Abstract
Solar troughs are amongst the most commonly used technologies for collecting solar thermal energy and any attempt to increase the performance of these systems is welcomed. In the present study a parabolic solar trough is simulated using a one dimensional finite element model in which the energy balances for the fluid, the absorber and the envelope in each element are performed. The developed model is then validated using the available experimental data . A sensitivity analysis is performed in the next step in order to study the effect of changing the type of the working fluid and the corresponding Reynolds number on the overall performance of the system. The potential improvement due to the addition of a shield on the upper half of the annulus and enhancing the convection coefficient of the heat transfer fluid is also studied.
Highlights
Energy sources that are considered sustainable have become increasingly popular and sought after with the ever growing general concern for the negative effects of human interference in the environment [1,2] and many studies have been carried out in order to optimize the devices to enhance the efficiency of utilization of such resources [3]
The simulations with vacuum at low pressures, around 10-4 Torr, show that the heat losses from the absorber to the envelope are negligible, and most of the solar energy absorbed by the coating surface is transferred to the heat transfer fluid (HTF)
The simulations indicate that the efficiencies for the scenario with oil as HTF are almost unaffected by the increase in the convection coefficient
Summary
Energy sources that are considered sustainable have become increasingly popular and sought after with the ever growing general concern for the negative effects of human interference in the environment [1,2] and many studies have been carried out in order to optimize the devices to enhance the efficiency of utilization of such resources [3]. Model Description The implemented model is largely based on the model proposed by Padilla et al [12] It is a 1D model that simulates the heat transfer between four elements of the solar collector: the heat transfer fluid (HTF), the absorber tube, the glass envelope and the structural brackets, along with the thermal losses to the environment and the incident solar energy. Each section of the mesh can have different temperatures for the envelope and the absorber, the net heat exchange between one section and its neighboring sections is null, condition that is only true if the temperature gradients are constant along the length of the collector.
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