Publication: Design of parabolic-trough reflectors for rooftop installation
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2021
Defense date
2021-07-09
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Abstract
Parabolic-trough collectors (PTCs) are the best established thermal technology to take advantage of sun radiation to heat a working fluid (HTF). Despite the vast literature on the subject, most of the efforts have been devoted to analysing large-sized PTC solar fields for electricity generation plants. The aim of this work is to study and design a small PTC which could be placed on an industrial rooftop of limited area and be used in a thermal-related application (e.g., milk sterilization process).
Thus, the main elements of the PTC technology (e.g., reflector, receiver) were described, dimensionized, and compared to real commercial PTC examples. To model the sun’s heat concentration on the receiver, an optical analysis was carried out using MATLAB to compute the geometric ratio (𝐶𝑔), which was validated using SolTrace, a raytracing software that models real photon interactions. Later, a second script of MATLAB based on a numerical method was developed to obtain the temperature profiles and heat fluxes of pressurized water and Therminol VP-1 in different scenarios.
Finally, an example of a solar field was dimensioned and cost-analysed, exploring the viability of installing distinct PTC models at a lower scale, and replacing fossil fuel cogeneration of the current system with the carbon footprint that it implies.
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Renewable Energy, Solar Energy, Thermal Energy, Heat Transfer Fluid, Parabolic Trough Collector, PTC, HTF, Absorber, Reflector, Receiver