Performance investigation of compound parabolic collector system with triangular receiver with and without internal fins

Abstract

The objective of the present research is to evaluate the thermal performance of CPC using internal fins as integral element of the triangular receiver at different mass flow rates. The influence of internal fin into triangular receiver is important geometric aspect for effective heat gain and retains thermal energy to the working fluid. The receiver without fins is taken as reference to compare the performance of receiver with different fin configurations. In this comparative analysis, the influence of concentrated solar fluxes, fin structure and mass flow rate has been taken into account to evaluate heat transfer, temperature and velocity distribution with the help of CFD to reproduce the experimental results. The realizable k-ε turbulence model with enhanced wall function is set to solve 3D modeling with CFD simulation. The investigation shows that, there is potential enhancement in heat transfer by the application of internal fins in triangular receiver for different flow rates.