Thermal and optical efficiency investigation of a parabolic trough collector

Solar energy utilization is a promising Renewable Energy source for covering a variety of energy needs of our society. This study presents the most well-known solar concentrating system, the parabolic trough collector, which is operating efficiently in high temperatures. The simulation tool of this analysis is the commercial software Solidworks which simulates complicated problems with an easy way using the finite elements method. A small parabolic trough collector model is designed and simulated for different operating conditions. The goal of this study is to predict the efficiency of this model and to analyze the heat transfer phenomena that take place. The efficiency curve is compared to a one dimensional numerical model in order to make a simple validation. Moreover, the temperature distribution in the absorber and inside the tube is presented while the heat flux distribution in the outer surface of the absorber is given. The heat convection coefficient inside the tube is calculated and compared with the theoretical one according to the literature. Also the angle efficiency modifier is calculated in order to predict the thermal and optical efficiency for different operating conditions. The final results show that the PTC model performs efficiently and all the calculations are validated. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.