Effect of PCM material and vibration on the performance of evacuated tube solar collector

Abstract

It can be considered that the solar collector is an essential thermal device, and it can be used to utilize solar energy via collecting and concentrating solar radiation. This system has many applications, such as water heating, building heating and other industrial applications. In this work, two new systems of heat pipe evacuated tube solar collector (HP-ETSC) were built. The first one was integrated with phase change material (PCM) and the second one without PCM. The first part investigated the effect of integrating PCM on the behavior and performance of HP-ETSC. While in the second part, the influence of applying vibration with different frequencies on the system to enhance the system's overall performance and efficiency was studied. All executed tests were done in Iraq and during the winter season. It selected four cases, (1) system without integrated PCM, without applying vibration; (2) system without integrated PCM, with applying vibration; (3) system with integrated PCM, without applying vibration; (4) a system with integrated PCM, with applying vibration, to find the optimal system of them. The results proved that the system's performance was enhanced.