Optical sensitivity analysis of geometrical deformation on the parabolic trough solar collector with Monte Carlo Ray-Trace method

•Effects of three kinds of geometrical deformations are studied using MRCT method.•Concentrator profile with deformation error is mathematically described.•Parameter study of optical efficiency of PTC system is conducted.•The impacts of different types of deformations on the optical performance are...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied thermal engineering 2016-10, Vol.109, p.130-137
Main Authors: Zhang, Cuizhen, Xu, Guoqiang, Quan, Yongkai, Li, Haiwang, Song, Gu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Geometrical deformation
Monte Carlo Ray-Trace method
Optical performance
Parabolic trough concentrator
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Summary:•Effects of three kinds of geometrical deformations are studied using MRCT method.•Concentrator profile with deformation error is mathematically described.•Parameter study of optical efficiency of PTC system is conducted.•The impacts of different types of deformations on the optical performance are diverse. This paper evaluated the influences of three kinds of geometrical deformations including global deformation, local rotation deformation and local linear deformation, on the optical performance of parabolic trough solar collector (PTC). An optical analysis of PTC system with different geometrical deformations was performed with the Monte Carlo Ray-Trace method to predict the optical efficiency and the radiation flux distribution on the receiver. The results show that the elliptic profile of the concentrator mirror results in a local hot spot on the receiver, which may shorten the receiver service life, among those cases with different global deformations. The optical performance of parabolic trough concentrator is almost not affected by rotation angle in the range of −0.3 to 0.3°. And the optical efficiency could be maintained above 90% of that under non-deformation condition when the linear deformation length is less than 6.0% of half aperture width. The local deformation at the bottom of the concentrator induces a more apparent deficit of the performance compared with the case of top local deformation. Additionally, the optical efficiency is inversely proportional to the length of part which is removed from the concentrator.
ISSN:1359-4311
DOI:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2016.08.058