Renewable Energy: Solar Collector with Parabolic Reflector

Description

This project simulates a parabolic trough reflector using ANSYS Fluent. A parabolic trough reflector is a type of solar energy collector — a cornerstone technology of concentrated solar power (CSP) — consisting of a long, parabolic mirror that focuses incoming sunlight onto a receiver tube positioned along the focal line of the parabola. The concentrated solar energy heats a working fluid flowing through the tube, which can then be used to generate steam and, in turn, produce electricity via a turbine.

The geometry was created in SpaceClaim, modeling a 3 m long section of the system. It was then meshed in ANSYS Meshing using polyhedral elements, with a total count of 1,330,520.

Methodology

To simulate the problem, the Discrete Ordinates (DO) radiation model was employed together with a laminar flow model. Because the installation is located in Egypt, the longitude, latitude, and time zone were set according to the site's real geographic data so that the solar load could be represented accurately.

Results

Water enters the tube at 25 °C, with the ambient temperature also set to 25 °C; consequently, solar radiation is the only mechanism available to raise the water temperature. The water flows at a velocity of 0.1 m/s, and at the simulated time the solar irradiation is 968 W/m². The software reports an outlet temperature of 26.45 °C, corresponding to a rise of roughly 1.5 °C along the tube.

The contours clearly show how the parabolic reflector concentrates most of the incoming irradiation onto the receiver tube. In addition, the reflector plate surface reaches a temperature of 36 °C.