Spectral-spatial design and coupling analysis of the parabolic trough receiver

Honglun Yang, Qiliang Wang, Shuai Zhong, Trevor Hocksun Kwan, Junsheng Feng, Jingyu Cao and Gang Pei

Applied Energy, 2020, vol. 264, issue C, No S030626192030204X

Abstract: The parabolic trough system is one of the main technological routes to achieve high-temperature solar thermal conversion. The parabolic trough system is a mature technology and can be easily coupled with distributed systems. However, the parabolic trough receiver, which is a key component of the parabolic trough system, suffer from enormous radiation heat loss at high temperature. An analytical model based on spectral-spatial coupling distributed parameters is developed. Analytical results reveal that >40% surface area of the absorber is negative thermal-flux region and exposes the widely long-term thermal performance weakness in circumferentially uniform receiver design. A local optimal cutoff wavelength is reported. Results show that the exists asymmetrical design of the receiver can reduce radiation heat loss by approximately 41.0% and improve photothermal efficiency by 10.2–42.0% as solar irradiation varies from 1000 W/m2 to 200 W/m2 at 600 °C. The asymmetric design may be a promising choice for optimization of the receiver due to the strong heterogeneity of the solar flux distribution at high temperature. The discovery of negative thermal-flux region and local optimal cutoff wavelength also leads to the optimization of other concentrated solar technologies for improving photothermal performance.

Keywords: Solar energy; Solar selective coating; Heat loss; Spectral; Parabolic trough receiver (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.114692

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