HOURLY SIMULATION OF PARABOLIC TROUGH SOLAR COLLECTOR WITH SIMULTANEOUS SOLAR RADIATION AND WEATHER CONDITIONS DURING SUNSHINE PERIOD IN CAIRO-EGYPT

Abstract

The present work is an attempt to simulate the single-pass parabolic trough collector from thermal and optical point of view, considering the simultaneous hourly profiles of solar radiation, ambient dry-bulb temperature, and wind speed during the sunshine period for specific geographical location. Also, computer program is constructed and presented as simulator to predict the performance of the parabolic trough collector with varying operating, design, and weather conditions. For the studied case, the results are; the maximum reflected solar radiation from the mirror surface is 20849.0 W/m2 at hour 12 and distributed as; 65.8 % and 1.53 % absorbed by the absorber, cover tubes respectively while 32.67 % is dissipated as heat loss to the surrounding environment. For 0.001 kg/s of heat transfer fluid, results showed that; the temperature of the absorber tube is 597.0 oC at hour 12, while the heat transfer fluid is 539.0 oC at hour 13.30 and the cover tube is 258.6 oC at hour 11.097. It is noted that; after hour 14.317 and beyond the heat transfer from the absorber tube to the heat transfer fluid reverses its direction, while at the sunshine end, the temperatures are 342.0 oC for heat transfer fluid, 204.0 oC for the absorber tube, and 50.2 oC for the cover tube at the exit section.