• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.994-1002
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• 2009

In this paper, effect of air gap thickness between absorber plate and glass cover on top heat loss of a closed loop oscillating heat pipe (CLOHP) solar collector was investigated. The CLOHP, which is made of copper with outer diameter of 3.2mm and inner diameter of 2.0mm, comprises 8 turns with heating, adiabatic and cooling section. The heating section of the heat pipe was attached to absorber plate which heated by solar simulator simulated by halogen lamps. The cooling section of the heat pipe was inserted into collector's cooling section that made of transparent acrylic. Temperatures of absorber plate, glass cover, and ambient air measured by K-type thermocouple and were recorded by MV2000-Yokogawa recorder. Top heat loss coefficients and top heat loss of the collector corresponding to some cases of air gap thickness were determined. The result of experiment shows the optimal air gap thickness for minimum top heat loss of this solar collector.