An experimental investigation of a natural circulation heat pipe system applied to a parabolic trough solar collector steam generation system

A U-type natural circulation heat pipe system is designed and applied to a parabolic trough solar collector for generating mid-temperature steam. Thermal performance of the heat pipe system is investigated experimentally. A detailed heat transfer analysis is performed on thermal behaviors of the system, especially the solar collector. The results show that the system can generate mid-temperature steam of a pressure up to 0.75 MPa. The thermal efficiency is found to be 38.52% at discharging pressure of 0.5 MPa during summer time.

► A natural circulation parabolic trough solar collector system is designed and applied to generate mid-temperature steam. ► Field experiments are performed to analyze heat transfer characteristics of the system. ► Experiments results show that the system can generate mid-temperature steam of a pressure up to 0.75 MPa. ► The thermal efficiency is found to be 38.52% at discharging pressure of 0.5 MPa during summer time.