ABSTRACT This paper investigates the influence of external annular fins on the thermodynamic performance of parabolic trough collector (PTC) receiver. The objective is achieved by developing thermal and fluid flow models with geometry of varied fin lengths and fin numbers and implemented in ANSYS Fluent software. With an assumption of evacuated annulus space, measured uniform heat fluxes were applied on respective halves. The results show an increase in thermal efficiency by 2.26% for T in = 350 K, 2.21% for T in = 400 K, and 2.22% for T in = 500 K for varying Reynolds numbers and fin lengths, t = 5 mm. It is also observed that entropy generation reduces by 1.44% for T in = 350, Re = 5000, and t = 5 mm. Low turbulence records higher heat transfer irreversibility as measured by the Bejan number. Exergy efficiency positively responds with an increase of 2.44% for Re = 5000, 2.30% for Re = 10000, and 2.30% for Re = 20000 for t = 5 mm. Due to the observed improvement, this passive enhancement technique can be utilized to design a high performing receiver system, thus maximizing the availability and reliability of PTC system.
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