Transient thermal performance prediction method for parabolic trough solar collector under fluctuating solar radiation

Abstract

As the effect of the global warming is becoming noticeable, the importance for environmental sustainability has been raised. Parabolic trough solar thermal collector system, which is one of the solutions to reduce the carbon dioxide emission, is a mature technology for electricity generation. Malaysia is a tropical country with long daytime, which makes suitable for solar thermal applications with parabolic trough solar thermal collectors. However, the high humidity causes the solar radiation to fluctuate. In order to simulate the solar thermal collectors’ performance at an early design stage of solar thermal power generation systems, fast still accurate transient thermal performance prediction methodis required. Although multiple transient thermal simulation methodologies exist, they are not suited especially at an early design stage where quick but reasonably accurate thermal performance prediction is needed because of their long calculation time. In this paper, a transient thermal prediction method is developed to predict exit temperature of parabolic trough collectors under fluctuating solar radiation. The method is governed by simple summation operations and requires much less calculating time than the existing numerical methods. If the radiation heat loss at the parabolic trough collector tube surface is small, the working fluid temperature rise may be approximated as proportional to the receiving heat flux. The fluctuating solar radiation is considered as a series of heat flux pulses applied for a short period of time. The time dependent solar collector exit temperature is approximated by superimposing the exit temperature rise caused by each heat flux pulse. To demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed methodology, the solar collector exit temperature for one-day operation is predicted. The predicted solar collector exit temperature captures the trend of a finite element analysis result well. Still, the largest temperature difference is 38.8K and accuracy is not satisfactory. Currently, the accuracy of the proposed method is being improved. At the same time, its capabilities are being expanded.