Optical-thermal-mechanical coupled analysis for efficiency calculation of a new innovative concentrating solar collector for medium-temperature applications

Abstract

Thermal and structural deformation of tubular absorbers becomes an important issue for Parabolic Trough Collectors (PTC) when operating in real conditions. Such deformation will affect the optical efficiency and thus, the overall solar plant efficiency, decreasing the expected performance of the designed PTC. This study presents a new coupling methodology to include the effect of thermal structural performance of the PTC in the optical analysis with the real 3D receiver geometry deformed due to thermal and structural loads. Using the developed methodology, the multi-physic problem, optical, thermal and mechanical performance of an innovative PTC design has been analyzed by calculating its efficiency for different absorber tube diameters and two reflector thicknesses.