Evacuated tube collector is a type of solar energy unit that converts solar energy into thermal power; however,
the output of this unit is not high. Therefore, the present research attempted to propose a highly efficient unit to
transform solar energy into proper forms of energy, including electrical and thermal. In the current numerical
study, initially, the overall proficiency of integration of the phase change material in the evacuated tube solar
collector is poked and compared with the performance of a maiden renewable-based unit consisting of an
evacuated tube collector, photovoltaic module, phase change material, and porous metal foam. Henceforth, by
determining the best unit from the overall energy viewpoint, the impact of various factors, including melting
temperature of phase change material, nanoparticle mass fraction, and mass flow rate of operating fluid on the
operation of the unit, are investigated. According to the obtained results, the evacuated tube collector equipped
with the photovoltaic module, phase change material, and porous metal foam has the highest performance
among the studied units from the energy viewpoint. The overall performance of the presented unit is calculated
to be 13 % higher than the net efficiency of conventional evacuated tube solar collector. It is observed that
boosting the mass flow rate of operating fluid from 3.6 to 10.8 L/h enhances the average overall output of the
presented unit from 38.55 W to 40.13 W. Reducing the melting point of the phase change material can slightly
boost the performance of the unit; according to the simulations, reducing the melting point from 44 ◦C to 35 ◦C
raises the overall performance of the unit by around 0.4 %. Also, dispersing nanoparticles in the base fluid
improves the performance of the unit by 3.3 %. |
