Abstract
Solar parabolic dish concentrators are one of the most efficient solar power conversion technologies. The cavity receivers are the most common type, used for reducing the heat losses from the receiver. In this paper, a novel cavity receiver is proposed, and the objective is to compare the novel modified conical cavity receiver with the existing cavity receivers such as cylindrical, conical and modified cavity receivers. The cavity receivers are designed for the parabolic dish of 4-m diameter which is installed at the National Institute of Technology Puducherry, India. Ray-tracing analysis was carried out to determine the size of the receiver. The analysis was carried out for various orientations of the receivers from 0 to 90° with a step size of 15° and also for the cavity temperatures: 300°C, 400°C, 500°C, 600°C and 700°C. Based on the results obtained, the modified conical cavity receiver is found to be the best design in terms of minimum heat losses compared to other receivers. The next best choices are found to be modified cavity, conical cavity and cylindrical cavity receiver. The whole analysis is conducted with a developed model in COMSOL Multiphysics.
Highlights
Solar energy would be an eco-friendly approach to meet the future energy needs of the earth in a sustainable manner
Ray tracing of the solar parabolic dish concentrator is carried out initially for the existing 4m diameter dish in National Institute of Technology Puducherry, Karaikal (10.92° N, 79.84° E)
The results of the ray-tracing analysis for the given parabolic dish concentrator are shown in figure 3 and figure
Summary
Solar energy would be an eco-friendly approach to meet the future energy needs of the earth in a sustainable manner. Solar thermal energy collectors are used for productive use of solar thermal energy. Power (CSP) is the most viable technology for solar energy usage as it can produce heat at low, medium and high temperatures. Among the CSP technologies, solar parabolic dish collector (SPDC) system attracts many researchers because of its higher solar-thermal conversion efficiency and its modular design capability. Solar parabolic dish is having a wide range of applications such as steam production, electricity production, solar cooling, process heating, desalination Receiver or absorber and dual axis solar tracker are the three main components of SPDC system (Reddy et al 2015a; Sahu et al 2020)
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