Design and fabrication of a novel hybrid-structure heat pipe for a concentrator photovoltaic

Abstract

This study presents a design method to fabricate a novel hybrid-structure flat plate heat pipe (NHSP heat pipe) for a concentrator photovoltaic. The NHSP heat pipe is composed of a flattened copper pipe and a sintered wick structure, and a coronary-stent-like rhombic copper mesh supports the structure. The coronary-stent-like supporting structure enhances the mechanical strength and shortens the reflux path of the working fluid. Experiments demonstrate that the sintered capillary heat pipe reduces the thermal resistance by approximately 72%, compared to a traditional copper mesh-screen heat pipe. Furthermore, it can reduce thermal resistance by 65% after a supporting structure is added to the heat pipe. The results show that the NHSP heat pipe provided the best performance for the concentrator photovoltaic, which can increase photoelectric conversion efficiency by approximately 3.1%, compared to an aluminum substrate. © 2012 by the authors.