Chapter 6 - Parabolic trough solar collectors

Abstract

One of the cleanest and most accessible energy sources is solar energy. However, finding efficient ways to receive this energy source and convert it to electrical power for different applications is still a challenging problem. A parabolic trough solar collector (PTSC) is a type of concentrating solar technology which can be employed for producing electricity and heating simultaneously, which is one of the efficient techniques to produce electrical power from solar energy. After several decades of research, development, and construction of different types of PTSCs, the most recent studies focus on improving the efficiencies of these systems, both from structural/material (solid mechanics) and heat transfer (fluid mechanics) aspects. Improving the PTSC performance has led to enhancement in the electrical energy production. From a heat transfer point of view, there have been many approaches proposed to reach a better efficiency for the PTSC system, such as nanofluids, internal flow inserts, and an external magnetic field acting on the magnetic nanofluid. This chapter discusses PTSCs with detailed explanations on the corresponding heat transfer formulations, and at the end, a numerical example is being analyzed using the ANSYS FLUENT software.