A review study on the performance of a parabolic trough receiver using twisted tape inserts

Abstract

Heat transfer in concentrating solar collectors like parabolic troughs has proven nowadays a very efficient method by using different passive techniques to increase the heat transfer rate. The use of passive techniques also increases the pumping power requirements to make the flow through the receiver. So, a number of researchers are working to find out the optimum performance conditions for parabolic trough receivers by using different types of inserts in flow paths. This paper presents a wide range of literature available for solar parabolic troughs in one place. Based on this extensive study, it is found that twisted tape inserts is a very wide field for investigation and the use of different shapes, pitch value, free space, and angle of twist tape are the parameters that can be considered for further studies to improve the performance of solar troughs. Also, various combinations of perforation and cuts on twisted tapes can be used to achieve enhanced performance.