CFD Simulation of Heat Transfer in a Compound Parabolic Concentrator

Abstract

Concentrating collectors are applicable where the temperature requirement are of 100ºC or above. Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) is a special type of solar collector fabricated in the shape of two meeting parabolas and is among the collectors having the highest possible concentration ratio. Also because of its large aperture area, only intermittent tracking is required. It is mostly used in industrial applications where medium pressure steam is required (at around 150°C). In order to investigate the heat transfer in a Compound Parabolic Concentrator, it is important to understand the influence of Concentration Ratio (CR) and surface radiation properties of the collector surface. With these objectives, a model was developed in CREO software and was analyzed by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) technique using ANSYS Fluent and the influence of Concentration Ratio (CR of 1, 2 and 3) and surface radiation properties of the collector surface on the temperature distribution within the CPC was studied. The CFD analysis considering different concentration ratio and surface properties (radiation related) reveal that the highest tube surface temperature are obtained for a concentration ratio of 3 with tube surface emissivity of 0.9 and reflector surface reflectivity of 0.8.