Renewable Energy 146 (2020) 2234e2242

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

Thermal performance enhancement of micro-grooved aluminum flat

plate heat pipes applied in solar collectors
Gong Chen a, Yong Tang a, b, Longhua Duan a, Heng Tang b, *, Guisheng Zhong a,
Zhenping Wan a, Shiwei Zhang a, c, **, Ting Fu d
a
Intelligent Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory of Functional Structure and Device in Guangdong, School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering,
South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, PR China
b
College of Mechatronics and Control Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518000, PR China
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong
d
School of Machinery and Automation, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430000, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Micro-grooved aluminum flat plate heat pipes (MFPHPs), fabricated by hot extrusion and subsequent
Received 28 March 2019 inner surface treatment via chemical corrosion, were developed to improve the thermal efficiency and
Received in revised form reduce the costs of solar collectors. Thermal performances of MFPHPs, including temperature distribu-
31 July 2019
tion, maximum heat transfer capability, and thermal resistance, were experimentally conducted. The
Accepted 16 August 2019
effects of treatment time and solution concentration on the thermal performance enhancement of
Available online 16 August 2019
MFPHPs were also investigated. The experimental results show that inner surface treatment can sub-
stantially enhance the thermal performance of MFPHPs, and different treatment morphologies of inner
Keywords:
Thermal performance enhancement
surfaces result in differences in thermal performance enhancement. The optimal treatment parameters
Micro-grooved aluminum flat plate heat were determined to be a treatment time of 10 min with a solution concentration of 1.5 moL/l. This
pipes resulted in the optimal thermal performance enhancement: an increase of approximately 80% in heat
Surface treatment transfer capability and a decrease of more than 44% in thermal resistance, compared to the untreated
Capillary performance MFPHP. This study provides a convenient, effective, and low-cost method to enhance the thermal per-
formance of MFPHPs applied in solar collectors.
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The use of renewable energy sources has received significant
attention in consideration of environmental and energy concerns in
recent years [1e3]. Among them, solar energy is considered as the
best potential option to meet the increasing energy requirement
because of its availability, renewability, great potential, and envi-
ronmental friendliness. The critical component of solar energy
systems is the solar collector, which transfers the absorbed solar
energy to thermal energy storage, providing great conveniences for
daily life [4].
In general, solar collectors can be divided into three types, i.e.,
* Corresponding author.
** Corresponding author. School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering,
South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China.
E-mail addresses: tanghengxtu@163.com (H. Tang), zhangshiwei1988@gmail.
com (S. Zhang).
flat plate solar collectors (FPSCs), evacuated tube solar collectors
(ETSCs) and heat pipe solar collectors (HPSCs). FPSCs are widely
used in solar collection owing to their advantageous reliability,
manufacturability, durability, and low cost. Moreover, their thermal
efficiency is high in the summer, when ambient temperature and
solar irradiance are high. Even so, cold or moist climates can
deteriorate the efficiency and reliability of solar systems [5].
Therefore, ETSCs were developed to address these challenges. They
perform considerably lower maintenance costs and heat losses
than FPSCs; moreover, they are also more suitable for unfavorable
climates [6,7]. However, drawbacks of FPSCs and ETSCs still remain,
especially the low heat transfer efficiency of both types [8].
Numerous studies have been conducted to handle the low heat
transfer efficiency problems of FPSCs and ETSCs [9e13]. Utilizing
superior absorbing surfaces, applying anti-reflective glass and
employing extra insulation have been developed to solve these
problems. Nevertheless, the significant related costs affect the
economic viability of the systems [9]. Sharafeldin et al. [12]
developed a novel solar collector using CeO2-water nanofluid

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2019.08.083
0960-1481/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 G. Chen et al. / Renewable Energy 146 (2020) 2234e2242
instead of water. Their experimental results showed an increase in
thermal efficiency. However, the high cost of nanofluid restricts
large-scale production. Additionally, the agglomeration of nano-
particles, which is inevitable in practical applications, can deteri-
orate the usability and operational reliability.
Heat pipes, which have been intensively explored as efficient
heat transfer components with high thermal conductivity, are
considered for effective thermal management of solar systems and
devices [14e17]. Heat pipe applications to solar collectors as pas-
sive heat transfer devices could significantly decrease temperature
drop, increase heat transfer capability, and decrease required heat
transfer area and weight [18]. Furthermore, HPSCs perform lower
thermal and hydraulic resistance than FPSCs and ETSCs. Moreover,
HPSCs can control operating temperature, transmit heat unidirec-
tionally, and prevent overheating, which is a common problem
with FPSCs and ETSCs [19,20]. Therefore, HPSCs are considered as a
superior candidate for solar applications owing to their unique
features and advantages and have elicited increasing attention in
past few years [21e24]. Hussein et al. [21,22] developed a wickless
heat pipe FPSC with a cross flow heat exchanger. Wei et al. [23]
proposed a novel solar collector with integrated heat pipes to
improve thermal efficiency.
Recently, micro-grooved aluminum flat plate heat pipes
(MFPHPs) fabricated at one time by hot extrusion, have been
commercially utilized in solar collectors because of their low cost,
ease of fabrication and modularity. This significantly meets the
demands of industrial production [25,26], presenting superiority to
the conventional heat pipes integration with solar collectors. Thus,
MFPHPs have become the recent research focus for low-cost com-
mercial approaches utilized in solar energy collection [27e30]. Zhu
et al. [29] developed and investigated a new solar collector that
combines the MFPHP and an evacuated tube. The results indicated
that using MFPHP in solar collectors could effectively improve the
collectors’ thermal properties and reduce its pressure drop. Wang
et al. [30] investigated the thermal performance of an integrated
collector storage solar air heater based on latent heat storage and
MFPHP. The integrated device exhibited higher efficiencies for solar
energy collection. However, almost all MFPHPs applied in previous
studies were featured with low aspect-ratio grooves limited by the
traditional fabrication techniques. Thus, they exhibited low capil-
lary performance, resulting in low heat transfer capability. There-
fore, solving the problem of low capillary performance in the
grooves to enhance the thermal performance of MFPHP is urgently
required to further improve the thermal efficiency of solar
collectors.
Surface treatments, such as chemical corrosion, have been
proven as a simple and effective method to generate micro-coarse
structures on aluminum surface to improve its hydrophilicity, and
as a result, enhance the capillary performance when aluminum-
based wicks are fabricated [31]. Therefore, in this study, MFPHPs
fabricated by hot extrusion and subsequently inner surface treat-
ment via chemical corrosion, were developed to improve thermal
efficiency and to reduce the costs of solar collectors. The finished
inner surfaces of MFPHPs were characterized with scanning elec-
tron microscopy (SEM) images. The contact angles of MFPHP inner
surfaces were tested for wettability investigation. The thermal
performances of treated MFPHPs, including temperature distribu-
tion, maximum heat transfer capability and thermal resistance
were experimentally investigated and compared to untreated
samples. Additionally, the effects of the treatment time and solu-
tion concentration on thermal performance of MFPHPs were also
analyzed for this optimization study.
2235
2. Experiment
2.1. MFPHP with inner surface treatment
In this study, the hot extrusion method was employed to
manufacture flat plate heat pipes with inner micro-grooves [32].
Fig. 1 shows a cross-sectional view of MFPHP. The cross-section has
a dimension of 26 mm
3 mm with multiple independent micro
channels, where micro-grooves of 0.25 mm in width and 0.32 mm
in depth work as wicks in each channel. Subsequently, the unsealed
MFPHP was cleaned with deionized (DI) water using an ultrasonic
cleaning machine (JP-020 Skymen Co.). Afterwards, the inner sur-
face of MFPHP was treated with 1, 1.5, and 2 moL/L NaOH aqueous
solutions, respectively. The reaction time was controlled at 5, 10,
and 15 min at a temperature of 25  C. These treated samples were
flushed ultrasonically with DI water for 10 min afterwards and
followed by drying at 50  C in an oven. The treated aluminum
surface was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM,
Merlin & LEO, 1530VP), and the wettability of the surface is char-
acterized by measuring contact angle, using a contact angle mea-
surement system (Powereach, JC2000D, accuracy of ±1  C) with
water droplets of 5 mL. Finally, the MFPHP with inner surface
treatment was evacuated and filled with 1.8 g of acetone, of which
the volume is approximately 30% of the channel volume, which is
proven to be the optimal liquid filling ratio [33], and it was then
sealed properly. The specific treatment parameters of each sample
are shown in Table 1.
2.2. Experimental setup
The experiments were operated at an inclined angle of 45 , the
common operation condition of flat plate heat pipe solar collectors.
The experimental test apparatus used for evaluating the thermal
performance of MFPHPs with inner surface treatment is shown in
Fig. 2. The test apparatus consisted of a heating system, a cooling
system, a data acquisition system, and a test platform. The heating
system comprised a block heater with dimensions of
26
50
18 mm3, a voltage regulator, and a power meter for
measuring the heat input power of the block heater. It supplied the
heat input for MFPHP. The cooling system consisted of a cooling
bath, a flow meter, and a cooling block of dimensions
26
50
18 mm3 for heat removal. Cooling water was supplied to
the cooling block from the cooling bath while its temperature was
kept constant as 25  C by using a PID controller in spite of the
increasing heat input. The cooling water flow rate was set as 2 L/
min and validated by the flow meter. The data acquisition system
consisted of a wireless temperature unit (HIOKI LR8510), a logging
station (HIOKI LR8410-30), and eight K-type thermocouples (T1 to
T8). The axial temperature distributions of the MFPHP were
measured by the K-type thermocouples attached to the wall of the
MFPHP with thermocouple glue. Fig. 3 illustrates the installation
positions of the block heater, the cooling block, and the thermo-
couples. T1, T2, and T3 were located at the same interval (10 mm) on
the center line of the evaporation section and were used to measure
the average temperature of the evaporator. T6, T7, and T8 were
distributed axially symmetrically on the condensation section of
the tested MFPHP for measuring the average condensation tem-
perature. Additionally, T4 and T5 were attached to the adiabatic
section for evaluating the axial temperature distribution of MFPHP.
A thermal paste was used to decrease the contact thermal resis-
tance between copper blocks and MFPHP. Moreover, in order to
reduce heat loss between MFPHP and the surroundings, the testing
2236 G. Chen et al. / Renewable Energy 146 (2020) 2234e2242

Fig. 1. Grooves of MFPHP

Table 1
Test sample specification.

Sample code Treatment time t (min) Concentration of NaOH (mol/L) Filling liquid (g)

S1 0 0 1.8
S2 5 1.5 1.8
S3 10 1.5 1.8
S4 15 1.5 1.8
S5 10 1.0 1.8
S6 10 2.0 1.8

Fig. 2. Experimental test apparatus.

Fig. 3. Temperature measuring points distribution.

 G. Chen et al. / Renewable Energy 146 (2020) 2234e2242 2237

MFPHP was wrapped in an insulation material during the experi-

ments. The test platform with a changeable inclined angle provided Tc  Te
R¼ (3)
a testing condition in which the MFPHPs worked in solar collector. Q
During the thermal performance testing experiments, the heat
input power of the block heater increased at an interval of 20 W where Q is total heat input power monitored by the power meter.
until the MFPHF reached the maximum heat transport capability, The uncertainty of the experimental setup mainly came from
resulting in a sharp increase of maximum wall temperature dif- the heating and data acquisition systems during temperature
ferences, and then the test was stopped. For each heat input power, measurements. The thermocouples had an uncertainty of ±0.5  C,
equilibrated temperatures were recorded when they can be whereas the data acquisition system a resolution of 0.05  C. The
maintained within ±0.5  C for over 30 s. uncertainties of the supplied heat input power measured by the
power meter were 0.1%. According to a standard error analysis
method, the uncertainties of evaporation temperature, condensa-
2.3. Data reduction tion temperature and thermal resistances can be calculated as
follows:
The axial temperature distribution, maximum heat transport sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 2  2  2
capability, and thermal resistance were adopted for characterizing DTe DT1 DT2 DT3
the thermal performance enhancement of an MFPHP with inner ¼ þ þ
Te T1 þ T2 þ T3 T1 þ T2 þ T3 T1 þ T2 þ T3
surface treatment.
(4)
Axial temperature distribution is evaluated by Te, T4, T5 and Tc. Te
is the average evaporator temperature, obtained by the average of sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 2  2  2
the measurement of three thermocouples attached to the evapo- DTc DT6 DT7 DT8
ration section of MFPHP and calculated as follows: ¼ þ þ
Tc T6 þ T7 þ T8 T6 þ T7 þ T8 T6 þ T7 þ T8
T þ T2 þ T3 (5)
Te ¼ 1 (1)
3 sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
     
T4 and T5 are measured by the thermocouples attached to the DR DQ 2 DTc 2 DTe 2
¼ þ þ (6)
adiabatic section of the MFPHP, and Te is the average temperature of R Q Tc  Te Tc  Te
the condensation section, which can be obtained with Eq. (2).
Using the standard error analysis method as shown in Eqs.
T þ T7 þ T8 (4)e(6), the uncertainties of evaporation temperature, condensa-
Tc ¼ 6 (2)
3 tion temperature, and thermal resistances were less than 0.82%,
0.82% and 7.18%, respectively.
The maximum heat transport capability (Qcap) is the limit of the
dissipated heat load that can be removed by an MFPHP. When
reaching the maximum heat transport capability, the heat cannot 3. Result and discussion
be transmitted from the evaporator to the condenser, owing to the
complete dry-out of the working liquid. Therefore, the temperature 3.1. Morphology of the MFPHP inner surfaces
of the evaporation section cannot remain stable. In this study, the
maximum heat input power under which the MFPHP can work As shown in Fig. 4, the extruded MFPHP comprises nine inde-
stably was taken as Qcap. pendent channels, and each channel contains four grooves for
Thermal resistance is a key technical indicator used for working fluid backflow. Fig. 5 shows the SEM images of grooved
describing thermal performance of flat plate heat pipes. It is bottom surfaces of MFPHPs subjected to varying treatment times
defined as the ratio of the temperature difference between evap- and solution concentrations. As depicted in Fig. 5(a), regular scaly
orators and condenser to the heat input power generating the microstructures are observed on the grooved surfaces of the un-
temperature difference when reaching thermal equilibrium treated sample as a result of extrusions and aluminum surface
[34e36]. The total thermal resistance (R) of MFPHP can be calcu- oxidation, and the overall grooved surfaces exhibit relatively
lated as follows. smooth. Nevertheless, as seen in Fig. 5(bef), the grooved surfaces of

Fig. 4. SEM image of the sample grooves.

2238 G. Chen et al. / Renewable Energy 146 (2020) 2234e2242

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

(e) (f)

Fig. 5. SEM images of the grooved surfaces: (a) S1, (b) S2, (c) S3, (d) S4, (e) S5, and (f) S6.

treated samples resemble a layer of micro reticular structures, and
the overall surfaces are relatively rough. Moreover, it can be
concluded that the coarsening phenomenon of the surface
morphology becomes larger as the treatment time or solution
concentration increases. This indicates that both treatment time
and solution concentration significantly influence the morphology
of the grooved surfaces of treated MFPHPs, enabling the modula-
tion of the capillary pressure and corresponding thermal perfor-
mance when assembled in heat pipes. As shown in Fig. 5(bed),
when the solution concentration of NaOH is kept at 1.5 moL/L, the
thickness of the micro reticular structures increases with the
treatment time. There is only a thin reticular layer with a treatment
time of 5 min, whereas the high density of micropores are gener-
ated on the surface under a treatment time of 10 min. When the
treatment time increases to 15 min, the diameter of the micro pores
keeps increasing with a reduction in the number of micro pores,
and the micro reticular structures tend to vanish. Under a constant
treatment time of 10 min, the micro structures on the surface
resemble tiny scattered petals at a solution concentration of 1 moL/
L, as shown in Fig. 5(e). The massive micropores appear on the
surface at the concentration of 1.5 moL/L, as seen in Fig. 5(c),
whereas the solution concentration increases further to 2 moL/L,
the micro structures transform to a neural-net shaped morphology
with micro cracks underneath, as in Fig. 5(f).
 G. Chen et al. / Renewable Energy 146 (2020) 2234e2242
3.2. Wettability of the MFPHP inner surfaces
Since the wettability of the MFPHP inner surfaces, playing a
determined role in the thermal performance, is closely related to
their morphologies under different surface treatment conditions,
contact angles of the MFPHP inner surfaces are measured for
wettability characterization, as shown in Fig. 6. The original contact
angle of untreated MFPHP (S1) is 72.8 (Fig. 6(a)), while those of
MFPHPs after treatment are greatly reduced, indicating that the
hydrophilicity of the inner surface with corrosion treatment is
significantly enhanced. The different surficial morphologies of in-
ner surfaces resulted in different influences on hydrophilicity
enhancement, as illustrated in Fig. 6(a)e(f). S3 exhibits the opti-
mum hydrophilicity enhancement with the minimum contact
angle of 12.4 (Fig. 6(c)) among the samples in the study. These
phenomena demonstrate that the optimum hydrophilicity
enhancement of inner surface can be achieved by controlling the
treatment parameters. The effect of the wettability on the thermal
performance will be discussed in the next sections.
3.3. Thermal characteristic of MFPHP
3.3.1. Axial temperature distribution
Fig. 7 illustrates the axial temperature distributions of MFPHP
under incremental heat input ranging from 20 to 200 W at an in-
clined angle of 45 . The points along the axial direction denote the
temperatures of evaporation, adiabatic, and condensation sections.
As seen in Fig. 7(aef), the axial temperature distributions of all
samples increased steadily with the increase of heat input, and the
adiabatic temperature difference remained within 2  C, indicating
stable and reliable operation of the MFPHP under the heat input
[33]. However, when the heat input increased to a high power, a
significant temperature difference was observed between the
evaporator and condenser, indicating the local dry-out occurred in
the evaporator section. Taking the sample S3 as an example, as
shown in Fig. 7(c), the temperature difference between the evap-
orator and condenser is 15.20  C under the heat input of 180 W,
showed an increase by 30.8% than that under the heat input of
160 W. When the heat input increased to 200 W, the temperature of
MFPHP cannot remain stable, indicating a complete dry-out in the
evaporator section. This implies that the maximum heat transport
capability of S3 is 180 W.
Compared to the untreated sample, all treated samples exhibi-
ted a lower axial temperature distribution under the same total
heat input, as illustrated in Fig. 7. Taking evaporation temperatures
Fig. 6. Contact angles on the grooved surfaces with various treatment: (a) S1, (b) S2, (c) S3, (d) S4, (e) S5, and (f) S6.
2239
(Te) as an example, under the heat input of 80 W, the Te of the
samples from S1 to S6 were 77.49, 60.18, 53.09, 61.58, 64.94, and
57.27  C, respectively. The Te of sample S3 was over 24  C lower than
that of untreated sample S1, indicating that the treated MFPHPs
exhibit a faster heat transfer rate. The major reason for this is that
the generated microstructures, including reticular, micro pore,
scattered petal, and neural morphologies, attached to the surface
after chemical treatment, significantly increasing the roughness of
inner aluminum surface. Thus, its hydrophilicity was enhanced
according to the Wenzel equation [37]. Consequently, this
improved the capillary performance of the grooved wicks. There-
fore, the enhanced capillarity accelerated the vapor-liquid circula-
tion to fasten the heat transfer rate of MFPHPs further.
The maximum heat transport capability (Qcap) of the treated
samples are higher than that of the untreated sample, as shown in
Fig. 7. For instance, the treated sample S3 operated stably at high
heat input of 180 W, whereas the untreated one only dissipated
100 W heat input power, indicating an increase in the maximum
heat transport capability by approximately 80%. It can be concluded
that the surface treatments could substantially enhance the ther-
mal performance of MFPHPs. Because the maximum heat transport
capability of the heat pipe mainly depends on its capillary limita-
tion [38,39]; and the hydrophilicity of the grooved surface was
enhanced after treatment, thus increasing the capillary force and
capillary limitation, which led to the increase of the maximum heat
transport capability.
As can be seen from Fig. 7(b)e(f), the different surficial mor-
phologies resulted in different influences on the thermal perfor-
mance enhancement of MFPHPs. The maximum heat transport
capability (Qcap) of the treated samples from S2 to S6 varied from
140 to 180 W, whereas the Te of the treated samples reduced by
12.58e24.40  C. It could be determined that the thermal perfor-
mance enhancement of the sample S3 (the treatment parameters of
1.5 moL/L and 10 min) was larger than those of other samples in this
study. This is because the surface of S3, as shown in Fig. 5(c), con-
tained abundant interconnected micro pores in its reticular struc-
tures to provide more fluid channels for capillary flow, similar to
the multi-aperture wick structure [40]. Thus, it exhibited excellent
capillary performance enhancement and significantly enhanced
the thermal performance of MFPHPs. A shorter treatment time or
lower concentration leads to a thinner layer of micro structures and
fewer micro pores; as a result, there is limited enhancement in both
surface hydrophilicity and thermal performance. However, a longer
treatment time or higher concentration may result in severe sur-
face degradation. For intance, the reticular micro structures tended
2240 G. Chen et al. / Renewable Energy 146 (2020) 2234e2242

140 140
(a) 20W 80W Without surface treatment (b) 20W 100W
40W 100W 40W 120W 1.5 mol/L for 5 min
120 120
60W 120W (Unstable) 60W 140W
80W 160W (Unstable)
100 100
)

)
Temperature (

Temperature (
80 80

60 60

40 40

20 20
0 40 80 120 160 0 40 80 120 160
Distance from the Evaporator End (mm) Distance from the Evaporator End (mm)

140 140
(c) 20W 120W (d) 20W 100W
40W 140W 1.5 mol/L for 10 min 40W 120W 1.5 mol/L for 15 min
120 60W 160W 120
60W 140W
80W 180W 80W 160W (Unstable)
100
100W 200W (Unstable) 100
)

)
Temperature (

Temperature (
80 80

60 60

40 40

20 20
0 40 80 120 160 0 40 80 120 160
Distance from the Evaporator End (mm) Distance from the Evaporator End (mm)

140 140
20W 100W (f) 20W 120W
(e) 40W 120W 1.0 mol/L for 10 min 40W 140W 2.0 mol/L for 10 min
120 60W 140W 120 60W 160W
80W 160W (Unstable) 80W 180W (Unstable)
100 100 100W
)

)
Temperature (

Temperature (

80 80

60 60

40 40

20 20
0 40 80 120 160 40 80 120 160
Distance from the Evaporator End (mm) Distance from the Evaporator End (mm)

Fig. 7. Axial temperature distribution of MFPHP under different input heat power: (a) S1, (b) S2, (c) S3, (d) S4, (e) S5, and (f) S6.

to vanish and form isolated large pores, limiting the capillarity and structured surface with chemical treatment significantly
thus decreasing the thermal performance enhancement of MFPHPs. enhanced the liquid-vapor phase change process to suppress the
temperature increase in the evaporation section, and the improved
capillarity facilitated the liquid backflow to avoid local dry-out.
3.3.2. Thermal resistance
Therefore, the treated MFPHPs presented lower thermal resis-
Fig. 8 demonstrates the variation in thermal resistance of
tance compared to the untreated one. As can be seen in Fig. 8, the
MFPHPs with different surface treatment parameters under
thermal resistances of the MFPHPs, with various surface treatment,
increasing heat input at an inclined angle of 45 . It is apparent that
show a similar trend. With an increase of heat input, the thermal
the total thermal resistance of the treated MFPHPs (S2eS6) was
resistances of all MFPHPs declined and reached a minimal value.
lower than that of untreated MFPHPs under the same heat input.
For example, the thermal resistance of S3 values varied from 0.290
For instance, under the heat input of 80 W and 100 W, the thermal
to 0.074  C/W, reaching the minimum 0.074  C/W under the heat
resistances of S3 are 0.103  C/W and 0.094  C/W, whereas those of
input of 160 W. During this stage, the evaporation of the working
S1 are 0.192  C/W and 0.171  C/W, indicating a decrease in the
fluid in the evaporator was accelerated because of the constantly
thermal resistance by approximately 46.4% and 45.0%. The micro-
 G. Chen et al. / Renewable Energy 146 (2020) 2234e2242
Fig. 8. Thermal resistance of the MFPHPs with various inner surface treatment.
increasing heat input. The lifting vapor pressure improved the in-
ternal vapor flow with a more rapid vapor condensation in the
condenser. Thus, the thin-film evaporation in MFPHPs was
enhanced sufficiently with a reduction of thermal resistance. After
reaching the minimal value, the thermal resistance increased,
because the high input power caused local dry-out, which directly
increased the thermal resistance. With the continuous heat input
increase, the complete dry-out in the evaporation section occurred,
indicating that it reached the maximum heat transport capability,
resulting in a sharp increase of the temperature difference between
the evaporation and the condensation sections.
Among all treated samples, S3 (treated for 10 min in a solution
concentration of 1.5 moL/L) exhibited the lowest thermal resistance
under the same heat input. For instance, under the heat input of
120 W, the thermal resistances of S2 to S6 are 0.101, 0.087, 0.123,
0.151 and 0.103  C/W, respectively. This is because the combination
of the reticular structures and the larger density of interconnected
micro pores on the S3 surface enabled a fast liquid-vapor phase
change and sufficient liquid replenishment to obtain the minimum
thermal resistance. However, other samples suffered the surface
degradation, as analyzed in the last section, limiting the thermal
performance enhancement. Therefore, it is believed that a more
comprehensive thermal performance enhancement for MFPHPs
can be obtained by systematically optimizing the treatment
parameters.
4. Conclusion
In this study, a novel approach for MFPHP was developed to
enhance the thermal efficiency and to reduce costs of solar col-
lectors, which was fabricated by hot extrusion with a subsequent
inner-surface treatment via chemical corrosion. The inner surfaces
of MFPHPs were characterized by SEM images. The contact angles
of MFPHP inner surfaces were tested for wettability investigation.
The thermal performances of MFPHPs, including temperature dis-
tributions, maximum heat transfer capability, and thermal resis-
tance, were investigated experimentally. The effects of the
treatment time and solution concentration on the thermal perfor-
mance of MFPHP were also discussed. The main conclusions can be
summarized as follows:
2241
(1) The SEM images of the inner surfaces of MFPHPs showed that
a layer of micro reticular structures was generated to cover
the inner aluminum grooved surface after treatment, indi-
cating that the inner surface treatment via chemical corro-
sion significantly increased the roughness of the inner
aluminum surface. Additionally, both treatment time and
solution concentration substantially influenced the
morphology of the grooved surfaces of treated MFPHPs.
(2) The experimental results indicated that the thermal perfor-
mance of MFPHPs was substantially enhanced by the inner
surface treatment. The different surficial morphologies of
inner surfaces resulted in different influences on thermal
performance enhancement. Among the tested samples in
this study, sample S3 (treated for 10 min with a solution
concentration of 1.5 moL/L) exhibited the optimum thermal
performance enhancement. S3 performed a lower evapora-
tion temperature (Te), compared to other samples, and
effectively dissipated the input heat power of 180 W, indi-
cating an increase of approximately 80% over the untreated
sample. Under the total heat input of 100 W, S3, with the
minimum thermal resistance of 0.094  C/W, enabled a
decrease of more than 44%, compared to the untreated one.
(3) An MFPHP with an inner surface treatment for thermal
performance enhancement, which is a convenient, effective,
and low-cost method, could substantially improve the ther-
mal efficiency of solar collectors. The treatment parameters
can be carefully regulated to achieve optimum thermal per-
formance enhancement.
Acknowledgements
This work is financially supported by National Natural Science
Foundation of China No. 51905352 and No. 51805334, Science and
Technology Plan of Guangdong, China No. 2019B090910001, Start-
up Science Foundation of Shenzhen University No. 2019038, and
the Open Fund of Hubei Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmission
and Manufacturing Engineering at Wuhan University of Science
and Technology No. MTMEOF2019A02.
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