Numerical study of the transparent cover effects with miscellaneous shapes on the parabolic trough solar collector performance

Year 2020, Volume: 23 Issue: 1, 13 - 23, 29.02.2020

Behnam Pourkafi , Behrooz M. Ziapour Ali Reza Miroliaei

https://doi.org/10.5541/ijot.601417

Cited By: 1

Abstract

Optimization of energy production equipment due to
significant production cost of each unit of energy is one of the most
significant factors for economic development and countries progress. The aim of
this work is to improve the efficiency of the parabolic trough collector (PTC)
by reducing the heat losses from it. Therefore, it was utilized a PTC with a
receiver tube in the focal center of the concentrator that was applied a phase
change material (PCM) inside it to store better energy. In the present work, by
adding a new section called transparent cover to envelope the PTC, waste of
thermal energy from the receiver tube was prevented. The numerical solutions
were performed for both summer and winter days. By using of existing formulas,
energy and exergy efficiency of the PTC system with different geometrical
shapes and heights were obtained and their performance were compared. The
results showed that by reducing the height of the covers (i.e. reduction of the
space), energy and exergy efficiencies were increased and by providing the
triangular cover shape, the system performed better than two others elliptical
and rectangular shapes. 

Keywords

Efficiency, optimization, parabolic trough collector, phase change material, solar energy

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