Thermal performance of direct-flow coaxial evacuated-tube solar collectors with and without a heat shield

•Evacuated solar collector (ETC) with a heat shield had better thermal performance.•Efficiency of ETC with a heat shield is 54.70% at inlet temperature 123.9 °C.•31.49% higher than efficiency of ETC without a heat shield at this temperature.•Heat loss coefficients of ETC with a heat shield was 1.86 W/(m2 K).•A 50.80% improvement in heat loss reduced compared to ETC without a heat shield.

Experimental performance evaluation and comparative analyses based on heat extraction of direct-flow coaxial evacuated-tube solar collectors with and without heat shields are presented in this paper. A test system to evaluate the thermal performance of medium-temperature solar collectors was developed. The experimental analysis shows the evacuated-tube solar collector performed better with a heat shield, especially at higher working temperatures. The collection efficiency of the solar collector with a heat shield was 54.70% at the highest inlet temperature of 123.9 °C during the test period, which is 31.49% higher than for the solar collector without a heat shield. The calculated heat-loss coefficient for the evacuated-tube solar collector with a heat shield was 1.86 W/(m2 K), which is an improvement of 50.80% compared with that of the collector without a heat shield.

Graphical abstractCollection efficiency plots and linear characterization of evacuated tube solar collector with a heat shield (ETC-HS) and evacuated tube solar collector without a heat shield (ETC-NHS)Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide