PERFORMANCE COMPARISION OF A NEW-TYPE TROUGH SOLAR CONCENTRATOR THERMAL SYSTEM IN DIFFERENT INSTALLATIONS

Abstract

This paper puts forward a new-type trough solar concentrator with a compound surface, which is comprised of two upper paraboloids, lower planar mirrors and one base paraboloid. This structure forms a co-focus where a solar receiver is installed. The performance of the new-type trough solar concentrator combined with a cylinder receiver and a flat plate receiver, respectively, was tested. For comparison, the reflector of the concentrator was made of a polished aluminum sheet and a mirror glass, respectively. The experimental results show that the prototype concentrator systems may have an average efficiency around 40% for the hot water temperature up to 80oC and the ambient temperature below 0oC in winter. To test and verify the performance of the system in higher temperature range, a scaled-down new concentrator of the same structure was made and tested in the outdoor. It was found from the results that the designed new-type trough concentrator can produce 220oC solar heat. It indicates that the proposed design may be promising for solar thermal application at a medium temperature of 80oC -150oC.

Keywords

Dates

  • Submission Date2014-01-27
  • Revision Date2014-11-18
  • Acceptance Date2014-12-18
  • Online Date2015-01-24

DOI Reference

10.2298/TSCI140127001C

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