具有二次聚光器的新型大开口槽式太阳集热器设计与光学性能分析

针对大开口和更高运行温度的槽式太阳能热发电系统,提出一种可实现高聚光比、低辐射热损及能流密度均匀的新型槽式太阳集热器,即在集热管内放置外壁具有太阳选择吸收膜层和内壁具有反射膜层二次聚光器的大开口槽式太阳集热器。建立圆弧为微元段的自适应设计新方法,提出3种典型的二次聚光器面型,利用蒙特卡洛光线追迹方法仿真新型集热器的能流密度分布特性,验证该光学仿真方法,分析影响集热器光学性能的各种因素。结果表明,该集热器可显著提升集热效率。     

Numerical Investigation of Energy-Efficient Receiver for Solar Parabolic Trough Concentrator

In this paper, a thermal analysis of an energy-efficient receiver for solar parabolic trough concentrator is presented. Various porous receiver geometries are considered for the performance evaluation of a solar parabolic trough concentrator. Numerical models are proposed for a porous energy-efficient receiver for internal heat gain characteristics and heat loss due to natural convection. The internal flow and heat transfer analysis is carried out based on a RNG k-? turbulent model, whereas external heat losses are treated as a laminar natural convection model. The numerical models have been solved using the commercial engineering package, FLUENT. The thermal analysis of the receiver is carried out for various geometrical parameters, such as fin aspect ratio, thickness, and porosity, for different heat flux conditions. The inclusion of porous inserts in tubular receiver of solar trough concentrator enhanced the heat transfer about 17.5% with a pressure penalty of 2 kPa. The Nusselt number correlation is proposed based on the extensive numerical data for internal heat transfer inside the receiver. The proposed model is compared with more well-known natural convection models. A comparative study is carried out with different porous geometries to evolve an optimum configuration of energy-efficient receivers.     

Investigation of evacuated tube heated by solar trough concentrating system

Two types of solar evacuated tube have been used to measure their heating efficiency and temperature with fluids of water and N₂ respectively with a parabolic trough concentrator. Experiments demonstrate that both evacuated tubes present a good heat transfer with the fluid of water, the heating efficiency is about 70–80%, and the water is easy to boil when liquid rate is less than 0.0046 kg/s. However, the efficiency of solar concentrating system with evacuated tube for heating N₂ gas is less than 40% when the temperature of N₂ gas reaches 320–460 °C. A model for evacuated tube heated by solar trough concentrating system has been built in order to further analyze the characteristics of fluid which flow evacuated tube. It is found that the model agrees with the experiments to within 5.2% accuracy. The characteristics of fluid via evacuated tube heated by solar concentrated system are analyzed under the varying conditions of solar radiation and trough aperture area. This study supports research work on using a solar trough concentrating system to perform ammonia thermo-chemical energy storage for 24 h power generation. The current research work also has application to solar refrigeration.     

Characterisation of a 300× photovoltaic concentrator system with one-axis tracking

A solar concentrator with one-axis tracking is being developed at our institute. This concentrator system achieves a high geometrical concentration ratio of 300 using a parabolic trough mirror and a three-dimensional second stage consisting of compound parabolic concentrators. The design of the system as well as the characterisation of the second stage is described in this paper.     

Two-stage concentrator permitting concentration factors up to 300x with one-axis tracking

Economic operation of high-efficiency concentrator solar cells requires solar concentration ratios which up to now can only be achieved with two-axis tracking. In this paper we present a two-stage concentrator approaching concentration ratios up to 300X while being tracked around only one polar axis. Its principle is as follows: a parabolic trough focuses the direct solar radiation onto a line parallel to the polar tracking axis. The half rim angle of this first concentrating stage is chosen to be equal to the sun's maximum declination of 23.5°. The second stage consists of a row of dielectric, nonimaging 3-D-concentrators, which couple the concentrated light directly into square solar cells. In contrast to linear secondaries the 3-D-secondaries make use of the limited divergence of ± 23.5° in the NS-direction to achieve additional concentration. The performance of the system depends sensitively on how well the angular acceptance characteristic of the second stage matches with the square-shaped angular irradiance distribution in the focal line of the parabolic trough. A new concentrator profile has been found that exhibits an almost ideal square acceptance characteristic with a very sharp cut-off. A prototype two-stage concentrator has been constructed with a total geometrical concentration of 214X. In outdoor measurements a total optical efficiency of 77.5% was obtained.     

Computation of the solar irradiance incident on concentrating collectors based in Turkey

This study aims to provide thorough information on the solar radiation received by the five main design types of concentrating collectors for the conditions of Turkey. These are namely, compound parabolic concentrator with north-south axis and east-west axis alignment, parabolic trough with north-south axis and east-west axis tracking, and concentrator with two-axis tracking. Either daily or hourly means of solar radiation are calculated for different slope, orientation and area concentration ratio (or half-acceptance angle). In this study, a computer program, based on previously developed correlations, is used. Through the graphical display, the results are presented for the six climatologically different stations which are representative of the country's conditions. With some modifications, the results will be valid for almost all known designs of concentrating collectors.     

Performance analysis of Azimuth Tracking Fixed Mirror Solar Concentrator

The fixed mirror solar collector (FMSC) fixes reflector and mobiles receiver to collect solar energy. However, this type of concentrator has a low efficiency and short operating duration in practical applications. In this paper, we propose to install the FMSC on an azimuth tracking device (ATFMSC) and the reflectors are arranged by intermission to avoid the shading of neighbor reflector for incidence angle of less than 10° to improve its optical performance. Through the integration of the reflected solar radiation distribution function over any reflection point, and then the whole collector aperture, we develop the analytical expressions of various system efficiencies to numerically simulate the performance of ATFMSC with evacuated tube receiver in different design parameters. It is validated by the ray tracing results. The result shows that the mean annual net heat efficiency of the whole system would be up to 61% with the operating temperature of 400 °C, which is higher than parabolic trough collector and traditional FMSC. This is because the longitudinal incidence angle of ATFMSC always remains zero by tracking the sun azimuth, so the end loss of the concentrator can be avoided and enables it to operate with high efficiency continually.     

Study of thermal characteristics of a heating module with parabolic trough concentrator and linear wedge-like photoelectric receiver

New solar modules intended for typical solar collectors containing semiparabolic trough concentrators and receivers that convert solar energy into thermal energy are considered. Mathematical modeling is carried out to develop an algorithm for estimating the structure of a heating module with the assigned energy parameters according to the laws of geometrical optics, as well as heat and mass transfer. When using such modules, which are based on a parabolic concentrator and a receiver with a system of coolant flow, cogeneration plants can be designed to produce electricity and heat. The mockups developed using this procedure are studied on the corresponding facilities and are tested under in-situ conditions. A solar module with an asymmetric parabolic trough concentrator and a linear wedge-like photoelectric receiver of concentrated radiation with a system of coolant flow provides the maximum power of 386 W at a temperature of 40°C and an efficiency of 60%, and 319 W at 60°C and 49%, respectively. Such modules are proposed for use to design solar collectors with the required performance.     

Concentration characteristics of a two stage solar concentrator: Effect of primary mirror surface errors

The concentration characteristics of a two-stage linear solar concentrator employing a perfectly tracked parabolic trough as the primary and a seasonally adjusted compound parabolic concentrator as the secondary stage with a flat horizontal absorber are studied. The Monte Carlo ray trace technique is used for this purpose. The effect of randomly distributed primary mirror surface errors on the concentration characteristics of the two stage concentrator is also investigated.     

Prediction and optimization of the performance of parabolic solar dish concentrator with sphere receiver using analytical function

Parabolic solar dish concentrator with sphere receiver is less studied. We present an analytic function to calculate the intercept factor of the system with real sun brightness distribution and Gaussian distribution, the results indicate that the intercept factor is related to the rim angle of reflector and the ratio of receiver angle to the optical error when the optical error is larger than or equal to 5 mrad, but is related to the rim angle, receiver angle and optical error in less than 5 mrad optical error. Furthermore we propose a quick process to optimize the system to provide the maximum solar energy to net heat efficiency for different optical error under typical condition. The results indicate that the parabolic solar dish concentrator with sphere receiver has rather high solar energy to net heat efficiency which is 20% more than solar trough and tower system including higher cosine factor and lower heat loss of the receiver.     

一种新型多曲面复合槽式太阳能集热器的理论分析

提出一种新型槽式太阳能聚光集热器的设计思路,介绍了其工作原理和设计方法。对该集热器的集光比、跟踪精度、高宽比、材料使用量等各方面进行了详细的理论分析,对重要的设计参数进行了分析和优化,给出了大致的取值范围。该新型槽式聚光集热器能够利用多曲面组合实现对太阳光反射聚焦,并具有在反射面上不留阴影、改善高温太阳能接收器的工作性能和工作环境以及有利于提高反射面结构强度等优势。     

Comparison of the optics of non-tracking and novel types of tracking solar thermal collectors for process heat applications up to 300 °C

Evacuated CPC (compound parabolic concentrator) collectors with non-tracking reflectors are compared with two novel tracking collectors: a parabolic trough and an evacuated tube collector with integrated tracking reflector. Non-tracking low concentrating CPC collectors are mostly mounted in east–west direction with a latitude dependent slope angle. They are suitable at most for working temperatures up to 200–250 °C. We present a tracking evacuated tube-collector with a trough-like concentrating mirror. Single-axis tracking of the mirror is realized with a magnetic mechanism. The mirror is mounted inside the evacuated tube and hence protected from environmental influences. One axis tracking in combination with a small acceptance angle allows for higher concentration as compared to non-tracking concentrating collectors. Ray-tracing analysis shows a half acceptance angle of about 5.7° at geometrical concentration ratio of 3.2. Losses of well constructed evacuated tube collectors (heat conductivity through the manifolds inside the thermally insulated terminating housing are low) are dominated by radiation losses of the absorber. Hence, reducing the absorber size can lead to higher efficiencies at high operating temperature levels. With the presented collector we aim for operating temperatures up to 350 °C. At temperatures of 300 °C we expect with anti-reflective coating of the glass tube and a selective absorber coating efficiencies of 0.65. This allows for application in industrial process heat generation, high efficient solar cooling and power generation. A first prototype, equipped with a standard glass tube and a black paint absorber coating, was tested at ZAE Bayern. The optical efficiency was measured to be 0.71. This tube-collector is compared by ray-tracing with non-tracking market available tube-collectors with geometrical concentration ratios up to 1.1 and with a low cost parabolic trough collector of Industrial Solar Technology (IST) with an acceptance half angle about 1.5°, a geometrical concentration ratio of 14.4 and a measured optical efficiency of 0.69.     

槽式聚光集热系统加热真空管的特性及应用研究

建立了槽式聚光集热真空管装置的数学模型,并与实验结果进行了对比。理论计算结果与实验结果吻合较好,误差在5.2％以内,表明可用所建立的模型对聚光式真空管加热流体的性能进行分析。在太阳辐射强度及聚光面积变化的情况下,分析了通过聚光真空管内流体的性能特性。还给出了利用槽式聚光装置驱动太阳能吸附制冷的应用实例。     

Thermal stress analysis of eccentric tube receiver using concentrated solar radiation

In the parabolic trough concentrator with tube receiver system, the heat transfer fluid flowing through the tube receiver can induce high thermal stress and deflection. In this study, the eccentric tube receiver is introduced with the aim to reduce the thermal stresses of tube receiver. The ray-thermal-structural sequential coupled numerical analyses are adopted to obtain the concentrated heat flux distributions, temperature distributions and thermal stress fields of both the eccentric and concentric tube receivers. During the sequential coupled numerical analyses, the concentrated heat flux distribution on the bottom half periphery of tube receiver is obtained by Monte-Carlo ray tracing method, and the fitting function method is introduced for the calculated heat flux distribution transformation from the Monte-Carlo ray tracing model to the CFD analysis model. The temperature distributions and thermal stress fields are obtained by the CFD and FEA analyses, respectively. The effects of eccentricity and oriented angle variation on the thermal stresses of eccentric tube receiver are also investigated. It is recommended to adopt the eccentric tube receiver with optimum eccentricity and 90° oriented angle as tube receiver for the parabolic trough concentrator system to reduce the thermal stresses.     

Numerical simulation of parabolic trough solar collector: Improvement using counter flow concentric circular heat exchangers

Detailed numerical simulations of thermal and fluid-dynamic behavior of a single-pass and double-pass solar parabolic trough collector are carried out. The governing equations inside the receiver tube, together with the energy equation in the tube walls and cover wall and the thermal analysis in the solar concentrator were solved iteratively in a segregated manner. The single-pass solar device numerical model has been carefully validated with experimental data obtained by Sandia National Laboratories. The effects of recycle at the ends on the heat transfer are studied numerically shown that the double-pass can enhance the thermal efficiency compared with the single-pass.     

Numerical study of heat transfer enhancement by unilateral longitudinal vortex generators inside parabolic trough solar receivers

This study presents numerical computation results on turbulent flow and coupled heat transfer enhancement in a novel parabolic trough solar absorber tube, the unilateral milt-longitudinal vortexes enhanced parabolic trough solar receiver (UMLVE-PTR), where longitudinal vortex generators (LVGs) are only located on the side of the absorber tube with concentrated solar radiation (CSR). The novel absorber tube and the corresponding parabolic trough receiver with smooth absorber tube (SAT-PTR) are numerical studied by combining the finite volume method (FVM) and the Monte Carlo ray-trace (MCRT) method for comparison and verification from the viewpoint of field synergy principle (FSP). Then the effects of Reynolds number, heat transfer fluid (HTF) inlet temperature, incident solar radiation and LVG geometric parameters were further examined. It was found that the mechanism of heat transfer enhancement of this novel absorber tube can be explained very well by the field synergy principle, and that the proposed novel UMLVE-PTR has good comprehensive heat transfer performance than that of the SAT-PTR within a wide range of major influence factors of diverse working conditions and geometric parameters.     

太阳能制冷与供暖系统的设计与比较

根据上海的气候条件，以上海地区某写字楼为对象，提出4种太阳能驱动的溴化锂吸收式与电动蒸汽压缩式热泵联合制冷与供暖系统。这4种系统分别由热管式真空管集热器或抛物面槽形聚光集热器，单效或双效溴化锂吸收式制冷机，以及风冷热泵或水源热泵构成。分析比较这4种系统的节能型和经济性的结果表明，采用抛物面槽形聚光集热器＋双效溴化锂吸收式制冷机＋风冷热泵组成的系统，同时具备较好的节能性与经济性，一次能源利用率可降低约50％。     

Thermal performance analysis of small-sized solar parabolic trough collector using secondary reflectors

ABSTRACT

In this paper, theoretical analysis of receiver tube misalignment, the design of secondary reflector and experimental analysis of a small-sized solar parabolic trough collector (PTC) with and without secondary reflectors are represented. Experimental analysis of PTC has been done using a parabolic secondary reflector (PSR) and triangular secondary reflector (TSR) and compared with PTC without secondary reflector (WSR). The maximum outlet temperature of heat transfer fluid is observed as 49.2°C, 47.3°C and 44.2°C in the case of PSR, TSR and WSR conditions, respectively. The maximum thermal efficiency of 24.3%, 22.5% and 17.8% is observed in the case of PSR, TSR and WSR conditions, respectively. The circumferential temperature difference on the outer surface of the receiver tube is obtained more uniform in the case of PSR and TSR than WSR condition. This indicates that the use of a secondary reflector can improve the performance of a solar PTC system.     

Geometrical optical performance studies of a composite parabolic trough with a fin receiver

The geometrical optical performance characteristics of a composite parabolic trough (CPT) with a fin receiver have been studied. The variation of geometrical concentration ratio with mirror element size and the rim angle of the parent parabola has been studied and the results are presented graphically. The distribution of local concentration ratio over the receiver plane has also been determined for some typical concentrator designs.     

Performance evaluation of v-trough solar concentrator for water desalination applications

The working principle and thermal performance of a new v-trough solar concentrator are presented in this paper. Compared with the common parabolic trough solar concentrators, the new concentrator has two parabolic troughs which form a V-shape with the focal line at the bottom of the troughs. This is beneficial for the installation and insulation of the receiver, and the shadow on the reflective surface is avoided. The new v-trough collector does not require high precision tracking devices and reflective material. And therefore the cost of the system could be significantly reduced. Various experimental tests were carried out both outdoor and indoor using different types of receiver tubes. The results show that the collector system can have thermal efficiency up to 38% at 100 °C operating temperature. System modelling was used to predict the rate of fresh water produced by four different solar collector systems which include both static and one-axis solar tracking technologies. Comparison of the solar collectors at different temperature ranges for humidification/dehumidification desalination process using specific air flow rate were considered. At each temperature range, suitable solar collectors were compared in the aspect of fresh water production and area of solar collector required. Results showed that the new v-trough solar collector is the most promising technology for small to medium scale solar powered water desalination.