A solar simulator consisting of linear focus units and a fluid circulation system has been constructed, and a basic scheme for evaluating heat collection efficiency of parabolic trough receivers has been demonstrated. The linear focal area along the 4 m long receiver was formed by an array of twenty linear focus units each with a 5 kW Xenon-short arc ramp. The flux distribution was measured by scanning a heat flux sensor, and the average flux of 24.3 kW/m 2 was achieved along the half-round surface of the receiver tube. A parabolic trough receiver with the optical efficiency of 79.3 % has been fabricated and applied to the demonstration. During irradiating the linear focal flux to the receiver, the collected thermal output was measured from the increase in temperature of water running through the receiver. The absolute heat collection efficiency of 73.9 %, defined as the ratio of the collected thermal output to the irradiated optical input, was obtained under the thermal equilibrium condition.
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