Circumferential temperature analysis of one sided thermally insulated parabolic trough receiver using computational fluid dynamics

Abstract

Low temperature industrial thermal applications like process heating involving solar thermal technology renders the usage of inexpensive air filled annuli receivers despite they are below par in thermal performance. This work is cantered around the air filled receiver system and more importantly try to assess both conventional and modified air filled annulus system using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in terms of their performance parameters. For modification purpose, conventional receiver was fitted with thermal insulation in non-concentrating half section of receiver which is actually short of concentrated sun’s radiation. Finally it was simulated for significantly reduced circumferential temperature distribution (CTD) around the absorber and was compared with conventional air filled annulus receiver. This comparison could be supposed to serve as a means of advancement for the development of small scale solar thermal based heat producing plants.