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The absorber tubes of solar thermal collectors have enormous influence on the performance of the solar collector systems. In this numerical study, the influence of circumferential uniform and non-uniform solar heat flux distributions on the internal and overall heat transfer coefficients of the absorber tubes of a linear Fresnel solar collector was investigated. A 3D steady-state numerical simulation was implemented based on ANSYS

Highlights •Thermal analysis of a parabolic trough collector (PTC) for laminar flow liquid water heating. •Buoyancy effects are less significant in flat plate solar water heaters but significantly enhance PTC efficiency. •With buoyancy effects, average and axial local internal heat transfer coefficients are far greater than when neglected. •Internal heat transfer coefficients increased with heat flux intensity and absorber tube inlet fluid temperature. •Friction factors decreased with an increase in the inlet fluid temperature.

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