Improvements in efficiency of solar parabolic trough

Abstract

Solar energy is primary source of all type of energy which is present in nature i.e. all the energy derived from it. So, direct utilization of solar energy into useful energy is important. There are so many solar thermal equipments in which concentrating type collector heated the fluid up to 100 to 400 0 C. It is employed for a variety of applications such as power generation, industrial steam generation and hot water production. Parabolic trough collector is preferred for steam generation because high temperatures can achieve. Cylindrical parabolic trough type collector consists of selective concentrator and a receiver tube. The selective cover system prevents the heat loss (convective and radiative) from the receiver tube and improves the performance of solar parabolic trough. Also evacuated chamber is created to reduce the loss of heat and reduce the corrosion of concentrator surface. Tracking system is embedded in the solar parabolic trough for tracking the sun energy movement. This report presents the evaluation of solar insolation in terms of monthly average hourly global radiation in Patna on 10 th April, 2013. On the basis of this solar energy flux, comparative study of the instantaneous efficiency of solar parabolic trough is done. Here four different types of cover system are mathematically analyzed. (i) Single glass cover on receiver (ii) Double glass cover on receiver (iii) Single glass cover on aperture (iv)Double glass cover on aperture. This report contains many graphs to illustrate the effect on instantaneous efficiency on variation of primary parameter. With the help of MATLAB R201a software mathematical calculation is obtained.