Thermal Performance Analysis of a CCP Collector Design Through the Parabolic Construction Geometry

Abstract

Among alternative and sustainable energies, with high use of renewable resource, the solar-thermal energy can be found. Collector devices of solar radiation are fundamental for the energy capture; due to its great generation potential, CCP systems are highly studied and developed, trying to improve their efficiency and their solar tracking mechanisms. Therefore, this paper presents the results obtained during the analysis of the thermal performance of a parabolic trough concentrator (CCP), based on a mathematical modeling, and their respective simulations on ray optics and heat transfer. For the concentrator structure mechanical design, the parabolic geometry is proposed where the maximum concentration factor is used to calculate the receiver diameter, the focal distance and the solar collector system overall dimensioning: afterwards an heat transfer analysis is proposed through the efficiency factor, heat removal factor and losses. With a maximum concentration of 67.5477 the receiver diameter obtained has been 0.0071 [m], which has been modeled and simulated obtaining a useful energy of 1259.44 W and a fluid outlet temperature of 89.88°C. The contribution of this work is the presentation of a design methodology for parabolic cylindrical concentrators using mathematical development, theoretical modeling and simulation as a validation tool for the last two.