Numerical simulation on the optical and thermal performance of a modified integrated compound parabolic solar concentrator

Chen, Lin; Chen, Jia Xiang; Zhang, Xin Rong

doi:10.1002/er.3338

Cited by 19 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…However, it becomes very cumbersome to precisely follow every ray and its energy interaction with all the surfaces it comes across in a complex optical system using conventional numerical methods. Ray tracing has emerged as a promising tool to estimate the amount and distribution of optical power in solar systems [29]. In this study, the Monte Carlo ray tracing method was used to simulate ray paths from source to the receiver (target) and evaluate the optical performance of the modified CPC collectors for different incidence angles.…”

Section: Ray Tracing Simulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many research studies [25][26][27][28] have successfully applied this method to evaluate the effect of different parameters on the optical performance of solar collectors. Chen et al [29] used ray-tracing method to analyze the optical performance of an E-W oriented CPC collector coupled with tubular receiver for different truncation heights of reflectors and tilt angles. Terron-Hernandez et al [30] also applied the ray-tracing technique to investigate the energy availability at the receiver surface for static and multi-position setups in E-W installations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Optical Performance Analysis of Single Flow Through and Concentric Tube Receiver Coupled with a Modified CPC Collector Under Different Configurations

et al. 2019

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Compound parabolic concentrating (CPC) collectors have great potential to provide sustainable solar thermal energy for many applications operating in the medium temperature range. This paper presents the design, development and performance evaluation of a modified CPC collector integrated with an evacuated tube receiver. The optical performance of the designed CPC paired with concentric tube receiver is compared with that of a CPC coupled with single flow through evacuated tube receiver for stationary installation in the East-West and North-South directions. Ray tracing simulations of different configurations demonstrate that CPC coupled with single flow through receivers suffer high gap losses, especially at smaller incidence angles which are considerably alleviated by a concentric tube receiver arrangement. East-West installation of CPC paired with concentric tube receiver exhibited superior optical performance than all other configurations. The yearly average optical efficiency of CPC with concentric tube receiver was 5% higher than that of a single flow through receiver within the acceptance angle. A 60% truncated CPC coupled with concentric tube receiver emerged as the most effective design, which was fabricated for experimental testing. The tests conducted under actual outdoor tropical environmental conditions demonstrated that the experimental optical efficiency reached to about 69% in the case of N-S installation and 66.5% in an E-W arrangement. The experimental results closely match the simulation outcomes, which indicate the proposed performance prediction technique as instrumental for selecting the most effective configuration of CPC collectors for medium temperature heat supply.

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Section: Ray Tracing Simulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical Performance Analysis of Single Flow Through and Concentric Tube Receiver Coupled with a Modified CPC Collector Under Different Configurations

et al. 2019

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“…Intensive works have been conducted to improve the utilization of solar energy . The concentrated solar power (CSP) technology is advantageous because it can provide heat of medium to high temperature for industry utilization, such as desalination and electricity generation . As the most dominant CSP technology, the parabolic‐trough solar collector applied a reflective parabolic mirror to concentrate the solar rays to the receiver tube which is located at the focal line of the parabolic mirror.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] The concentrated solar power (CSP) technology is advantageous because it can provide heat of medium to high temperature for industry utilization, such as desalination and electricity generation. [9][10][11] As the most dominant CSP technology, 12 the parabolictrough solar collector applied a reflective parabolic mirror to concentrate the solar rays to the receiver tube which is located at the focal line of the parabolic mirror. The traditional surface-based parabolic-trough solar collector (SBPTSC) usually employs an absorber coating on the glass tube through which a working fluid flows.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative analysis of direct‐absorption parabolic‐trough solar collectors considering concentric nanofluid segmentation

et al. 2020

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Summary Nanofluids have been actively used in direct‐absorption solar collectors. In a direct‐absorption parabolic‐trough solar collector (DAPTSC) for medium‐high temperature regime, the nanofluids used to be contained in a transparent glass receiver located at the focal line of a parabolic mirror so that the solar radiation is concentrated to the glass receiver and absorbed volumetrically inside the collector. In order to further increase the thermal efficiency of a DAPTSC, we propose to insert an extra glass tube inside the nanofluid so that the nanofluid is separated into two concentric segmentations (ie, an inner section and an outer section), and apply a nanofluid of lower concentration in the outer section while a nanofluid of a higher concentration in the inner section. The proposed idea is numerically tested on four pairs of DAPTSCs (the variants obtained depending on whether there is a vacuum envelope and whether there is a reflective semicylindrical coating on the receiver). The results show that at the same particle concentration parameter, the DAPTSCs with two concentric segmentations of nanofluids outperform those with one uniform nanofluid for all configurations considered in this work. For a transparent case without an envelope, this efficiency increase is as high as 12.5% point when the inlet temperature is 350 K. In addition, parametric studies are performed for this best configuration to evaluate the effect of absorption coefficient, mass flow rate, collector length, solar irradiance, and convection heat transfer coefficient on the collector performance.

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“…While the use of inserts like porous copper mesh, the use of finned absorber tubes, and the use of twisted tape insert have also been considered. Some other researchers, such as Chen et al, presented a study to evaluate the thermal and optical performance of the collector. Mohamad et al presented their analysis on the heat losses in a parabolic trough solar collector.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of synthetic oil nanofluids and absorber geometries on the exergetic performance of the parabolic trough collector

2018

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Summary The parabolic trough collector is 1 of the most deployed solar concentrating collectors in the world. In this research, the commercially available LS‐2 collector has been modeled using the engineering equation solver. The developed model is validated using the experimental results of the Sandia National Laboratory, LS‐2 collector test. The study presents a comparison of the exergetic performance of 4 different absorber tube geometry configurations: conventional absorber tube, longitudinal finned tube, absorber tube with twisted tape insert, and converging‐diverging absorber tube. The system is analyzed to observe the nature of exergy losses and exergy destruction for the various design configurations with the use of Therminol VP‐1 and Al2O3‐Therminol VP‐1 nanofluids. The results show that the biggest cause of reduced useful work is because of the destructed exergy from the sun to the absorber. While the optical errors account for a higher percentage of exergy losses. The converging‐diverging absorber geometry produced the best exergetic enhancement of 0.65% with the use of Therminol VP‐1 and 0.73% with the use of Al2O3/Therminol VP‐1 nanofluid.

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Numerical simulation on the optical and thermal performance of a modified integrated compound parabolic solar concentrator

Cited by 19 publications

References 26 publications

Optical Performance Analysis of Single Flow Through and Concentric Tube Receiver Coupled with a Modified CPC Collector Under Different Configurations

Optical Performance Analysis of Single Flow Through and Concentric Tube Receiver Coupled with a Modified CPC Collector Under Different Configurations

Comparative analysis of direct‐absorption parabolic‐trough solar collectors considering concentric nanofluid segmentation

Effects of synthetic oil nanofluids and absorber geometries on the exergetic performance of the parabolic trough collector

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