Performance evaluation of solar parabolic trough receiver using multiple twisted tapes with circular perforation and delta winglet

A parabolic trough collector (PTC) is one of the concentrating types of a solar collector working in the medium range of temperature from 100–400 °C, for this reason, the efficiency of the solar parabolic trough is less than other types of concentrating solar collector (Point focusing types) in terms of solar to thermal energy conversion, the improvement in efficiency is achieved by various passive heat augmentation techniques in the receiver tube. One of the promising passive techniques is twisted tape inserts used in the receiver due to its simplicity in design and the various possibility of geometric modification. This paper deals with the performance evaluation of the solar parabolic trough receiver system by using passive techniques in the receiver. The testing of the receiver of PTC was done by using multiple perforated twisted tapes with winglets having different perforation ratios ([Formula: see text]) of 0.05, 0.15, 0.25, twist ratios ([Formula: see text]) of 3, 4, 5 and wing depth ratios ([Formula: see text]) of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3. The number of twisted tapes was fixed at 4. The examination was conducted for Reynolds numbers ([Formula: see text]) varying from 3000–21,000 using air as working fluid. The outcome shows that the use of perforation and winglet in twisted tapes augment the Nusselt number as compared to that of smooth twisted tapes. The maximum thermohydraulic performance ([Formula: see text]) of 2.40 is received by using multiple twisted tapes with perforation and winglet having [Formula: see text] = 0.3, [Formula: see text] = 3, and [Formula: see text] = 0.05 at the Re = 21,000. The correlations for Nusselt number ([Formula: see text]) and friction factor ([Formula: see text]) are also developed with ± 8.5% and ± 8.3% accuracy, respectively.

A review study on the performance of a parabolic trough receiver using twisted tape inserts

Heat transfer in concentrating solar collectors like parabolic troughs has proven nowadays a very efficient method by using different passive techniques to increase the heat transfer rate. The use of passive techniques also increases the pumping power requirements to make the flow through the receiver. So, a number of researchers are working to find out the optimum performance conditions for parabolic trough receivers by using different types of inserts in flow paths. This paper presents a wide range of literature available for solar parabolic troughs in one place. Based on this extensive study, it is found that twisted tape inserts is a very wide field for investigation and the use of different shapes, pitch value, free space, and angle of twist tape are the parameters that can be considered for further studies to improve the performance of solar troughs. Also, various combinations of perforation and cuts on twisted tapes can be used to achieve enhanced performance.