flow inside the riser tubes unidirectional over the length. But, in Left–Right system the swirl flow is bidirectional which increases the heat transfer and pressure drop when compared to the helical system. The experimental heat transfer and friction factors characteristics are validated with theoretical equations and the deviation falls with in the acceptable limits. The results show that heat transfer enhancement in twisted tape collector is higher than the plain tube collector. Compared to helical and Left–Right twisted tape system of same twist ratio 3, maximum thermal performance is obtained for Left–Right twisted tape collector with increase in solar intensity.     

An Experimental Investigation of Thermal Performance of a Polymer‐Based Flat Heat Pipe

A polymer‐based flat heat pipe (PFHP) was fabricated. The heat transfer performance was measured and analyzed when deionized (DI) water and acetone were used as the working fluid, separately. Input power ranging from 2.8 W to 14.2 W was provided to the evaporator section while the device was at different filling ratios. Experimental results revealed that, when the polymer‐based flat heat pipe was laid in a horizontal position, the thermal resistance (1.02 K/W) was much smaller than that (4.6 K/W) of a copper plate with the same thickness at the thermal power of 10.3 W and the value decreased as the tilt angle changed from 0° to 90°.     

Operating limit of heat transport in two-phase thermosyphon with connecting pipe (heated surface temperature fluctuation and flow pattern)

An experiment on heat transport phenomena has been carried out in a two-phase thermosyphon with an adiabatic connecting pipe using water as the working fluid at atmospheric pressure. The thermosyphon has an upper liquid chamber and a lower vapor chamber, which are connected with an adiabatic pipe. A horizontal upward-facing heated surface is installed in the bottom of the lower vapor chamber.The size of the connecting pipe is an inner diameter D_p = 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 mm and a length L = 250, 500 and 1000 mm. As the heat is supplied into the thermosyphon, the temperature of heated surface starts fluctuating at a heat flux at which unstable vapor–liquid counter current flow is generated in the connecting pipe. Bubbles at the upper end of the connecting pipe were photographed when the temperature fluctuation started. It was found that the heat flux at the onset of the temperature fluctuation increases with an increase in D_p and then can be predicted well by Eq. (1), which was derived based on the flooding velocity presented by Wallis [G.B. Wallis, One dimensional two-phase flow, McGraw Hill, New York, 1969], with C_w = 0.7 for D_p = 5, 6 and 8 mm. Furthermore, we clarified that the cause of this fluctuation comes from the inlet effect of the connecting pipe and we demonstrated this finding using a bell mouth, which was installed at either the bottom end or both ends of the connecting pipe.     

Thermal performance analysis on unit tube for heat pipe receiver

To reduce the mass and improve the thermal performance of the heat receiver, a heat pipe receiver was researched for the space solar dynamic power system. Corresponding mathematical and physical models were built, and a method was devised to provide a numerical equation by which the temperature of the containment canister outer wall, heat pipe wall temperature, working fluid exit temperature and the liquid PCM fraction of the total heat transfer tube were calculated and compared with those obtained from the baseline heat receiver. The results show that it is possible to improve receiver performance, to reduce the fluctuation of the working fluid temperature and to decrease the weight of the heat receiver.     

Transient numerical model for a coaxial borehole heat exchanger with the effect of borehole heat capacity

This paper proposed a transient numerical model for a coaxial borehole heat exchanger, which considered the impact of borehole specific heat capacity. The fluid vertical temperature distribution inside the coaxial borehole heat exchanger (BHE) had been predicted based on MATLAB and compared with other transient models. Validated by measured data from a thermal response test, the built model agreed better than other models, especially in short times, with a relative error of 3.63% in 2 hours. Then, the quantitative influences of borehole specific heat capacity and other parameters on thermal performance of borehole heat exchangers were specified.     

Experimental and numerical study on charging processes of an ice‐on‐coil thermal energy storage system

In this study, an external melt ice‐on‐coil thermal storage was studied and tested over various inlet conditions of secondary fluid—glycol solution—flow rate and temperature in charging process. Experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of inlet conditions of secondary fluid and validate the numerical model predictions on ice‐on‐coil thermal energy storage system. The total thermal storage energy and the heat transfer rate in the system were investigated in the range of 10 l min ^?1?V??60 l min ^?1. A new numerical model based on temperature transforming method for phase change material (PCM) described by Faghri was developed to solve the problem of the system consisting of governing equations for the heat transfer fluid, pipe wall and PCM. Numerical simulations were performed to investigate the effect of working conditions of secondary fluid and these were compared with the experimental results. The numerical results verified with experimental investigation show that the stored energy rises with increasing flow rate a decreasing tendency. It is also observed that the inlet temperature of the fluid has more influence on energy storage quantity than flow rate. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experimental investigation of titanium nanofluids on the heat pipe thermal efficiency

The enhancement heat transfer of the heat transfer devices can be done by changing the fluid transport properties and flow features of working fluids. In the present study, therefore, the enhancement of heat pipe thermal efficiency with nanofluids is presented. The heat pipe is fabricated from the straight copper tube with the outer diameter and length of 15, 600 mm, respectively. The heat pipe with the de-ionic water, alcohol, and nanofluids (alcohol and nanoparticles) are tested. The titanium nanoparticles with diameter of 21 nm are used in the present study which the mixtures of alcohol and nanoparticles are prepared using an ultrasonic homogenizer. Effects of %charge amount of working fluid, heat pipe tilt angle and %nanoparticles volume concentrations on the thermal efficiency of heat pipe are considered. The nanoparticles have a significant effect on the enhancement of thermal efficiency of heat pipe. The thermal efficiency of heat pipe with the nanofluids is compared with that the based fluid.