A comparative study on optical and thermal performance of parabolic trough concentrator using a bundle of absorber tubes

Abstract

Reorganizing the larger diameter receiver tube into a bundle of smaller diameter receiver tubes in regions of high solar flux density can enhance the thermal performance of the solar parabolic trough collector. The data that really is presently available in the literatures are studied. The parabolic trough concentrator's optical performance and the solar parabolic trough receiver thermal performance is 66.4% and 74.8% respectively. It is concluded from the comparative study that the use of the original receiver bundle (copper tube selective coating), has been ascertained, improving convective heat transfer coefficient, bringing down receiver tube surface temperature and increasing thermal performance, but the expense of raising friction coefficient and pumping power.