Design, construction and evaluation of parabolic trough collector as demonstrative prototype

Thestages of design, modeling, and evaluation of a parabolic trough collector (PTC) for heating water as a demonstrative prototype are presented. In the design it was considered the parabolic aperture of 0.5 m wide and 0.95 m long. The design was done using computer-aided design and manufacturing. The results of the evaluation to determine the thermal performance of the parabolic trough collector have a maximum outlet temperature of 47.3 degrees C for a direct solar radiation of 783 W/m(2) at a flow rate of 0.200 L / min. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.