Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of Different Coating on the Performance of the Parabolic Trough Collector

Abstract

The major problem in the performance of parabolic trough collector is due to heat losses from the receiver tube which is directly dependent on its operating temperature. Glass envelope can be an alternative but the limitation of its use is high persisting cost, maintaining vacuum and broken glass incurred every time. In such conditions, the coating can be used on absorber tube which can help to reduce the losses which are prevailing with increasing operating temperature. In the present study, experimental and theoretical investigations are carried out for the performance of parabolic trough collector by applying a different coating on absorber tube. Black nickel chrome coating and matte black paint have been studied. Two individual setups were fabricated in order to compare the performance of different cases under the same environment. Firstly, the performance of collector was compared between bare and matte black paint tube. Secondly, the performance was compared to black nickel chrome coating and matte black paint tube. Results show that the performance of collector was found better when the tube was coated with black nickel chrome coating compared to bare and matte black paint. In addition, theoretical solar beam radiation was calculated and validated with experimental data.