Experimental research on a compound parabolic concentrator heat pipe type solar collector

A heat pipe type solar collector with compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) was studied, in which CPC was applied to heat pipe flat-plate solar collector with a flat absorbing plate. By using iodine tungsten lamp light to imitate solar radiation, the experimental investigations were conducted for a CPC heat pipe type solar collector and a common heat pipe flat plate solar collector in a room. Under different simulating radiation intensity conditions, the thermal performance comparison of the two types of solar collectors were carried out, including the fluid temperature in collectors, instantaneous collector efficiency, average collector efficiency and average heat loss coefficient. The results indicate that the CPC heat pipe type solar collector not only increases the fluid temperature in collector and instantaneous collector efficiency, but also decreases average heat loss coefficient compared with the heat pipe flat plate solar collector.