Thermal Performance Analysis of a Linear Fresnel Concentrating Solar Collector Absorber Tube

Linear Fresnel solar collectors are suitable for a wide range of applications, which include steam generation for power generation, industrial process heat, solar cooling, institutional and domestic hot water production etc. The thermal performance of a linear Fresnel solar collector absorber tube was investigated in this study for different fluid mass flow rates, heat flux intensities, heat transfer fluid inlet temperatures, ambient air temperatures and external loss heat transfer rate. Turbulent flow liquid water heat transfer fluid and uniform circumferential heat flux distribution boundary were considered under steady-state conditions. The fluid flow was considered incompressible. This study was limited to a first order model approximation for thermal performance of a linear Fresnel solar collector absorber tube. The heat transfer fluid and absorber tube material properties were considered constant and independent of temperature. The results indicated that the absorber tube outlet heat transfer fluid temperature decreased with an increase in the Reynolds number and increased with the heat flux intensities. Thermal efficiency increased with an increase in the heat transfer fluid mass flow rate and however, decreased with increase in pressure drop and the consequent pumping power requirement. It was also found that the thermal efficiency of the collector decreased with an increase in the fluid bulk inlet temperature and decreased with an increase in the external loss heat transfer rate.