Effect of optical errors on flux distribution around the absorber tube of a parabolic trough concentrator

Thomas, A.; Guven, H. M.

doi:10.1016/0196-8904(94)90040-x

Cited by 37 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…(3) Operation errors which include tracking errors, errors due to wind loading and temperature effects, reduced specularity due to dust accumulation, misalignment of the receiver during operation due to sagging of the receiver tube, permanent expansion of the receiver tube and change in location of the effective focus due to increased profile errors. Thomas and Guven (1994) presented analytical results for the determination of the effect of optical errors on heat flux distribution around the absorber tube of a parabolic trough concentrator.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several other studies have been carried out to investigate the errors affecting the optical performance of parabolic trough systems (García-Cortés et al, 2012,Lee, 2014,Maccari and Montecchi, 2007,Thomas and Guven, 1994. For quality control purposes, the intercept factor of parabolic trough systems can be measured and necessary improvements made (Pottler et al, 2014).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Influence of optical errors on the thermal and thermodynamic performance of a solar parabolic trough receiver

et al. 2016

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HIGHLIGHTS• Effect of optical errors on performance of a parabolic trough receiver is presented.• Actual heat flux profiles were obtained using Monte Carlo ray tracing and presented.• Thermal and thermodynamic analysis of the receiver is determined numerically.• Effect of optical errors on heat flux and temperature distribution is investigated.• Influence of optical errors on receiver entropy generation rates is presented. ABSTRACTThis paper presents results of an investigation covering the influence of optical errors on the thermal and thermodynamic performance of a solar parabolic trough system. The optical performance was evaluated by using Monte Carlo ray tracing for slope errors and specularity For the range of parameters considered, the intercept factor reduces by up to 21% while the overall thermal efficiency reduces by up to 17% as optical errors increase. Receiver thermodynamic performance is shown to deteriorate as slope errors increase.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Influence of optical errors on the thermal and thermodynamic performance of a solar parabolic trough receiver

et al. 2016

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“…A first integral of the concentrated energy flux distribution by a semifinite formulation was developed, considering various incident angles [2] . A.Thomas and Halil M.Guven considered effect of optical errors of PTCs, and gave in depth information about the flux distribution for various optical errors and geometry [3] . Ya-Ling He [4] and Z.D.Cheng [5] calculated flux distribution in ideal conditions by the Monte Carlo Ray Trace (MCRT) method.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Simulation Model of Flux Density Distribution on an Absorber Tube

Zhao

et al. 2015

Energy Procedia

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A parabolic trough collector (PTC) is an important component of parabolic trough solar thermal power generation system. The main purposes of calculating the flux density distribution are as follows: (1) the heat flux distribution on the absorber tube surface is a key boundary condition in the heat transfer performance analysis; (2) it can present a reference for design and optimization of PTCs, and make PTCs more cost effective. In this paper, coordinate transformations and Monte Carlo Ray Trace (MCRT) method are combined to simulate the circumferential flux distribution of absorber tubes. In the simulation process, nonparallelism of solar rays with cone optics, geometric concentrating ratio (GC), rim angle, transmittance of the glass tube, absorption of the absorber tube, reflectivity of the glass tube and reflectivity of the parabolic trough mirror are considered. The results show good agreement with references.

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“…Considering the computational time and efforts, 5 × 10 7 to 10 × 10 7 rays per square meter of aperture area of the sunshape were chosen for this MCRT model. Fresnel's law of reflection, Equation (2), describes the light reflected onto the mirror, and Snell's law of refraction, Equation (3), describes the light transmitted through the receiver glass tube.…”

Section: Algorithm Of the Mcrtmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Very few of these publications extensively addressed the effects of collector design and optical error parameters extensively on the optical performance parameters. Kalogirou et al [20], and Thomas and Guven [2] investigated the effect of optical errors on both light interceptance and irradiance distribution of a PTC considering the total effect of all the errors as "effective sunshape", and the energy distribution was obtained applying a convolution technique. However, partial effects of different factors on the performance parameters are not evident from these studies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation of the Effect of Physical and Optical Factors on the Optical Performance of a Parabolic Trough Collector

2017

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Abstract:The overall thermal performance of a Parabolic Trough Collector (PTC) depends on its optical performance, particularly the uniformity of the irradiance distribution and the resultant optical efficiency of the collector. Local Concentration Ratio (LCR), optical efficiency and average light concentration are three fundamental parameters of the optical performance of a PTC. These parameters are affected by various optical and physical factors. The effects of these individual factors on the performance parameters were investigated in this study using a verified Monte Carlo ray tracing optical simulation model. The investigation revealed that all three performance parameters are directly related to the optical properties of the collector components. The values decreased gradually with the increase of focal length of the mirror. Uniformity of the LCR profile was observed to decrease with increasing rim angle and geometric concentration. Defocus dislocation of the receiver was found to improve the uniformity of the LCR distribution by decreasing its peak concentrations, C max . Off-focus dislocation of the receiver, and inward angular deviation of the mirror profile were observed to increase the C max and decrease the uniformity of the LCR distribition. Out-focus dislocation of the receiver and solar tracking error distort the bi-symmetry of a normal LCR profile.

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Effect of optical errors on flux distribution around the absorber tube of a parabolic trough concentrator

Cited by 37 publications

References 1 publication

Influence of optical errors on the thermal and thermodynamic performance of a solar parabolic trough receiver

Influence of optical errors on the thermal and thermodynamic performance of a solar parabolic trough receiver

The Simulation Model of Flux Density Distribution on an Absorber Tube

Investigation of the Effect of Physical and Optical Factors on the Optical Performance of a Parabolic Trough Collector

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