A novel parabolic trough solar collector model – Validation with experimental data and comparison to Engineering Equation Solver (EES)

Behar, Omar; Khellaf, A.; Mohammedi, Kamal

doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2015.09.045

Cited by 178 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Table 1 gives the parameters of the present work. The data about the collector characteristics have been found in Refs [5,18,27]. The working fluid is Syltherm 800, which can operate up to 673 K with a safety [41].…”

Section: The Examined Parabolic Trough Collector (Ptc)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Analytical Expression of Parabolic Trough Solar Collector Performance

Bellos

Tzivanidis

2018

Designs

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Abstract:The parabolic trough collector is one of the most developed solar concentrating technologies for medium and high temperatures (up to 800 K). This solar technology is applied in many applications and so its investigation is common. The objective of this study is to develop analytical expressions for the determination of the thermal performance of parabolic trough collectors. The non-linear equations of the energy balances in the parabolic trough collector device are simplified using suitable assumptions. The final equation set includes all the possible parameters which influence the system performance and it can be solved directly without computational cost. This model is validated using experimental literature results. Moreover, the developed model is tested using another model written in Engineering Equation Solver under different operating conditions. The impact of the inlet fluid temperature, flow rate, ambient temperature, solar beam irradiation, and the heat transfer coefficient between cover and ambient are the investigated parameters for testing the model accuracy. According to the final results, the thermal efficiency can be found with high accuracy; the deviations are found to be up to 0.2% in the majority of the examined cases. Thus, the results of this work can be used for the quick and accurate thermal analysis of parabolic trough collector. Moreover, the analytical expressions give the possibility for optimizing solar thermal systems driven by parabolic trough collectors with lower computational cost.

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Section: The Examined Parabolic Trough Collector (Ptc)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Analytical Expression of Parabolic Trough Solar Collector Performance

Bellos

Tzivanidis

2018

Designs

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“…There is vacuum (extremely pressure close to 0.01 Pa) between these materials to achieve approximately zero convection losses. Table 1 gives the main information about the examined PTC [31]. The concentration ratio of this collector is about 22.74, its aperture is 39 m 2 and the optical efficiency is close to 75.7%.…”

Section: The Examined Parabolic Trough Collectormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The reflectance has been selected close to 83% to take into account various errors about racking, clearness and manufacturing errors. The intercept factor is taken close to 1 because of the accurate design of the examined PTC [31].…”

Section: The Examined Parabolic Trough Collectormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1 [14], The absorbed energy from the absorber (Q abs ) is given as [14] The optical losses are calculated with the optical efficiency (η opt ). This parameter is the product of various parameters, as they are given below [31]: In the present study, zero incident angle is selected and thus the incident angle modifier K(θ) is taken equal to one. This assumption is made in order the emphasis to be given to the thermal behavior of the PTC.…”

Section: Mathematical Formulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[33] and they have used for validation proposes in many studies as the Ref. [31]. The solar collector is tested under different operating conditions, as they are given in Table 2.…”

Section: Model Validationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessment of the thermal enhancement methods in parabolic trough collectors

Bellos

Tzivanidis

2017

Int J Energy Environ Eng

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Parabolic trough collector is an emerging solar technology for achieving the sustainability. Numerous studies have been focused on their performance evaluation and many techniques have been suggested for improving their thermal efficiency. The objective of this paper is to determine the impact of various thermal enhancement techniques on the thermal efficiency improvement of the PTC. The most usual techniques for increasing the thermal performance of parabolic trough collectors are the use of inserts, internal fins, metallic foams and the dimpled absorbers. A parametric analysis is conducted using different values of the thermal enhancement ratio (Nusselt number to the Nusselt number of the smooth absorber case). According to the final results, the thermal efficiency enhancement can reach up to 2% when the Nusselt number is about 2.5 times greater compared to the reference case and the inlet temperature is equal to 600 K. Moreover, in this case, the thermal losses are approximately 22% lower than in the respective reference case. For higher Nusselt number ratios, the thermal enhancement presents relatively small increase. This analysis is performed with a developed thermal model in Engineering Equation Solver (EES) which is validated with the literature results.

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