Improving the performance of large-aperture parabolic trough solar concentrator using semi-circular absorber tube with external fin and flat-plate radiation shield

Jing-hu Gong, Jun Wang, Peter D. Lund, Dan-dan Zhao, En-yi Hu and Wei Jin

Renewable Energy, 2020, vol. 159, issue C, 1215-1223

Abstract: An improved absorber tube (AT) design consisting of a semi-circular and an external flat fin with a flat-plate radiation shield inside an evacuated annulus is proposed for large aperture parabolic trough concentrator (PTC) systems. In the present design, the AT’s semi-circular part absorbs the most sun rays. The other rays originally absorbed by the AT’s upper part is intercepted by the external two fins. The flat-plate radiation shield reflects the external radiation energy from the AT’s upper half back to the AT. The trough has an aperture of 8m and an 80° half rim angle. The AT consists of a semicircle with a diameter of 100 mm and outer fins. The optical and thermal efficiency of this new design was up to 83.3% and 80.3%, respectively. The optical and thermal efficiency was 8%-units higher than that of the traditional optimal design. The maximum temperature always appears at the edge of the fin, which is up to 50 °C higher than that of the heat transfer fluid (HTF) at 0.5 m/s, which was the optimal fluid rate for the new design. The fins also contribute to the efficiency of the PTC: 6.5% to the optical and over 3.5% to the thermal efficiency. The improved AT design will help to plan more effective PTC systems.

Keywords: Large aperture parabolic trough concentrator; Semi-circular absorber tube with fin; Flat-plate radiation shield; Thermal efficiency; Optical efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148120309691
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:159:y:2020:i:c:p:1215-1223

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2020.06.059

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().