Study on the Operating Characteristics and System Modelling of Loop type Thermosyphon for Using Solar Thermal Energy

Solar energy is one of the promising resources of renewable energy. It is of particular interest due to the energy shortage and environment pollution problems. Water heating by solar energy for domestic use is one of the most successful and feasible applications of solar energy. The thermosyphon SDHWS and the loop type thermosyphon systems are widely used for domestic hot water system. The loop type thermosyphon is a circulation device for transferring the heat produced at the evaporator area to the condenser area in the loop by a working fluid. The system has the advantage of high heat transfer rate. A phase change of the working fluid occurs at the evaporator section and the vapor is transported to the condenser by the density gradient. The loop type thermosyphon collector can be made of smaller area and has higher efficiency than the present thermosyphon SDHWS. In this study, the operating characteristics of various working fluids being used have been identified. The working fluids employed in the study were ethanol, water and a binary mixture of ethanol and water. The volume of working fluid used in this study were 30%, 40%, 50%, 60% and 70% of evaporator volume. An increased heat was applied with the increased volume of working fluid. It is observed that, in the thermosyphon with low volume of working fluid, such as 30% or 40%, the fluid was dried out. The average efficiency of the loop type thermosyphon was 46% with high solar irradiation and 43% with low irradiation. The flow pattern and mechanism of the heat transfer were identified through this study. Flow patterns of the binary mixture working fluid were also investigated, and the patterns were recorded in the camera. The system parameters were calculated using the thermal performance data. Modelling of the system was carried out using PSTAR method and TRNSYS program