Design of a Closed Parabolic Trough Solar Concentrator Test Facility

Essam, Mohamed; Mansour, Mohamed; El-Sheikh, Mohamed; Tawfik, Mohamed

doi:10.21608/iugrc.2021.245567

Design of a Closed Parabolic Trough Solar Concentrator Test Facility

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt.

² Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt,

³ Dr. Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt.

10.21608/iugrc.2021.245567

Abstract

Solar energy is an infinitely renewable energy source with enormous potential for replacing fossil fuels to address many energy industry issues, including rising energy consumption, fuel depletion, and global warming. As an efficient and cost-effective concentrating solar power (CSP) technology, the parabolic trough collector (PTC) is one of the most established technologies that is widely used for high-temperature applications (up to 400°C). A recently growing research trend investigates different reflector-enclosed PTC designs to protect PTCs from sand storms and dust deposition. Closed PTC is a promising technology that can be constructed using local resources with acceptable thermal performance. In the present work, a multi-tasked closed PTC test facility is designed and constructed not only to boost thermal efficiency but also to be modular for research purposes. The introduced closed PTC is provided with different features that make it more flexible to keep pace with the dynamic nature of scientific research topics.

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