Experimental Investigation of Thermal Performance in an Advanced Solar Collector with Helical Tube

This paper reports the thermal performance of a new cylindrical solar collector based on an experimental investigation with this difference that instead of the collector tube with absorbent coating, coil into a spiral copper tube is placed in the center of the collector. The spiral shape of the tube, heat transfer without disruption or increase the heat transfer area, is increasing. In this case, the centrifugal forces generated secondary flow, increases the coefficient of the convection heat transfer. Another advantage of this type of collector to the flat plate collector, its circular shape that is constantly exposed to sunlight. Measuring cylindrical solar collector inlet and outlet temperatures, on September 6-8, 2012 from 10 AM to 14 PM, the thermal efficiency is between 43.5 to 58.7 percent. The obtained results of this article can be useful for analysis of the solar energy systems.