Applied Thermal Engineering 25 (2005) 899915

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Developing a theoretical model to investigate thermal performance of a thin membrane heat-pipe solar collector
S.B. Riat, X. Zhao *, P.S. Doherty
School of the Built Environment, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK Received 17 September 2003; accepted 7 August 2004

Abstract A thin membrane heat-pipe solar collector was designed and constructed to allow heat from solar radiation to be collected at a relatively high eciency while keeping the capital cost low. A theoretical model incorporating a set of heat balance equations was developed to analyse heat transfer processes occurring in separate regions of the collector, i.e., the top cover, absorber and condenser/manifold areas, and examine their relationship. The thermal performance of the collector was investigated using the theoretical model. The modelling predictions were validated using the experimental data from a referred source. The test eciency was found to be in the range 4070%, which is a bitter lower than the values predicted by modelling. The factors inuencing these results were investigated. 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Heat pipes; Solar collector; Thin; Membrane; Eciency; Testing; Simulation

1. Introduction Solar collectors transform solar radiation into thermal energy. There are several types of solar collector available for practical applications, including evacuated tubes, at plate solar collectors and parabolic dish collectors.
*

Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 115 846 7873; fax: +44 115 951 3159. E-mail address: xudong.zhao@nottingham.ac.uk (X. Zhao).

1359-4311/$ - see front matter 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2004.08.010

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Nomenclature A Cp d Fv h In k V L m n Nu Pr Q r R t x d q g g area (m2) specic heat (J/kg C) diameter (m) frictional resistance coecient of the vapour ow in the heat pipe convection heat transfer coecient (W/m2 C) global solar irradiation (W/m2) thermal conductivity (W/m C) volume ow rate (m3/s) length (m) mass ow rate (kg/s) number of the heat pipes included Nusselt number Prandtl number heat (W) radius (m) heat resistance (m2 C/W) temperature (C) general external parameter thickness (m) density of air (kg/m3) collector thermal eciencyterm 1 collector thermal eciencyterm 2

Subscripts a ambient ab absorber abs absorption adia adiabatic section av average cl cooling liquid con condenser cond condensation section dw downside wall eq equivalent evap evaporation section hp heat pipe hy hydraulic i inside inc incident radiation ins insulation layer

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lim max o ref tc tra

limit maximum outside reection top cover transmission

Heat pipes are devices of high thermal conductance, which transfer thermal energy by twophase circulation of uid, and can easily be integrated into most types of solar collector. The basic dierence in thermal performance between a heat-pipe solar collector and a conventional one lies in the heat-transfer processes from the absorber tube wall to the energy-transporting uid. In the case with a heat pipe, the process is evaporationcondensationconvection, while for conventional solar collectors, heat transfer occurs only in the absorber plate. Thus, solar collectors with heat pipes have a lower thermal mass, resulting in a reduction of start-up time. A feature that makes heat pipes an attractive for use in solar collectors is their ability to operate like a thermal-diode, i.e., the ow of the heat is in one direction only. This minimizes heat loss from the transporting uid, e.g., water, when incident radiation is low. Furthermore, when the maximum design temperature of the collector is reached, additional heat transfer can be prevented. This would prevent over-heating of the circulating uid, a common problem in many applications of solar collectors [3,6]. One of the rst studies of heat pipes in solar applications was carried out by Bienert and Wol [3]. In this case, the evaporator end of a heat pipe was inserted in a at-plate collector, and the condenser protruded into a water manifold attached to the upper end of the collector. The results of this investigation were neither conclusive nor optimistic. Since then, numerous studies have been carried out, including theoretical analysis and calculation [10,19,17,11], experimental testing [1,21,20,26,29,8,22], combined investigation involving theoretical analysis and experimental trials [9,12,13,15,16], as well as applications in practice [4,2,5,18]. Most of these studies involved the investigation of the thermal performance of various types of heat-pipe solar collectors by analytical, numerical or experimental methods with the aim of establishing suitable structures or system layouts, as well as optimum operating conditions for high eciency. Of the existing collector designs, evacuated tube and at-plate collectors are most widely used, and the former is usually found to be more ecient for high temperature applications. Flat-plate heat-pipe solar collectors, on the other hand, have their own set of advantages, including simpler structure, lower cost, easier manufacture and simple operation. The lower eciency of at-plate collectors is mainly due to the heat loss via the cover surface due to conduction and convection. Standard at-plate collectors have typical eciencies of 50% or less [22], while evacuated devices have eciencies of about 5080% [21,20,29]. It would be desirable to develop a new structure for at plate collectors that would overcome heat loss problems and allow a high eciency to be achieved, while its capital cost still remains low. This paper introduces a novel at plate heat pipe solar collector, termed as thin membrane heat pipe solar collector. This collector is expected to achieve a higher eciency, but with relatively lower capital cost, compared to normal at plat heat pipe solar collectors. One prototype of such

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kind of collector was constructed, and an analytical model that is able to simulate heat transfer processes occurring in the collector and calculate its eciency, was developed based at the prototype structure. The model applied heat balance and heat resistance network method, which is a new approach in collector thermal performance analyses. Simulation on the performance of the collector was carried out, and the results were used to estimate its eciency and determine the relation between eciency and general external parameter, (tmean ta)/In.

2. Prototype set-up A prototype thin membrane heat-pipe solar collector was designed to collect and distribute heat by means of vaporisation and condensation of a heat transfer uid. It comprised mainly of an evacuated housing containing an absorber, a reservoir at the lower end of the collector and a condenser panel on the top end of the collector. A micro-pore insulation material, attained with an aluminium/foam plastic tray, was tted beneath the absorber panel to reduce downward heat loss. A clear acrylic cover was mounted on the top of the evacuated housing, creating an enclosed space where a vacuum could be maintained to eliminate convection/conduction heat loss. Fig. 1 shows schematically the structure of such a prototype collector [23]. The main body of the collector comprised two plates separated by a thin evaporation gap. The plates were spot welded together creating mini-channels (ribs) running parallel across the width of the absorber, as shown in Fig. 2. Each mini-channel was considered to be a single

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the normal thin membrane heat pipe solar collector.

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ribs

Fig. 2. Schematic showing the cross section of the plate heat pipe (enlarged).

miniature heat pipe, as has previously been investigated by Riat et al. [24] using an analytical and numerical model. The miniature heat pipes connected the evaporation section to the condensation section of the collector to enable the ow of vapour refrigerant and condensed liquid refrigerant. In this collector, the absorber comprised 22 mini-channels (ribs). The previous analytical investigation showed such a single pipe had a heat transport capacity of 50 W when it was operated at 80 C and installed with the inclination of 60 relative to the horizontal. Thus the whole panel would have an overall heat transport capacity of 1100 W, which is much higher than the actual solar input (<250 W) [30]. This analysis demonstrates that the heat pipes selected allow the received solar energy to be transported without restriction under the given operation conditions. This collector used a coating material, called Maxorb-Nickel foil, on its absorber surfaces. The material has a solar absorptivity of 0.950.99, and a long-wave emittance of 0.080.11 [27]. These are very favourable for solar absorption and act to enhance collector eciency. Since the plate and so called heat pipes are actually the same pieces of material, the capital cost of the heat pipe panel is low. Furthermore, as the space between the top cover and absorber plate is intended to be evacuated, the collector heat loss to the surroundings could be reduced and its eciency is expected to be high. The thermal properties of acrylic plate are illustrated in Table 1, and the design parameters of the absorber/channels are shown in Table 2. In the manufacturing, deformation appeared in the top cover when the space between the cover and absorber plate was evacuated. To recover the shape of the cover, an inert gas, argon, was introduced into the space after evacuation was complete. Photographs of the prototype collector are shown in Fig. 3. The length of the condenser was chosen as 100 mm for the prototype module. However, this parameter could be set at dierent values.

Table 1 Specications of the top covers and their solar optical and thermal parameters Cover condition Parameter stc (transmit.) 1. Single acrylic cover with an evacuated chamber 2. Single acrylic cover with an un-evacuated chamber 0.8 0.8 stc (absorpt.) 0.08 0.08 reftc (reectivity) 0.12 0.12 etc (emmitance) 0.88 0.88 U (W/m2 K) R (m2 K/W) 5.9 1 5.90.18

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Table 2 Parameters of the heat pipes and absorber panel Absorpvity of absorber surface, aab Reectivity of absorber surface, refab Emmitance of absorber surface, eab Absorber area, Aab Unshaded absorber area, Aab,r Heat resistance of top cover inner surface, Rtc,i, m2. K/W Heat resistance of top cover outer surface, Rtc,o, m2. K/W Thermal conductivity of insulation layer 1, kins1, W/m K Thickness of insulation layer 1, dins1, m Thermal conductivity of insulation layer 2, kins2, W/m K Thickness of insulation layer 2, dins2, m 0.95 0.05 0.1 0.24 0.233 0.12 0.06 0.005 0.025 0.046 0.005 Thermal conductivity of bottom plate, kdw, W/m K Thickness of bottom plate, ddw, m Number of heat pipes Equivalent diameter of heat pipe (inner) dhp, m Length of evaporator levap, m Length of condenser lcon, m Thermal conductivity of heat pipe wall, khp, W/m K Thickness of heat pipe wall, dhp, m Thermal conductivity of liquid lm on heat pipe inner wall, Kw, W/m K Equivalent diameter of vapour column in evaporator dvap,evap, m Equivalent diameter of vapour column in condenser dvap,con, m 0.0015 0.0015 22 0.002 1 0.1 43 0.001 0.68 0.00196 0.0019

Fig. 3. The prototype thin membrane heat-pipe solar collector.

3. Analytical model set-up The analytical model focused on heat transfer problems existed in the prototype heat pipe solar collector. In fact, heat transfers exist in three major parts of the collector prototype, i.e., the top cover, the absorber (evaporator plate) and the condenser/manifold, as shown schematically in Fig. 4. These heat transfers nally achieve balance themselves and are inter-linked by a distributed

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Fig. 4. Schematic diagram showing relation of heat balances in dierent parts of a solar collector.

temperature prole. In the modelling development, a few assumptions were made in order to simplify solution solving process, including: A steady state condition has achieved and heat balance exists in each component and whole area of the collector prototype. The absorber has uniform temperature distribution over its surface area, supposed that a uniform heat input is exerted onto it. There is no heat loss on the edge area of the absorber where the top cover and the bottom chamber are covered, due to a good insulation applied.

3.1. Heat transfer process in the top cover For a given collector area and total solar irradiation, the heat striking the top cover surface is part absorbed by the cover, part transmitting through the cover and reaching the absorber, and the remaining is reected to atmosphere. This heat transfer process can be expressed as Qinc Qabc Qref Qtra 1 The absorbed heat will be dispersed to the surroundings or (and) absorber by ways of convection, conduction or radiation, to achieve a heat balance relative to the top cover. This balance may be expressed as Qabc Qtcab Qtca 2 Heat dissipation to the surroundings occurs mainly by the combined eect of conduction and convection. However, Heat transfer between the top cover and absorber may be complex. If the absorber chamber were perfectly evacuated, heat transfer between the top cover and absorber would only be induced by radiation. If the chamber were not evacuated, heat transfer between the top cover and the absorber will be a combined eect of conduction, convection and radiation.

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The above items, i.e., Qabc, Qref, Qtra, Qtcab and Qtca, can be calculated using basic heat radiation & convection equations given by Yang and Tao [28]. 3.2. Heat transfer process in the absorber (evaporator) plate Part of the heat reaching the absorber plate will be transferred to the working uid through the miniature heat pipes formed by the spot welded at plates, and this will cause the liquid to vaporise. This is therefore termed the eective heat input. The remainder will be dispersed to the environment through the top cover and bottom casings, resulting in heat losses due to conduction, convection and radiation. The heat losses include upward and downward losses. The upward loss refers to heat transfer between the absorber and the top cover, which has been mentioned in Eq. (2), and the downward loss can be expressed as Qdwa Aab tab ta =dab =k ab dins =k ins ddw =k dw 1=ha 3

There are temperature dierentials in the absorber area, which result in heat transmission from the plate area to the channels, or from one part to another part of the plate area. However, these dierentials are small as the plate and channels are made into an integrated body using stainless steel, a good heat conductor. In order to simplify the thermal analysis, the dierentials are considered to be negligible and thus the absorber surface is assumed to be at the same temperature over the whole area. In this situation, actual heat obtained by the absorber (evaporator) plate is then expressed as Qab Qtra Qabtc Qdwa 4

The heat obtained should be transferred to the heat pipes, causing evaporation of the operating uid inside the pipes. However, if the heat transport capacity of the heat pipes is not large enough to transport such an amount of heat, then part of the heat will be dispersed to the surroundings via the top cover and the metal surface of the chamber, resulting in a change of temperature over the absorber area. To investigate the heat transfer of a heat pipe solar collector, it is necessary to determine its heat transport limitation. The limit of the heat transport capacity for a single heat pipe may be determined using the analytical model developed by Riat et al. [24]. The maximum heat transport capacity of the collector may then be obtained as Qmax nQlim 5

Where n is the number of heat pipes included. If Qab is less than Qmax, then the heat obtained will be transported without any restriction. However, if Qmax is less than Qab, then part of the obtained heat will be dispersed to the surroundings, resulting in reduced heat transportation from the absorber to condenser. In this case, the temperature of the absorber surface would be adjusted automatically until a new thermo-equilibrium is achieved.

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3.3. Heat transfer processes in the condensers and manifold The heat obtained from the absorber, Qab, will be transported to the cooling uid passing across manifold through evaporation and condensation of the working uid in the heat pipes. There are several heat resistances in this process, namely, the evaporator wall resistance, the equivalent resistance of the working uid and wick in the evaporator, the vapour ow resistance, the equivalent resistance of the working uid and wick in the condenser, and the condenser wall resistance. These resistances can be calculated using the equations given by Dunn and Reay [7]. The total resistance would be the sum of the individual resistances. For a single heat pipe, heat transportation from the evaporator outer surface to the condenser outer surface may be written as Qhp;i pr2 thp;evap thp;cond =Rhp hp 6

The heat will be transferred to the cooling liquid by heat conduction through the manifold wall, and heat convection between the manifold wall and the cooling liquid. The cooling liquid will be heated when owing through the manifold channel, which is tightly xed to the heat pipe condensers. For an inlet temperature given as t0, a temperature increase Dt1, (t1 t0), will be achieved after the uid passes around the rst heat pipe due to heat absorption from the pipe. The uid temperature increases gradually along the ow direction due to continuous heat transfer from the parallel-array of heat pipes. The heat transfer between a single heat pipe and the cooling liquid may be expressed as Qcon;i Acon;i thp;cond ti1 ti =2 C p;cl mcl ti ti1 Qhp;i dcon 1 k con hcl 7

hcl is the convective heat transfer coecient of the cooling uid, which is largely dependent on the velocity of uid passing over the surface, and the cross-sectional area, as well as the geometry of the ow channel. For the collector indicated above, the ow of the cooling liquid ow and the manifold geometry are shown schematically in Fig. 5. The ow may be treated as half of the annular ow. To solve for the convective heat transfer coecient, hcon, the channel needs to be treated as an annular geometry rather than a semi-annular one, and correspondingly, heat ow from the inner wall needs to be doubled to comply with this treatment. Heat transfer through the outer walls was negligible as a satisfactory insulation was provided. For both situations, calculation of hcl could be carried out using the annular ow model [14], as shown schematically in Fig. 6. Nucl hcl Dhy;con k con 8 9

Dhy;con Do;con Di;con

Di,con is the hydraulic diameter of the internal wall of the ow channel, and Do,con is that of the external wall of the ow channel. For the situation shown in Fig. 6, If b > (a2 a1), then: Do;con a2 Di;con a1

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b Heat pipe panel a1 Manifold Cooling fluid a2

Fig. 5. Schematic diagram showing cooling liquid ow and manifold geometry in the thin membrane heat pipe solar collector.

Qe Di

Do
Fig. 6. Annular channel ow model.

However, if b/(a2 a1) < 10 then: Di;con Do;con 2a1 b a1 b 2a2 b a2 b

Cooling liquid ow in the manifold is fully developed laminar ow, which has a Reynolds number less than 400 due to its very low velocity and the relatively large cross-sectional area. For this case, Nuo may be obtained from Table 3 [14]. For a single heat pipe, given the inlet temperature ti1, the outlet temperature ti may be obtained by solving Eq. (7). For the whole condenser/manifold conguration, the overall heat transfer may be expressed as Qcon Qcon;1 Qcon;2 Qcon;n C p;cl mcl tn t0 10

S.B. Riat et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 25 (2005) 899915 Table 3 Nusselt number Di/Do 0 0.05 0.10 0.25 0.50 1.00 Nuo 3.66 4.06 4.11 4.23 4.43 4.86

909

Qcon should be equal to Qob according to the principle of heat balance. Eqs. (6)(10) may be used to obtain solutions for the outlet temperature and the mean temperature of the cooling water, as well as the temperatures in dierent parts of the heat pipe panel. 3.4. Numerical procedure The three heat processes described above are actually inter-linked by a well-developed temperature layout. The numerical procedure used for the solution solving is indicated as follows: 1. Given the collector conguration, geometrical and thermodynamic parameters of the collector unit are determined; 2. Given the incident radiation and ambient temperature, the heat striking the absorber is determined. 3. Given the manifold conguration, as well as the cooling liquid ow condition, geometrical, thermodynamic and ow parameters of the cooling uid are determined; 4. Assuming an absorber temperature ts, heat analysis is carried out as follows: Heat balance of the top cover may be analysed using Eqs. (1) and (2), which results in solution solving of the inner surface temperature of top cover tci. Heat balance of the absorber (evaporator) plate may be analysed using Eqs. (3)(5), which results in solution solving of the absorber heat gain, Qobt. Heat balance of the heat pipes, and condenser/manifold pair may be analysed using Eqs. (6)(10), which results in solution solving of the heat gain of the cooling water passing through the manifold, as well as the temperature layout in dierent areas of collector. 5. If (Qobt Qcon)/Qobt > 0.5% (error allowance), then increase ts by 0.1 C, and return to step 4 for re-calculation. 6. If (Qobt Qcon)/Qobt < 0.5% (error allowance), then decrease ts by 0.1 C, and return to step 4 for a re-calculation. 7. If 0.5%  (Qobt Qcon)/Qobt  0.5%, heat balances in the whole system, as well as dierent areas of the system, are achieved. 8. The cooling water temperature at the outlet and dierent points along the ow channel, as well as the temperatures at dierent areas of the collector, may be calculated. 9. Program stops.

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4. Results and discussion 4.1. Eciency calculation The data obtained by running the computer program described in Section 3 could be used to evaluate the thermal performance of a solar collector. For a solar collector, its performance is usually evaluated using eciency g, which is dened as the ratio of heat taken from the manifold by the cooling liquid and the incident irradiation striking the collector absorber. g varies with a number of external parameters, including global solar irradiation In, ambient temperature ta, as well as cooling uid inlet temperature t0 and mass ow rate m. These parameters may be grouped by a specially-dened parameter, termed (tmean ta)/In, whereby tmean is the average temperature of the cooling uid and may be written as t0 tn 2 g is usually expressed as the function of (tmean ta)/In, as follows:   tmean ta g g0 a1 In tmean where g0, a1 are the collector character parameters. 4.2. Simulation results Simulation was carried out for the thin membrane heat pipe solar collector by assuming a certain operating parameters. The assumed parameters were coincident with the actual testing conditions in order to facilitate comparison between theoretical and experimental results, as shown in Table 4. g(tmean ta)/In relations for the collector with/without evacuation treatment were investigated using the computer model developed, and the results are shown in Fig. 7. It was found that the single acrylic with an un-evacuated chamber has the much lower eciency (6238%) than the evacuated case (7568%). For the both cases, g decreased while (tmean ta)/In increased. The relation of g and (tmean ta)/In was approximately linear. 4.3. Experimental results The prototype collector was tested at the laboratory of Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy System (ISE) in Germany, by complying with the European Standard of prEN 12975: 1999 [25].
Table 4 Summary of the external parameters In, W/m2 ta, C Mcl, kg/h tin,cl, C 1033 19.1 30.1 17.1 1033 19.9 30 17.2 1027 20.3 30 17.4 998 21.3 30.1 54.9 1031 22.5 30.1 55.0 949 17.7 30.1 79.4 962 18.3 30.2 79.5 968 18.9 30 79.7

11

12

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Efficiency - (t mean -ta)/In relation - Comparison of different covers
80 75 70 65

911

Efficiency, %

60 55 50 45
Evacuated chamber

40
Un-evacuated chamber

35 30 -0.01 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 (tmean-ta)/In, oC.m 2/W 0.05 0.06 0.07

Fig. 7. g(tmean ta)/In relationsimulation results.

The collector had a gross area of 0.4 m2, of which 0.255 m2 was the absorber area, and the rest was the condensation area. The absorber area was not completely utilised because of the edge eect, and the un-shadowed area was only 0.233 m2. An outdoor climate was created in the laboratory. The wind speed was measured at the middle area of the collector module, 5 cm above the transparent cover, and adjusted to 3 m/s using a ventilator. Optical bulbs were scatter-distributed at the dome area to simulate the global solar irradiation. Water was used as the cooling liquid, and passed through the collector manifold at a rate of 30 kg/h during the test period. Test conditions and results were summarised in Table 5. The eciencies were calculated using the results obtained, and are shown in Fig. 8. The characteristic parameters indicating the collector performance are given as: g0 = 0.70094; a1 = 4.604. 4.4. Comparison of the modelling and experimental results Comparison was carried out between the modelling and experimental results for the thin membrane heat-pipe solar collector. The results of these comparisons are summarised in Fig. 9. It was found that the experimental eciencies were lower than the predicted results for the evacuated case, but higher than those for the case of the single acrylic cover with an un-evacuated chamber. The reason for this was investigated, and it was found that the evacuation of the chamber was not well processed. This resulted in reduced eciencies compared to the modelling results because the theoretical analysis assumed that the chamber was completely evacuated. The top cover was deformed during processing an evacuation and to recover its shape, the chamber

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Table 5 Test results for the thin membrane heat pipe solar collector In, W/m2 1033 1033 1027 998 1031 949 962 968 Idiuse, W/m2 85 87 90 121 135 110 109 110 ta, C 19.1 19.9 20.3 21.3 22.5 17.7 18.3 18.9 mcl, kg/h 30.1 30 30 30.1 30.1 30.1 30.2 30 tin,cl, C 17.1 17.2 17.4 54.9 55 79.4 79.5 79.7 tout,cl, C 21.8 22.1 22.2 58.6 58.8 81.8 82.1 82.3 tout,cl tin,cl, C 4.7 4.9 4.8 3.7 3.8 2.4 2.5 2.6 tmean, C 19.5 19.7 19.8 56.7 56.9 80.6 80.8 81.0 (tmean ta)/In, C m2/W 0.0003 0.0002 0.0005 0.0335 0.0333 0.0663 0.0649 0.0642 g 0.6847 0.7073 0.7006 0.5561 0.5578 0.3869 0.3944 0.4040

80 70 60

Efficiency - (tmean-ta)/Inrelation - test results

y = -460.4x + 70.094 R2 = 0.9926

Efficiency, %

50 40 30 20 10 0 -0.01 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 (tmean-ta)/In, oC.m 2/W

Fig. 8. g(tmean ta)/In relationtest results.

was lled with an inert gas, argon, after evacuation. Filling resulted in reduced eciencies compared to the evacuated treatment, but still provide higher eciency values than the un-evacuated or un-lled cases.

5. Conclusions A thin membrane heat-pipe solar collector was designed and constructed. The collector comprised of two sheets of stainless steel spot welded along the length and parallel-arrayed at the

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Comparison of testing and modelling results the thin membrane heat pipe solar collector
80 70 60 50 40
testing

913

Efficiency, %

30 20 10 0 -0.01 0 0.01

evacuated chamber single glass, unevacuated chamber

0.02

0.03

0.04

0.05

0.06

0.07

(tmean-ta)/In, oC.m2/W

Fig. 9. Comparison of testing and modelling results.

width, creating mini-channels (ribs) running parallel along the width of the absorber. These were termed miniature heat pipes. This design would reduce the capital cost of the heat pipe panel compared to normal, at-plate heat-pipe solar collectors. Furthermore, since the space between the top cover and absorber plate was evacuated, or lled with an inert gas, the eciency of this type of collector was expected to be high. A theoretical model was developed to analyse the heat transfer occurring in the collector. The heat processes in dierent areas of the collectors were investigated, and these were linked by a set of heat balance equations. The thermal performance of the thin membrane heat-pipe solar collector was investigated using the computer model developed. The simulation results were used to determine the collector eciency g, which is dened as the ratio of heat taken from the manifold by the cooling liquid and the incident irradiation striking the collector absorber. It was found that the eciency varies with the external conditions, i.e., global solar irradiation In, ambient temperature ta, as well as cooling uid inlet temperature t0 and mass ow rate m, for the given collector structure. The external conditions can be grouped by an item specied as (tmean ta)/In. Overall, g was found to decrease with increasing of (tmean ta)/In. The relationship can be expressed by linear equations. The modelling predictions were validated using the experimental data from a referred source. The test eciency was found to be in the range of 40%70%, which is lower than the values predicted by modelling for the evacuated case, but higher than the values predicted for the case of a single glass cover with an un-evacuated chamber. The reason for this was that the chamber was lled with an inert gas, argon, after being evacuated, and this has a larger heat resistance than air,

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but still gave rise to an extra conductive or/and convective heat loss compared to the evacuated situation. This treatment was not taken into account in modelling development and processing.

Acknowledgment The authors would like to acknowledge the nancial support provided for this research by the European Commission, under the Joule Craft Programme.

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