THERMAL LOSSES REDUCTION FOR A TROUGH SOLAR COLLECTOR: PART 1 FLUID FLOW

Abstract

The flow of the wind near an absorber of a trough collector is analyzed. Since this absorber loss useful heat into the ambient, it is necessary to reduce that heat. The common strategy of reduction is the use of a vacuum tube. The maintaining of vacuum is difficult due to air leak or glass fracture led to find another replacement for this strategy. The idea of the present work is to put a half circular disc in front of the receiver in order to reduce the air velocity near the tube and reduce the heat transfer process. The flow is analyzed in the area to find the streamlines of flow and the behavior of air for a different air velocities and trough orientations. The analysis is done by using COMSOL Multiphysics program V4.4. The data show that the overall air velocity is reduced near the receiver as predicted.