A receiver geometrical details effect on a solar parabolic dish collector performance

Abstract

Abstract In the present study, a parametric study of a parabolic dish receiver system is investigated in order to determine the best configuration to achieve an optimal system performance. A series of numerical simulations has been conducted for four receiver tubes and two positions of the receiver inlet/outlet configurations: position 1 and position 2. The thermal analysis proves that the receiver’s inlet/outlet configuration effect is influenced by the geometric properties of the receiver. Numerical results show that with a “low” height receiver (H = 0.075 m, H = 0.048 m), position 2 gives the highest thermal efficiency, while position 1 ensures the greatest thermal efficiency value for the “elevated” height cylindrical receiver (H = 1.2 m, H = 0.468 m). Indeed, for the configuration with H = 0.075 m, the thermal efficiency increases by 62.6% from position 1 to 2. Moreover, by changing the position from 1 to 2, the thermal efficiency decreases by 53% for a configuration with H = 1.2 m.