Simulation Analysis of a Novel Phase Change Thermal Storage Solar Collector

With the development of the economy, the continuation of the energy crisis and the environmental pollution, the development and utilization of new energy sources become particularly important, especially solar energy, but the current heat collection efficiency of solar collectors cannot meet the requirements. In this paper, a Novel Phase Change Thermal Storage Solar Collector (PCMSC) was designed. The air was used as the heat exchange medium. The Spiral Double-pass Direct-current (SDDC) Structure was applied to the vacuum tube of air-type solar energy collector. An energy storage core was provided inside the heat collecting tube, and the inside of the energy storage core was filled with Composite phase-change heat-storage material (PCHM). Due to the addition of the energy storage core, the energy storage core occupies most of the space of the vacuum tube, which narrows the flow channel in the vacuum tube, which has a certain impact on the internal flow field of the collector. The influence of the energy storage core on the air flow inside the collector tube was analyzed. The results show that the increase of the energy storage core increases the airflow speed in the vacuum tube, and also improves the airflow uniformity inside the collector.