Development of a heating device using CPV and heat pipe

Abstract

Paper presented to the 10th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Florida, 14-16 July 2014.

The purpose of this research was to increase the generating efficiency of CPV within a restricted area using solar tracking and heat pipe. At the same time, we demonstrated that the proposed system had the ability to extract thermal energy from a CPV using thermal absorbers containing heat pipe, which could then be used for a heating system or hot-water supply. Tracking the sun, calculating the sun’s position, reinstating the heating device towards the east again for the next day’s tracking, and system shutdown were programmed using Simulink. A comparison of the experimental results with KASSI(Korea Astronomy & Space Science Institute) mathematical data for the sun’s position confirmed that the algorithm used for the solar-tracking device was correct. As this system can collect heat from the CPV, the efficiency was much higher than that obtained using air cooling. We performed parametric analysis of the concentration ratio with respect to the operating temperature of the CPV and outlet temperature. The simulated and experimental results for the thermal absorber containing heat pipe were in good agreement.