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Go to Editorial ManagerThe incorporation of thermal energy storage materials (TESMs) into solar energy systems is a factor that boosts the performance of these systems. In this paper, an experimental study was addressed for enhancing the heat pipe’s thermal performance that works with an Evacuated Solar Tube Collector with Heat Pipe (ETCHP) as a solar water heater system. This is done by adding micro-zinc oxide (ZnO-MP) to the paraffin wax integrated as TESM into the evacuated tube (ET) of the system, where the evaporator section of the heat pipe is completely submerged within the micro-enhanced paraffin wax. Three experimental prototype rigs with one evacuated tube were designed, built, and tested to do the investigation. The most important parameters that have been studied in this study are the thermal resistance and the temperature distribution pattern along the heat pipe. The results show a clear indication of the decrease in the thermal resistance of the heat pipe of the proposed system compared to the system in which pure paraffin wax was incorporated. Also, it was noticed that there is a significant improvement in the temperature distribution along the heat pipe due to the improvement in the conductivity of the micro-enhanced wax compared to the pure wax.
A mathematical model to analysis three–dimensional forced convection turbulent flow in a novel solar air heater integrated with multiple rectangular capsules filled by paraffin wax-based on phase change material PCM was implemented. The investigations were performed under three airflow speed of (0.6, 1.2, and 1.8) kg/min and average solar flux of 625 W/m 2 . The results revealed that the delaying melting time and also lower the melting temperature of PCM by increasing airflow speed during the charging process. As well as, the freezing period is dependent on the airflow speed by inverse relation. Also, the data results represent that the useful energy rate and thermal storage efficiency were a strong dependence on the airflow speed. Moreover, it can be detected that the optimal freezing time and the air temperature rise of the heater were reached about 210 minutes with (12 – 1.5 °C), 150 minutes with (7.5 – 1.4°C), and 120 minutes with (5.5 – 1.5 °C), at airflow speed of 0.6, 1.2, and 1.8 kg/min, respectively, which can be used at night to supply some applications by thermal energy such as heating buildings and drying agricultural crops.