Assessment of Structural Stability and Performance Comparison of Parabolic Trough Collector for Two Different Seasons

Abstract

This paper gives a wind load simulation model in Siemens NX based on the actual field position of the parabolic trough collector (PTC) when the wind is blowing from multiple directions. The maximum displacement is 0.24 % of the aperture width, and the maximum stress value is 46.51 MPa. Cold airflow computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was conducted to determine the airflow pattern in the vicinity of the PTC. It was revealed that there is no substantial turbulence zone in the area of the receiver tube, which means that heat loss from the receiver tube to the atmosphere will not be increased. The estimated figure of thermal efficiency has a total uncertainty of 1.89 %. The experiment is carried out in March, and the findings are compared to those obtained in December. The results reveal that PTC's thermal performance is better in March. When compared to December, the thermal efficiency of the existing PTC improved by 2.75 % in March. The optimum flow rate for March has been determined to be 3 L/min. The performance of Siemens NX is validated by an experimental result followed by a 0.4 % deviation. Siemens NX is in good agreement with experiment results.