Thermo-Optical Modeling for Hyperbolic Cavity Receiver of 40 m2 Parabolic Dish Collector
Abstract
Thermo-optical modeling of a solar cavity receiver, hyperbolic in shape, including a secondary reflector applicable for solar parabolic dish collector (PDC), is carried out in this article. The combined receiver and secondary reflector geometry constitute the hyperbolic shape. This investigation aims to optimize the receiver geometrically and optically, then to estimate the heat transfer rate from the receiver surface owing to natural convection and radiation of the optimized receiver under parameters that influence the PDC system performance. The commercial optical software tool ASAP® 2013 is used for optical simulation. The optical simulation includes the investigation of the performance of the receiver for varying cavity height h1 and secondary height h2 at a constant diameter of the cavity aperture of 𝑑 = 0.5 m. The effects of cavity absorptivity (86-94%) and reflectivity of the secondary (86-94%) on optical performance are also studied. The optimal value of optical efficiency found is 91.72% for the mounting height of 4.21 m when h1= 0.75 m and h2 = 0.25 m. With ANSYS® Fluent 2020 R1, the receiver’s 0°, 30°, 60°, and 90° orientations or angle of tilt 𝜃 are modeled thermally. A thorough analysis comparing the various turbulence models has been presented.
Keywords
Parabolic dish collector, Cavity receiver, Optical simulation, Thermal simulation, Geometrical concentration ratio, Secondary trumpet