Investigation of Solar Absorber for Small Scale Solar Concentrating Parabolic Dish
Abstract
A solar receiver is an important part in the conversion of solar radiation into thermal energy and it is crucial to investigate the thermal performance of solar absorber in the receiver. In this paper, two types of solar absorbers (stainless steel fibrous wire mesh and silicon carbide honeycomb) working with air as heat transfer fluid were tested in a small scale solar concentrating parabolic dish. The dish has an aperture diameter of 1.2 m and is covered with reflecting film. It is demonstrated that the flat circular absorbers (7 cm diameter) working with air can transform solar radiation into thermal energy with 40 - 80 % efficiency depending on the air flow velocity through the absorber.