Analysis of Annual Performance of a Parabolic Trough Solar Collector

Abstract

Abstract A transient heat transfer model was established for the parabolic trough solar collector (PTC) in this study. Based on a homemade code, the dynamic performance of a PTC was simulated for three different sun-tracking systems in various climate regions according to building thermal design and solar energy distribution in China. The result indicated that difference of annual collector efficiency for diverse climates was not obvious. However, net annual heat gain in sun-rich areas was almost four times as much as that in sun-absent areas for the same sun tracking system. For the same region, annual efficiency and net heat gain of the horizontal north-south axis system were 1.21∼1.47 and 1.29∼1.57 times as much as that of the horizontal east-west axis system, while those for the system with two axes sun tracking were 1.63∼1.75 and 1.70∼1.93 times as much as that of the horizontal east-west axis system respectively. For most climate regions investigated in this study, the difference of net monthly heat gain of the system with horizontal east-west axis was the least, followed by the two axes and horizontal north-south axis system.