Parabolic Trough Collector with Internal Fractal Fins in Receiver to Increase Thermal Performance in Working Fluid

Abstract

Concentrated solar power technologies have been studied in recent years as a potential solution for energy production industry , however this kind of systems face different challenges in order to increase thermal performance and efficiency. This paper presents the results of a thermal analysis on a parabolic trough collector with different receivers internal fins configurations, systems were studied in CFD Solidworks® flow simulation software and compared with a traditional parabolic collector with cylindrical receiver. Results shows that the lowest thermal performance was achieved with a cylindrical pipe, instead fractal fins receiver with 5 internal fins achieves a temperature increase of 27% and the best pipe configuration was fractal Descartes with 12 internal pipes which e the cylindrical temperature in 29%.