Thermal performance of the solar parabolic trough collector at different flow rates: an experimental study

Currently, the most capable thermal systems based on the solar energy are the concentrating collectors, which are essentially finding applications in power generation and process industries. In the present study, thermal performance of the parabolic tough collector (PTC) is investigated experimentally at different flow rates of working fluid. Mass flow rate is one of the key parameters influencing its performance. Here, PTC is constructed as a simple structure having a non-evacuated tube and tested in tracking and south-facing modes utilising water as the working fluid. The performances in terms of water temperature rise, useful heat gain, collector efficiency are evaluated with and without utilising glazing on the receiver. Results revealed that performance of collector chiefly depends upon the mass flow rate and no considerable change is found when the flow rate of water is more than 0.024 kg/s. Furthermore, small-sized PTC offers slight better performance in the south-facing than the tracking mode.