Performance of finned heat pipe assisted parabolic trough solar collector system under the climatic condition of North East India

The intermittent nature of solar radiation drives the researchers to store of solar energy using latent heat storage (LHS). In this work, an experimental investigation is carried out to study the performance of a heat pipe assisted parabolic trough collector (PTC) along with a paraffin wax based phase change material (PCM). The experiment ha sbeen performed under the climatic condition of North-East India. Further, a comparative assessment is done between the storage system with and without circular fins attached in the evaporator section of the heat pipe. The heat transfer characteristics during the charging/discharging process, temperature distribution, and energy stored in LHS are evaluated. The maximum average temperatures for PCM are estimated to be 63 degrees C and 60 degrees C with and without fins, respectively. The energy storage capacity of the LHS is around 330 kJ. The average charging efficiency of the LHS with fin configuration is 44.7% which is higher as compared to without fin configuration. The average discharging efficiency with fin configuration is 32.7%, higher than without fin configuration. Further, presence of fin in the evaporator system is found to reduce the energy pay back period of the thermal storage device.

Automated summary

This study investigated the performance of a heat pipe assisted parabolic trough collector with paraffin wax based phase change material for solar energy storage. The experiment was conducted in North-East India, comparing the system with and without circular fins in the heat pipe evaporator section. The presence of fins improved both charging and discharging efficiency of the latent heat storage system.