Performance Prediction of Solar Thermal Parabolic Trough Concentrator System (STPTCS) by Enhancement of Heat Transfer

As the effect of the global warming is becoming noticeable, the importance for environmental sustainability has been raised. Parabolic trough solar thermal collector system, which is one of the solutions to reduce the carbon dioxide emission, is a mature technology for electricity generation. Malaysia is a tropical country with long daytime, which makes suitable for solar thermal applications with parabolic trough solar thermal collectors. However, the high humidity causes the solar radiation to fluctuate. In order to simulate the solar thermal collectors’ performance at an early design stage of solar thermal power generation systems, fast still accurate transient thermal performance prediction methodis required. Although multiple transient thermal simulation methodologies exist, they are not suited especially at an early design stage where quick but reasonably accurate thermal performance prediction is needed because of their long calculation time. In this paper, a transient thermal prediction method is developed to predict exit temperature of parabolic trough collectors under fluctuating solar radiation. The method is governed by simple summation operations and requires much less calculating time than the existing numerical methods. If the radiation heat loss at the parabolic trough collector tube surface is small, the working fluid temperature rise may be approximated as proportional to the receiving heat flux. The fluctuating solar radiation is considered as a series of heat flux pulses applied for a short period of time. The time dependent solar collector exit temperature is approximated by superimposing the exit temperature rise caused by each heat flux pulse. To demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed methodology, the solar collector exit temperature for one-day operation is predicted. The predicted solar collector exit temperature captures the trend of a finite element analysis result well. Still, the largest temperature difference is 38.8K and accuracy is not satisfactory. Currently, the accuracy of the proposed method is being improved. At the same time, its capabilities are being expanded.

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Investigation on Performance Prediction and Operation Characteristics of a Parabolic Trough Solar Thermal Collecting System

DEStech Transactions on Engineering and Technology Research ◽

10.12783/dtetr/iceta2016/7142 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Jingxiao Han ◽

Xiangyan Wang ◽

Lingzhi Zhu ◽

Yanan Zhang ◽

Feibiao Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Performance Prediction ◽

Solar Thermal ◽

Parabolic Trough ◽

Operation Characteristics ◽

Collecting System

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Heat Transfer Fluids for Future Parabolic Trough Solar Thermal Power Plants

Proceedings of ISES World Congress 2007 (Vol. I – Vol. V) ◽

10.1007/978-3-540-75997-3_369 ◽

2008 ◽

pp. 1806-1812 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Markus Eck ◽

Klaus Hennecke

Keyword(s):

Heat Transfer ◽

Power Plants ◽

Thermal Power ◽

Solar Thermal ◽

Thermal Power Plants ◽

Parabolic Trough ◽

Heat Transfer Fluids ◽

Solar Thermal Power

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Detailed Modeling of Parabolic Trough Collectors for the Part Load Simulation of Solar Thermal Power Plants

Volume 6: Oil and Gas Applications; Concentrating Solar Power Plants; Steam Turbines; Wind Energy ◽

10.1115/gt2012-68032 ◽

2012 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

F. Zaversky ◽

S. Bergmann ◽

W. Sanz

Keyword(s):

Heat Transfer ◽

Power Plant ◽

Power Plants ◽

Thermal Power ◽

Solar Thermal ◽

Thermal Power Plants ◽

Steam Generation ◽

Parabolic Trough ◽

Solar Thermal Power ◽

Direct Steam

Solar thermal power plants are a promising way of providing clean renewable electric energy. These plants concentrate the incoming solar direct irradiation in order to heat up a heat transfer fluid. The collected thermal energy can be stored or instantly delivered to a power block where part of the thermal energy is converted to electrical energy in a turbine with the connected generator. The parabolic trough collector plant is the today’s most developed solar thermal power plant type. There the solar irradiation is focused on receiver tubes which are concentrically placed to the focal lines of the parabolic trough collectors. A high temperature oil is pumped through these receiver tubes, which collects the heat and delivers it later on to the steam generator of the connected Rankine steam cycle. In order to improve the efficiency of these solar thermal power plants, the direct steam generation (DSG) within the parabolic trough collector receiver tubes is being investigated. Both types of parabolic trough collectors, the conventional type using oil as heat transfer fluid and the direct steam generation type, are subject of this paper. A detailed steady-state parabolic trough collector model was developed for each type, using the thermodynamic simulation software IPSEpro. The developed models consider the cosine-loss attenuation factor, the shading attenuation factor, optical losses, as well as thermal losses. Appropriate heat transfer and pressure loss correlations were implemented for both collector types. For the direct steam generation model, distinct collectors for the preheating section, the evaporation section and the superheating section were used. Furthermore, the suitable length of discretization for the modeling of one collector loop within a center-fed solar field was investigated. Calculated solar field performance data for the oil concept were compared to validated data available in open literature. Finally, a power plant simulation with each collector type, over the course of one reference day, showed the great potential of the direct steam generation, as well as the suitability of IPSEpro for running solar thermal power plant yield simulations.

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