Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 1978–1985

www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Experimental study of the performance of a solar collector

by closed-end oscillating heat pipe (CEOHP)
S. Rittidech *, S. Wannapakne
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Mahasarakham University, Thailand

Received 21 May 2005; accepted 11 December 2006

Available online 24 December 2006

Abstract

An experimental flat plate solar collector operating in conjunction with a closed-end oscillating heat pipe (CEOHP) offers a reason-
ably efficient and cost effective alternative to conventional solar collector system that use heat pipes. The CEOHP system described in this
study relies on the natural forces of gravity and capillary action and dose not require an external power source. The flat plate collector
consisted of a 1 mm thick sheet of black zinc covered by a glass enclosure with a collecting area of 2.00 · 0.97 m2 , an evaporator located
on the collecting plate, and a condenser inserted into a water tank. A length of 0.003 ID copper tubing was bent into multiple turns at
critical points along its path and used to channel the working fluid throughout the system. R134a was used as the working fluid. Effi-
ciency evaluations were conducted during daylight hours over a two month period and included extensive monitoring and recording of
temperatures with type-K thermocouples placed at key locations throughout the system. The results confirmed the anticipated fluctua-
tion in collector efficiency dependant on the time of day, solar energy irradiation, ambient temperature and flat plate mean temperature.
An efficiency of approximately 62% was achieved, which correlates with the efficiency of the more expensive heat pipe system. The
CEOHP system offers the additional benefits of corrosion free operation and absence of freezing during winter months.
 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Solar collector; Closed-end oscillating heat pipe

1. Introduction
Typically, conventional solar collectors (SC) use water
pipes attached to the collecting plate where water circulates
either naturally or forcibly and transfers the heat it collects
to a storage tank. Some of the shortcomings of this type
solar collectors system include the extra expense of a pump
and the power needed to operate it, the extra space
required for any natural circulation system, the corrosion
effect of water, and the limited quantity of heat transferred
by the fluid. Heat pipes offer a promising solution to these
problems. Heat pipes working under gravity with the con-
denser located above the evaporator do not require exter-
nal power because capillary action functions to return the
*
Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +66 43 754316.
E-mail address: S_Rittidej@hotmail.com (S. Rittidech).
heat transfer fluid to the evaporator. This type of heat pipe
system is often referred to as a gravity assisted heat pipe, a
wickless gravity assisted heat pipe or a closed two-phase
thermosyphon. Numerous experiments have been con-
ducted over the years on these systems; some examples of
the findings are elucidated here. With respect to the closed
two-phase thermosyphon, Soin et al. [20,21] investigated
the thermal performance of a thermosyphon collector con-
taining boiling acetone and petroleum ether, and presented
the effect of insolation and the liquid level on the collector
performance. Schreyer [19] experimentally investigated the
use of refrigerant R11 in a thermosyphon solar collector
for residential applications. It was found that, for two iden-
tical collectors, the instantaneous peak efficiency of a boil-
ing refrigerant charged collector was 6% greater than that
of a hydraulic fluid circulating solar collector. Bottum [3],
based upon engineering tests and more than four years of
observation in the field of both hydraulic and phase-change

1359-4311/$ - see front matter  2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2006.12.005
 S. Rittidech, S. Wannapakne / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 1978–1985
Nomenclature
A area (m2)
d diameter (m)
g gravitation acceleration (m/s2)
I solar irradiation (W/m2)
M water flow rate (kg/s)
Q heat transfer rate of CEOHP (W)
Cp water specific heat at constant pressure (J/kg K)
DT difference temperature of water inlet and outlet
(C)
domestic water heating system, concluded that hydraulic
system work very well when properly installed and main-
tained, but refrigerant changed system are more efficient,
usually require less maintenance, and the possibility of
collectors freezing is eliminated. Akyurt [1] designed and
manufactured numerous heat pipes. Each heat pipe was
incorporated into a prototype solar water heater. An exten-
sive testing program lasting for more than a year revealed
that the heat pipe perform satisfactorily as heat transfer
elements in solar water heaters. Fanney and Terlizzi [7]
conducted experiments to determine the effect of irradiance
level on the thermal performance of the refrigerant charged
domestic solar hot water system. The experiments con-
cluded that the irradiance level was negligible for the levels
considered. Radhwan et al. [16] investigated experimentally
the thermal performances of two R11 charged integrated
solar water heaters using forced and natural circulation
water flows. The results showed that the inclination of
the condenser integrated within the collector frame had a
remarkable effect on the natural circulation of the water
flow system, while it had no significant effect on the forced
circulation flow system. Hammad [9] studied the perfor-
mance of a solar collector cooled by a heat pipe to work
at low temperature conditions. The experimental results
indicated an efficiency of about 60% was achieved, which
was not less than that of the water cooled collector. Pluta
and Pomierny [15] designed a two-phase solar thermosy-
phon for use in a domestic hot water system and indicated
that proper construction and choice of a suitable phase-
change medium played an importance role in assuring the
proper operating conditions of the phase-change thermosy-
phon. Ghaddar and Nasr [8] fabricated and tested an R11
changed solar collector with an integrated condenser for
secondary-cooling of the water flow. The forced circulation
flow method use in his test demonstrated instantaneous
system efficiency values varying from 20% to 60%, which
was in the range of conventional water solar collectors.
Chu et al. [4] experimentally studied a domestic solar hot
water system using heat pipes. A number of systems with
different configurations and working fluids were con-
structed and their performance measured to elicit the most
feasible model considering the various limiting conditions
present. Hussein and Mohamad [11,12] and Hussein [10]
1979
Greek symbols
q density (kg/m3)
r surface tension (N/m)
Subscripts
i inner
l liquid
w water
max maximum
investigated theoretically and experimentally a thermo-
syphon flat plate solar collector. The transient thermal
behavior of a wickless heat pipe flat plate solar collectors
was analyzed with regard to various parameters. The
results revealed that the pitch distance limited the selection
of an absorber plate to one having a high value of thermal
conductivity. Also, from the theoretical analysis, it was
concluded that the condenser section aspect ratio and the
heat pipe inclination angle had a significant effect on the
condensation heat transfer coefficient inside the inclined
wickless heat pipes. Esen and Yuksel [5] fabricated a two-
phase thermosyphon solar collector with heat pipes and
studied experimentally various phase-change fluids to eval-
uate the effect of insolation and mass of fluid on the collec-
tor performance. It was found that such a collector can be
successfully used, especially during cold, cloudy and windy
days. Mathioulakis and Belessiotis [14] presented the
results of a theoretical and experimental investigation
of the energy behavior of a new type of solar collector
employing a heat pipe filled with ethanol. The energy
behavior of the system was characterized by high instanta-
neous efficiencies up to 60%. Esen et al. [6] presented the
results of an experimental investigation of a two-phase
closed thermosyphon solar water heater. The results were
analyzed with regard to various working fluid (R134a,
R407C, and R410a). It was concluded that the working
fluid had an effect on thermal performance of a two-phase
thermosyphon solar collector.
Q out
Condenser section
Adiabatic section
Q in
Evaporator section
Fig. 1. Closed-end oscillating heat pipe (CEOHP).
1980 S. Rittidech, S. Wannapakne / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 1978–1985

As seen from these extensive literature reviews, very few
experiments or tests have been conducted on closed-end
oscillating heat pipe solar collectors. The CEOHP displays
numerous advantages; the main advantage being large
quantities of heat can be transported through a small
cross-section area. The CEOHP shown in Fig. 1 is a very
effective heat transfer device; its structure is simple and it
has fast thermal response. It consists of a long capillary
tube bent into many turns; the evaporator, adiabatic and
condenser sections are located at these turns. However,
there is no wick structure to return the condensate liquid
from the condenser to the evaporator section. Heat is
transported from the evaporator section to the condenser
section by the pulsation of the working fluid moving in an
axial direction in the tube. The inner diameter of the pipe
is important. It must be small enough so that under operat-
ing conditions liquid slugs and vapor plugs can be formed.
If the diameter is too large, the liquid and vapor inside the
tube will become stratified and oscillating heat pipe opera-
tion cannot be established. Rittidech et al. [17] investigated
the effect of inclination angles, evaporator lengths and
working fluid properties on the heat transfer characteristics
of closed-end oscillating heat pipe at normal operating con-
dition, Further, Rittidech et al. [18] presented a correlation
to predict the heat transfer characteristics of a closed-end
oscillating heat pipe at normal operating condition. As
the criterion to find the maximum inner diameter of a
CEOHP, Maezawa et al. [13], presented that under the con-
dition where the vapor bubble is formed alternately with the
liquid plug within the tube, the pipe diameter should depend
on the properties of the working fluid as:
0:5
d i max 6 2ðrl =ql gÞ
of 2.00 m · 0.97 m, and the collecting plate was covered
by a glass plate.
2.2. The collecting plate
A 1 mm thick black zinc sheet 2.00 m in length was used
to make a collecting plate with 2.00 · 0.97 m2 test area.
When considering solar energy irradiation and the perfor-
mance of, CEOHP, it was determined that fourteen turns
in the tubing of the CEOHP were sufficient for the area
provided. The collecting plate was cut to size, holed and
pressed to make room for the tubing which was soldered
in place to the plate surface with an 18 degree angle of incli-
nation. The plate was then painted black.
2.3. The assembly
As shown in Fig. 2, the wooden box made to house the
plate had a 5 cm thick layer of insulation at the backside
and a 4 mm glass plate with 2.5 cm air gap at the front side
that was fitted and sealed with silicone glue.
3. Test rig
The prototype was installed into a test rig, as shown in
Fig. 3. Solar energy was absorbed by the CEOHP through
the solar collector, and then was transferred to the con-
denser. The temperatures were measured using type-K
thermocouples with a Yokogawa MX100 data acquisition
system. The temperatures were recorded at six points on
the collecting plate surface, A1–A6, and represented the
ð1Þ

The primary objective of the current work is to study the

thermal performance of a CEOHP solar collector.

2. CEOHP design and production

The size and position of the CEOHP system can be

arranged to conform to the environment in which it will
be located.

2.1. The CEOHP

The CEOHP in this experiment was designed and devel-

oped from a 0.003 m inside diameter copper tubing. The
70 m CEOHP tubing was divided into two sections, i.e.
the evaporator, 2.00 m long, and condenser, 0.50 m long.
The distribution of the tubing is shown in Fig. 1. R134a
was selected as the working fluid, and a filling ratio of
50% of the total volume of tube was used. The tube
arrangement was aligned at an inclination angle of 18
degrees from the horizontal plane, in fourteen turns. The
condenser section was inserted in a water tank. The evap- Fig. 2. The experimental assembly: (a) CEOHP flat plate solar collector;
orator section occupied the collecting plate with an area (b) condenser water tank; (c) wooden frame.
 S. Rittidech, S. Wannapakne / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 1978–1985
Fig. 3. Test rig: 1, water inlet; 2, water outlet; A1–A6, thermojunction on collecting plate; G1–G2, thermojunction on glass plate.
plate surface profile. Their average value was taken as the
average plate temperature (Tp). The thermocouples were
attached to the glass plate, G1–G2 as (Tg). The water tem-
perature of the water tank was measured using four
thermocouples, 2 points at the inlet and 2 points at the
outlet. Ambient temperature was measured using two ther-
mocouples as (Ta). The thermopile based pyrheliometer
integrated to a computer based data-logger, mounted on
a surface parallel to the plane of the collector was used
to measure the intensity of the global solar radiation irra-
diation on the collector surface. It was recorded as instan-
taneous values, taken as (I). the radiation shield covering
the solar collector panel was removed at 08:30 a.m. and
data collection commenced at 09:00 a.m. Day-long experi-
ments were carried out from 09:00 a.m. to 16:00 p.m., and
data were recorded at half hour intervals. The experiments
were performed throughout February and March 2005. On
each day, the hot water storage tanks were completely
drained in the morning and refilled with cold water. The
controlled parameter was the water flow rate at 5 l/min.
The tests were performed on February 13, 2005 and March
17, 2005.
4. Result and discussion
The quantity of heat transferred to the water with in the
thank can be calculated by water temperature variation,
taking into account the water flow rate and its specific heat:
Q ¼ M w C p; w DT w
1981
The cumulative collection efficiencies (g) can be expressed
as a ratio of the amount of heat stored in the thank to
the total amount of solar energy irradiation on the collec-
tor for the same period of time, i.e.,
g ¼ Q=ðAIÞ ð3Þ
In this experiment two representative tests were chosen
to analyze the system performance. The first was conducted
on February 13, 2005 and the second on 17, 2005. The
results of these studies are show in Figs. 4–9. The following
points can be noted: Fig. 4 shows the daily changes of the
ambient conditions for both experiments. Values of ambi-
ent temperature (Ta) and solar energy irradiation (I) are
shown. Ambient temperatures reached 35 C and 44 C ,
while the solar energy irradiation reached 800 and
902 W/m2. The heat transfer capability of the CEOHP is
a function of the difference in temperature between the high
temperature source and the low temperature sink, which is
represented in Fig. 5 as the difference between the plate
temperature (Tp) and the water temperature (Tw). Shown
in Fig. 6 is the collector efficiency as a function of Tp.
The effect of ambient temperature (Ta) on collector effi-
ciency (g) is shown in Fig. 7. The result indicates that as
the ambient temperature increases the collector efficiency
increases. The data scattering seen in the results is attribut-
able to the fact that the rise and fall of temperature
between inlet and outlet water is not in direct proportion
with solar energy irradiation. The combined effect of solar
energy irradiation and ambient temperature on the effi-
ð2Þ ciency is shown in Fig. 8 in the form of daily variation
1982 S. Rittidech, S. Wannapakne / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 1978–1985

50

March 17, 2005

45 February 13, 2005

Ambient temperature (º C) 40

35

30

25
9:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00
Local time, hr

1000
March 17, 2005
February 13, 2005
Solar energy irradiation (W/m )
2

800

600

400

200
9:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00
Local time, hr

Fig. 4. Daily changes of ambient temperature and solar energy irradiation.

50
March 17, 2005
February 13, 2005
45

40
Tw ( ºC)

35

30

25
40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Tp ( ºC)

Fig. 5. Water temperature versus plate temperature.

 S. Rittidech, S. Wannapakne / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 1978–1985 1983

0.8

March 17, 2005

February 13, 2005
0.6

Efficiency (η)
0.4

0.2

0
40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
Tp ( ºC)

Fig. 6. Collector efficiency versus plate temperature.

0.8

March 17, 2005

February 13, 2005

0.6
Efficiency (η)

0.4

0.2

0
20 30 40 50 60
Ta ( ºC)

Fig. 7. Collector efficiency versus ambient temperature.

0.8

March 17, 2005

February 13, 2005
0.6
Efficiency (η)

0.4

0.2

0
9:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00
Local time, hr

Fig. 8. Collector efficiency versus time.

1984 S. Rittidech, S. Wannapakne / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 1978–1985
0.8
0.6
Efficiency (η)
0.4
0.2
0
0 0.002
(Tp-Ta)/I ( ºC.m2/W)
Fig. 9. Collector efficiency versus DT/I.
exhibiting the effect of the ambient temperature shifting the
maximum efficiency from 12:30 to 13:00 p.m. Fig. 9, repre-
sents the effect of the (Tp  Ta)/I on the collector efficiency
(g). The results give a clear explanation of the performance
of the collector and provide good grounds for comparison
with the performance curves of the solar collector by heat
pipe systems found in the [9]. The data scattering seen in
the results is attributed to the fact that the temperature dif-
ference between the water and the ambient rise and fall is
not directly proportional to solar energy irradiation. The
findings of this study mostly agree with the findings in [9]
except that the results of this study are slightly higher at
low (Tp  Ta)/I values.
5. Conclusion
In this study, we designed and built an experimental
prototype of a CEOHP solar collector to investigate its per-
formance. An evaluation of the system proved its perfor-
mance to be comparable with the performance obtained
from a solar collector by heat pipe. An efficiency of about
62% was attained which is directly comparable to that of
the solar collector by heat pipe. Other advantages of the
system include simple construction, corrosion free opera-
tion and elimination of winter icing problems.
Acknowledgements
The research has been supported generously by the Fac-
ulty of Engineering, Mahasarakham University. The
authors express their sincere appreciation for all of the sup-
port provided.
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