Abstract
Due to the rising greenhouse gas emissions and high energy prices, it is now more important than ever to use renewable energy sources in various applications. Parabolic trough solar collector (PTSC) converts solar energy to thermal energy and can serve applications like power generation, industrial process heat, desalination, etc. Optimization of governing process parameters for such a system can improve its efficiency and increase its share in different applications. Heat transfer fluid (HTF) flow rate is one of the critical parameters in the working of PTSC. The current study investigates the impact of HTF flow rate on the efficiency of PTSC and estimates the optimal flow rate for a specific system and at a certain temperature. It is revealed that despite increased pumping efforts, increasing the flow rate above a critical value did not guarantee an increase in system performance. This highlighted that an optimum mass flow rate value should be determined that maintains acceptable thermal efficiency while requiring least pumping effort. The value of optimal flow rate has been computed using a multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA). The best compromise solution identified after a diligent Pareto front analysis was observed at HTF flow rate = 11.34 m3/h with pump work = 0.66 W and thermal efficiency = 73.08%.KeywordsParabolic trough solar collectorModeling and simulationOptimizationGenetic algorithm
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