Exergetic Analysis of a Parabolic Trough Solar Collector Water Heater

Abstract

Heat exchange mechanisms involved in the conversion of solar energy to heat were determined using a parabolic trough collector. This study's goal is to examine the impact of operational and environmental factors on the energetic, performance of three different Parabolic Trough Collector receivers used to generate hot water. The collectors used uncoated, grey, and black receiver tubes. The parabolic trough concentrator is built of mild steel as the mainframe support with a segmented mirror reflector. Reflectivity is 0.85, rim angle is 90, an aperture area is 2.42 m2, and concentration ratio is 11.7. The parabolic trough concentrator's focal point has galvanized iron receiving tubes. The receiver tubes were fitted individually via the parabolic reflector's focal point. The thermal exergy of each absorber tube was determined while water flowed at 0.003 kg/s. During the investigation, solar radiation, and water temperatures at the absorber tube's input and outflow were all measured. The results show that both the temperature of the heat transfer fluid and the amount of solar radiation have a substantial effect on thermal energetic performance. This concentrator reduces dependency on electric power while minimizing fossil-fuel emissions, reducing pollution.