DESIGN AND TESTING OF A SOLAR PARABOLIC CONCENTRATING COLLECTOR

Abstract

This paper is concerned with an experimental study of a simple parabolic trough solar collector tested under the local climatic condition. It presents the collectors’ performance and the temperature effective length of the concentrator. A small scale parabolic trough was fabricated with the local available materials using stainless steel sheets as parabolic reflector and galvanized steel pipe as the receiver. As a part of solar technology distribution in Darfur Region, this model is designed erected under the supervision of the Energy Research Center of the University of Nyala (ERCUN). The collector is designed with simple parabolic equations. It was out door tested at the Mechanical Department roof of Nyala University at latitude 12.1o N, longitude 24.9o E, and 67m elevation. It was East-West oriented to avoid tracking process. The heat transfer fluid (water) was naturally circulated from a header tank. From the experiments, the temperature of the heat transfer fluid was become steady after 82 percent of the total trough length. From the test result and the collectors’ performance, the model is seen fairly acceptable for thermal processes. Physical output indicates that by using envelope evacuated glass, high quality steam can be produce for efficient electricity generation.