Ernesto ENCISO-CONTRERAS
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Alejo Jesús DE LA CRUZ
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Guillermo Irving ALCOCER
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Juan Gabriel BARBOSA-SALDAÑA
This work describes the use of a computational tool to assess a previously built parabolic trough solar collector (PTC) that uses a working fluid in liquid state. This work is focused on the thermal analysis of a PTC collector considering two common used synthetic oils: Syltherm 800 and Therminol VP1. The designing characteristics of the commercial LS3 solar collector was selected and as solar resource, the solar irradiance that reaches Mexico City was used with twelve monthly average values along the year. The computational tool provides thermal and flow data for every synthetic oil and for every solar irradiance value used. The most important data computed is the mass flow, which is obtained through iterative processes until the necessary value is found, in order to satisfy the working fluid final temperature for the synthetic oil, once the optimum mass flow value is found, the collector thermal parameters are computed, such as: heat gain, heat losses, thermal efficiency, and the temperatures for the absorber and coating tubes. The computational tool can assess any PTC collector with any working fluid in liquid state, and the data obtained can be used to improve of modify the design of the collector for a better performance.
Solar water-pump thermal analysis utilizing copper–gold/engine oil hybrid nanofluid flowing in parabolic trough solar collector: Thermal case study
