experimental analysis of a solar parabolic trough … · 2018-06-30 · efficiency was 41.09% for...

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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET)

Volume 9, Issue 6, June 2018, pp. 102–112, Article ID: IJMET_09_06_013

Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/IJMET/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=9&IType=6

ISSN Print: 0976-6340 and ISSN Online: 0976-6359

© IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed

EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF A SOLAR

PARABOLIC TROUGH COLLECTOR

Alka Bharti, Amit Dixit and Bireswar Paul

Department of Mechanical Engineering,

Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

ABSTRACT

In this study, an experimental analysis of a small-sized solar parabolic trough

collector (PTC) has been done to investigate its performance. A PTC system with

4.075 m2 aperture area was evaluated in this paper. The experimental setup is made

up of stainless steel reflector. The performance of PTC was investigated in two parts.

In the first part, performance investigation was done by using copper and stainless-

steel (1-inch diameter) as receiver tube material at different mass flow rates. In the

second part, a comparison was done using bare receiver tube and receiver tube (0.5-

inch) covered with acrylic cover at different mass flow rates. Both the cases were

studied by using water as the heat transfer fluid. This study was conducted for finding

out the better combination of receiver tube, receiver tube material, diameter of

receiver tube and mass flow rate. From first analysis, it was observed that the copper

receiver tube is showing better performance at both the mass flow rates 0.01 kg/s and

0.02 kg/s in comparison of stainless steel tube. The maximum thermal efficiency of

35.9% is obtained in case of a copper receiver at 0.01 kg/s mass flow rate. From the

second analysis, it was observed that receiver tube with acrylic cover is showing

better performance than a bare tube. The maximum thermal efficiency of 61.4% was

obtained in case of a receiver with an acrylic tube.

Key words: Parabolic trough collector, receiver tube, acrylic tube, thermal efficiency

Cite this Article: Alka Bharti, Amit Dixit and Bireswar Paul, Experimental Analysis

of a Solar Parabolic Trough Collector, International Journal of Mechanical

Engineering and Technology 9(6), 2018, pp. 102–112.

http://www.iaeme.com/IJMET/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=9&IType=6

1. INTRODUCTION

Population explosion and advancements in technologies increase world’s energy demand. At

present, most of these energy demands are fulfilling by the non-renewable energy sources

such as fossil fuels: coal, oil and natural gas. These energy sources produce harmful emissions

along with electricity generation which is dangerous for human health and to the environment.

Therefore, consideration of renewable energy sources is very important to reduce harmful

gases and to meet the requirements of the living population. On our planet, renewable

energies are present in various forms such as solar energy, hydropower, geothermal energy,

wind energy, biomass power and others. Solar energy is one of the biggest energy sources

Experimental Analysis of a Solar Parabolic Trough Collector


among all these renewable energy sources. It is one of the promising and most proven

renewable energy option to substitute these non-renewable energy sources [1]. Solar energy

on the earth surface can be harness by various concentrating and non-concentrating

technologies such as flat plate collector, linear fresnel collector, parabolic trough collector

(PTC) and parabolic dish collector. Among all the concentrating and non-concentrating solar

energy technologies, PTC is the most suitable and used technology.

Experimental analysis on PTC was conducted by various researchers to investigate and

enhance its performance. Zou et al. [2] experimental study has been done to evaluate the

performance of PTC using mirror reflector and evacuated aluminum receiver. They obtained

67% thermal efficiency even with solar radiation less than 310 W/m2. Results of this study

indicated that when temperature of working fluid is under 100°C, thermal efficiency improves

with increasing fluid temperature because Reynolds number increases due to increase in

thermophysical properties of the heat transfer fluid. Chafieet al.[3]designed and manufactured

a PTC system of a 10.8 m2 aperture area and evaluated thermal performance of PTC. The

receiver tube is made up of stainless steel with a selective coating and surrounded by an

evacuated glass cover and reflector is made up of an aluminum sheet. They selected Transcal

N thermal oil as HTF and obtained 55.1% maximum thermal efficiency, average thermal

efficiency was 41.09% for sunny days and 28.91% for cloudy days. Jaramillo et al. [4]

constructed and evaluated performance of five parabolic trough solar collectors to generate

hot water and low enthalpy steam. Out of the three collectors have 90° rim angle and two

collectors have 45° rim angle. The design of copper receiver of both collectors is without

glass cover and unshelled which reduces manufacturing and transportation costs. They

obtained 35% peak efficiency for solar collectors of 45° rim angle and 67% peak efficiency

for solar collector of 90° rim angle. Valencia et al. [5] presented a paper on design,

construction and analysis of a demonstrative prototype parabolic trough collector made of

aluminum reflector and copper receiver, using water as heat transfer fluid. They reported that

maximum outlet temperature of water was 47.3°C at 783.58 W/m2 of direct solar radiation

and collector’s thermal efficiency is strongly depends on direct solar radiation, cloudiness and

room temperature. QiBin et al. [6] conducted experimental investigation of PTC system for

solar thermal power generation using synthetic oil as HTF. They used silver plated glass

mirror for reflector and evacuated stainless steel as receiver. The influence of varying solar

flux and the heat transfer fluid flow rate on the efficiency of solar collector was identified.

They found that there is a specified delay in temperature response between solar flux and heat

transfer fluid and this delay between temperature responses plays an important role in

designing of a PTC system. They have also studied the effects of heat loss on the efficiency of

the collector. They found that heat loss was 220 W/m2 for temperature difference of 180°C

between atmospheric temperature and collector temperature. Sagade et al. [7] experimentally

investigated performance of a compound prototype of PTC system whose reflector is made of

G.I and silver coated selective surface. They used different types of receiver tubes coated with

black copper and black zinc and top glass cover. They observed that if the temperature of the

receiver tube increases by 1°C, then heat loss increases by 0.21 W/m2, 0.188 W/m

2 and 0.224

W/m2 in case of copper tube coated with black copper and black zinc, and mild steel tube

coated with black copper. They obtained 60% maximum instantaneous efficiency with top

glass cover. Sagade et al. [8] experimentally investigated the performance of prototype PTC

which is made of fiberglass-reinforced plastic with mild steel receiver tube using water as

heat transfer fluid. They reported performance of mild steel receiver tube with and without

glass cover. They concluded that the instantaneous efficiency of the collector increases by

13% and it was 51.67% with receiver tube covered by glass cover. Average temperature of

receiver tube increases by 23% and useful heat gain by the glass covered receiver tube was



22% throughout the day. They observed that the outlet temperature of water increases by 29%

and temperature gradient increases by 68% with glass covered receiver tube. When receiver

tube was covered by glass the heat loss coefficient decreased by 70%. Sagade et al. [9]

experimentally tested performance of a prototype PTC system covered with a top cover whose

reflector is made of mild steel and coated with an aluminum foil and copper tube coated with

black copper. They obtained average temperature gradient 35°C throughout the day and

59.8% maximum thermal efficiency. Dudley et al. [10]. They have done experimental testing

of SEGS LS-2 PTC under different operating conditions such as vacuum in annulus, air in

annulus and removed annulus (bare tube) with black chrome and cermet coating at stainless

steel receiver surface. They observed high thermal efficiency and low thermal losses in case

of vacuum in annulus and cermet coating. Yaghoubi et al. [11] reported heat loss after their

study by considering receiver tube with air and vacuum in annulus space and a bare receiver

tube, that heat loss is 40% when air in annulus space which reduces thermal performance of

the collector by 3-5% whereas bare tube produces more heat loss and less thermal

performance. Kumaresan et al. [12] conducted experimental study with mirror reflector and

evacuated stainless-steel receiver tube using therminol VP-1 as heat transfer fluid and

reported maximum instantaneous efficiency of 62.5%. Selvakumar et al. [13] conducted

experimental study with evacuated tube using water and therminol as heat transfer fluid and

reported 40% more efficiency in therminol based evacuated tube than water based evacuated

tube. Arasu et al. [14] designed and manufactured a small-sized PTC consists of fibre

reinforced plastic reflector and copper receiver.

From the literature survey, it is observed that performance of PTC is mainly depend on the

solar radiation, rim angle, receiver tube and material of elements. The experimental study on

PTC using copper and stainless steel was done by various researchers. They reported

performance either by using copper or stainless steel as receiver tube material. Therefore, a

comparison study was conducted for both materials, copper and stainless-steel at different

mass flow rates to observe which is better for a small sized PTC. An evacuated receiver tube

can increase the performance of PTC by reducing heat losses from the receiver surface. Since

it is very expensive and not easily available everywhere. Therefore, an acrylic tube is tested in

this study to find out the performance improvement.

2. PARABOLIC TROUGH COLLECTOR

SPTC is a heat exchanging type of technology that converts solar energy into thermal energy

and ultimately helps to generate electricity and hot water based on the area of application.

Majorly it consists of two parts, a reflector, basically a metal sheet that curved as parabola

with specified dimensions in two directions and straight in one direction and a receiver tube.

Reflector is used to collect solar energy and concentrates towards the focal line of reflector. A

receiver tube is placed at the focal line of reflector which contains a heat transfer fluid,

circulating through it. In this system, receiver tube receives direct solar radiations on its upper

surface and concentrated radiations on its lower surface. Heat transfer fluid circulating

through it, gets heated through heat transferring processes.It is mainly used for high-

temperature application such as electricity generation. Medium temperature applications such

as industrial process heating, domestic uses and residential purposes are also very important

which can reduce the use of electricity produced by conventional methods. It will ultimately

reduce the environmental pollutions caused by fossil fuels.



2.1. Geometric Parameters

Figure 1.A Cross-sectional view of PTC

Geometric parameters include rim angle, concentration ratio, focal length, specifications

of the receiver tube and the collector. All these parameters are numerically related to each

other. Some of these are shown in Fig. 1. Rim angle focal length, concentration ratio, aperture

width, aperture area and effective aperture area of PTC can be calculated by the following

equations [15].

Rim angle (ϕ): It is the angle between the optical axis and the line between focal point and

collector rim. It is calculated by using the following relation:

1sin2

a

r

W

r

(1)

Where Wa is aperture width (m) and rr is the radius of a parabola (m).

Focal length (f): It is the distance between the focal point and collector rim.

4 tan2

aWf

(2)

Concentration ratio (C):It is the ratio of collector’s aperture area and receiver’s surface

area.

a

o

WC

D

(3)

Where Do is the outer diameter of the receiver tube (m).

Aperture width of collector:

4tan2

aW

(4)

Aperture area of collector:

*a aA W L (5)

Effective aperture area of collector: Aperture area that receives direct solar radiation:



( )*a oA W D L (6)

Where L is the length of the collector (m).

3. EXPERIMENTAL METHODOLOGY

A small-sized PTC system was fabricated on the basis of the designed parameters. The

specifications of experimental setup are listed in Table 1. This experimental setup consists of

parabolic trough (reflector), receiver tube, storage tank, circulating pipes and supporting

stand. The reflector is made of mirror finished stainless steel sheetof 88% reflectivity [16]

which is supported on a supporting frame made of stainless steel ribs. Two materials for the

receiver tube are used in this study, properties are listed in Table 2. Three receiver tubes of

different size are used in this study. Receiver tubes are coated with matte black paint that

absorptivity is 92% [17]. The matte black paint as coating on the receiver tube surface is

selected to increase absorptivity of the receiver surface. The receiver tube is surrounded by a

concentric acrylic tube with an annulus gap of 1.73 cm. The annulus gap is filled with still air

to reduce convection and radiation losses from the surface of the receiver tube by resisting the

movement of air presented in surrounding of the receiver tube outer surface. An acrylic tube

has been used as substitute of glass tube and air is used in annulus gap instead of vacuum used

in conventional PTC systems. An evacuated receiver tube has not been used as it is very

expensive and also it was not easily available everywhere. An acrylic tube has many

advantages over a glass tube as it has transmissivity of 92% [18]. It has low weight and many

times stronger than a glass tube. It is suitable for small sized cost-effective PTC system. The

receiver tube is located at the focal line of reflector in order to receive the concentrated heat

flux from the reflector.

The experiments on PTC system (shown in Fig. 2) was conducted at MNNIT (Motilal

Nehru National Institute of Technology) located in Allahabad city (25.4358° N, 81.8463° E),

Uttar Pradesh, India. The PTC system is oriented in North-South axis and single axis manual

tracking is adopted along east-west direction to track the sun rays to obtain the maximum

amount of incident solar radiation. The experiments were conducted in the months of April

and May 2017. In this present work, we selected water as HTF. The properties of water are

listed in Table 7. The readings were taken from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm and noted at an interval of

30 minutes.

Figure 2. Experimental setup of parabolic trough collector



Table 1 Specification of PTC system

Design specification of PTC -

Focal length (f) 0.4856 m

Aperture width (Wa) 1.63 m

Length of collector (L) 2.5 m

Rim angle (ɸ) 80°

Aperture area (Aa) 4.075 m2

Effective aperture area(m2) 4.01

Stainless steel tube-1 (m) Inner diameter: 0.0107, outer diameter: 0.0127

Stainless steel tube-2 (m) Inner diameter: 0.0214, outer diameter: 0.0254

Copper tube (m) Inner diameter: 0.0224, outer diameter: 0.0254

Concentration ratio 40.53(in stainless steel-1) and 20.1(in copper and stainless steel-2)

Table 2 Physical properties of receiver tube material [19] and water [20]

Property Stainless steel Copper Water

Density (Kg/m3) 7900 8930 998.2

Thermal conductivity (W/m-K) 48 384 0.6

Specific heat (J/kg-K) 500 386 4182

Viscosity (kg/m-s) - - 0.001003

3.1. Efficiency Calculation

Thermal efficiency: The thermal efficiency of collector is defined as the ratio of the

instantaneous useful heat gained by the HTF and the instantaneous direct solar radiation

incident (Id) on the given aperture area (Aa) of the collector [21].

u

a

Q

Q

(7)

Useful heat gain: The amount of heat gained by HTF flowing through the receiver tube.

( )u p out inQ m C T T

(8)

Instantaneous solar beam radiation (Id) incident on the given aperture area (Aa) of the

collector:

a a dQ A I

(9)

Where, m is the mass flow rate (kg/s), Cp is specific heat capacity (J/kgK), Id is the direct

solar radiation (W/m2), Tout is outlet temperature of the HTF, Tin inlet temperature of the HTF.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1. Case-1 Comparison of different materials of the receiver tube at different

mass flow rates (receiver tube diameter: 1-inch)

Direct Solar Radiation (DSR) for stainless steel and copper receiver tube at mass flow rates of

0.01 kg/s and 0.02 kg/s is shown in Fig. 3. It can be seen that the amount of DSR is maximum

of 716.6 W/m2

at 13.00 p.m. in case of stainless steel receiver tube at the mass flow rate of

0.01 kg/s. Variation in the inlet and outlet temperature of HTF with time for four different

conditions is shown in Fig. 4. Since cold water storage tank was kept aside near the PTC

system and it was receiving diffused radiations. Therefore, small temperature increment can

also have seen at inlet condition of the receiver tube. The inlet temperature of HTF is

increasedfrom 8.00 a.m. up to 14.00 p.m. and after that variation become slower due to low



radiation up to 16.00 p.m.The outlet temperature of HTF is low in the morning in all the cases

due to low DSR. It can be seen that outlet temperature of water in case of copper tube is

decreased at 8:30 a.m. due to low DSR at that time in comparison to other cases. After that as

the heat flux increases from 8:30 a.m. up to 13.30 p.m. The outlet temperature also increases

in case of copper receiver tube at 0.01 kg/s mass flow rate and the maximum temperature of

44.6°C is observed at 13:30 p.m. at DSR of 623 W/m2. Though the radiation is maximum at

13.0 p.m. The outlet temperature reaches the maximum at 13.30 p.m. As the solar radiation

will decrease the outlet temperature will not decrease immediately due to high heating

capacity of the receiver at that time.In case of the copper tube at a mass flow rate of 0.02 kg/s,

it is also following the same trend and reaches the maximum of 43.5°C at 13.0 p.m. when

DSR is 652 W/m2. The maximum DSR, in this case, is 717 W/m

2 at 11.30 p.m. which is

giving 41.1°C temperature of HTF that is lower than 13.00 p.m. due to high heat losses from

the receiver surface at maximum DSR.If we compare same material (copper) receiver at

different mass flow rates, we observed that at low mass flow rate receiver is performing better

even at high radiation because at low mass flow rate, HTF is having sufficient time for proper

convention heat transfer fromthe receiver inner surface to HTF and that will also reduce heat

losses fromthe receiver outer surface. In case of stainless steel at the mass flow rate of 0.01

kg/s, DSR is maximum, 717.1 W/m2 at 11:30 p.m. and outlet temperature is maximum of

39.6°C at 14.00 p.m.Temperature increment for all conditions is shown in Fig. 5. It is

observed that at same mass flow rate copper tube is showing better thermal performance than

stainless steel tube. This is due to the high thermal conductivity of copper than stainless steel.

Thermal efficiency for all the cases is shown in Fig. 6. It strongly depends on the solar

radiation. Maximum efficiency of 35.9% was obtained in case of a copper tube at a mass flow

rate of 0.01 kg/s. It can observe from Fig. 9 that efficiency in case of a copper tube with 0.02

kg/s mass flow rate is more than stainless steel tube.It is representing that a copper tube has

better thermal performance even at a high mass flow rate in comparison of stainless steel tube.

The curve of the thermal efficiency would show decreasing trend where the variation of the

temperature increment will be lower than the variation of solar radiation. It will happen due to

heat losses from the receiver outer surface. The increasing pattern of thermal efficiency shows

that the variation in temperature is more than the variation in solar radiation.

4.2. Case-2 Comparison of bare and with acrylic receiver tube at different mass

flow rates (receiver tube diameter: 0.5-inch)

Direct solar radiation for a bare stainless-steel tube of 0.5-inch diameter and same receiver

with acrylic cover is shown in Fig. 7 for mass flow rate of 0.01 kg/s and 0.02 kg/s from 8:00

a.m. to 17:00 p.m. It is observed that DSR is low in case of a bare receiver at the mass flow

rate of 0.01 kg/s and almost similar in other cases. The variation of the temperature of HTF is

shown in Fig. 8. The maximum outlet temperature of 49.1°C was obtained in case of a

receiver tube with acrylic cover at 0.01 mass flow rate. The temperature increment for all

conditions is shown in Fig. 9. It is observed that variation in the temperature increment of

HTF in case of the receiver with acrylic cover from 8:00 a.m. up to 11:30 a.m. at a mass flow

rate of 0.01 kg/s is very slow than a bare tube at the same mass flow rate. The possible reason

is that during experimental study there was some manual tracking error that was unable to

track the maximum solar radiation that reduces the amount of concentrated heat flux on the

receiver bottom surface.

The maximum temperature difference of 18.9°C was obtained in case of the receiver with

an acrylic cover at 0.01 kg/s mass flow rate. It is obtained from the curves of temperature

increment of the bare tube and tube with acrylic cover at 0.02 kg/s mass flow rate that

temperature increment is higher in case of a tube with acrylic cover. The thermal efficiency is



shown in the Fig. 10. It is observed that the efficiency is higher in case of the receiver with an

acrylic cover in comparison of bare tube for a mass flow rate of 0.02 kg/s. In case of a

receiver with an acrylic cover at a mass flow rate of 0.01 kg/s, efficiency is higher at all the

time except for the hours when there was a manual tracing error.

Figure 3. Variation of Direct solar radiation with time for copper and stainless

steel receiver at different mass flow rates.

Figure 4. Variation of HTF temperature with time for copper and stainless


Figure 5. Variation of temperature increment of HTF with time for

copper and stainless steel receiver at different mass flow rates.



Figure 6. Variation of thermal efficiency with time for copper and stainless


Figure 7. Variation of Direct solar radiation with time for bare and with acrylic

receiver tube at different mass flow rates.

Figure 8. Variation of HTF temperature with time for bare and with acrylic

stainless steel receiver tube at different mass flow rates.

Figure 9. Variation of temperature increment of HTF with time for bare and

with acrylic stainless steel receiver tube at different mass flow rates.



Figure 10. Variation of thermal efficiency with time for bare and with acrylic

stainless steel receiver tube at different mass flow rates.

5. CONCLUSIONS

The experimental study was conducted on a small-sized solar parabolic trough collector at

MNNIT Allahabad (25.4358° N, 81.8463° E), Uttar Pradesh, India. The performance of PTC

was investigated in two cases. In the first case, performance investigation was done by

conducting experiments using copper and stainless-steel (1-inch diameter) as receiver tube

material at different mass flow rates. In the second case, a comparison was done using bare

receiver tube and receiver tube (0.5-inch) covered with an acrylic cover which is filled with

air in the annulus space at different mass flow rates of the HTF. Both the cases were studied

using water as the heat transfer fluid. This study was conducted for finding out the better

combination of bare and acrylic covered receiver tube, receiver tube material, diameter of the

receiver tube and mass flow rate. From the first case, it was observed that copper receiver

tube is showing better performance at both the mass flow rates 0.01 kg/s and 0.02 kg/s in

comparison of stainless steel tube. The maximum thermal efficiency of 35.9% is obtained in

case of a copper receiver at 0.01 kg/s mass flow rate. It was obtained that copper is better

material for the receiver of PTC system. From the second case, it was observed that receiver

tube with acrylic cover is showing better performance than a bare tube at both the mass flow

rates because an acrylic tube reduces the heat losses from the surface of the receiver. The

maximum temperature difference of 18.1°C and thermal efficiency of 61.4% was obtained in

case of a receiver with an acrylic tube. It was obtained that the study can be conducted by

using copper receiver tube of 0.5-inch diameter with an acrylic cover to enhance the

performance of a PTC system.

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