Abstract
Today, application of cavity receivers in solar concentrator systems is suggested as an interesting and novelty research subject for increasing thermal performance. In this research, a parabolic trough concentrator (PTC) with a rectangular cavity receiver was energetically investigated. The cavity receiver was studied with smooth and corrugated tubes. Different solar heat transfer fluids were considered, including water, air, and thermal oil. The effect of different operational parameters, as well as structural parameters, was investigated. The results showed that the linear rectangular cavity receiver with corrugated tube showed higher amounts of the absorbed heat and energy performance compared to the smooth tube as the cavity tube. Thermal performance of the rectangular cavity was improved using the application of water as the solar heat transfer fluid, which was followed by thermal oil and, finally, air, as the solar heat transfer fluid. Finally, it could be recommended that the rectangular cavity receiver with smooth tube using air as the solar heat transfer fluid is more appropriate for coupling this system with a Bryton cycle, whereas the rectangular cavity receiver with the corrugated tube using water or oil as the solar heat transfer fluid is recommended for achieving higher outlet temperature of the heat transfer fluid.
Highlights
Today, renewable energy is investigated as promising technique for reducing the environmental problem due to fossil fuel application [1]
The solar collectors behave as a heat exchanger for converting the solar energy to the internal thermal energy of solar heat transfer fluids that are flowing in the solar collectors
It can be seen that thermal performance of the cavity receiver for both types of the cavity tube improved with increasing solar beam irradiation
Summary
Renewable energy is investigated as promising technique for reducing the environmental problem due to fossil fuel application [1]. There are different kinds of the renewable energies for power generation, including solar energy, wind power, geothermal energy, etc. The solar energy is suggested as an interesting kind of the renewable energy for providing the requested social energy [3]. The solar energy can be converted in the form of thermal energy using solar collectors [4]. The solar collectors behave as a heat exchanger for converting the solar energy to the internal thermal energy of solar heat transfer fluids that are flowing in the solar collectors. The concentrator collectors have a higher aperture area compared to the absorber aperture area. The concentrator collectors are used for medium to high-temperature application [9,10]
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