Simulation of Solar Compound Parabolic Collector (CPC) Without solar tracking system


Abstract in English

The aim of current work is to develop a mathematical model designed by Rabl for compound parabolic collector (CPC) using tubular receiver instead of the flat receiver. The simulation was carried out for reflection of direct and indirect solar radiation incident on the compound parabolic collector. The equations were evaluated using analytical geometry for calculating the Cartesian coordinates of the reflecting surface, then the falling and reflected rays on the detector were calculated. A MATLAB program was developed to generate the data and print the reflected rays through the use of 10000 rays at random position according to the random Monte Carlo simulation for each angle of the rays. We found that the optimum value of half acceptance angle is 35. This investigation showed that the efficiency of compound parabolic collector decreases with increasing the radius and length of receiver at the same inlet temperature of working fluid. Also showed that the efficiency of compound parabolic collector with tubular receiver is higher than collector with flat receiver at the same conditions.

References used

Tchinda,R; Kaptouom,E; Njomo,D. Study of the C.P.C. collector thermal behaviour, Energy Convers.Mgmt Vol. 39, No. 13, pp. 1395-1406, 1998
B. Norton, A. F. Kothdiwala and P. C. Eames. Effect of Inclination on the Performance of CPC Solar Energy Collectors, Renewable Energy, Vol.5, Part I, pp. 357- 367, 1994
Oommen,R; Jayaraman,S. Development and performance analysis of compound parabolic solar concentrators with reduced gap losses – oversized reflector, Energy Conversion and Management 42, 1379-1399, 2001

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