Comprehensive performance enhancement of a parabolic trough receiver with copper tube inserts a numerical and experimental study

Abstract

Nearly half of global final energy consumption is accounted for heat, newlineas per International Energy Agency report (IEA) 2021. About 51 percent of newlineheat is consumed by industrial processes, while 46% is used for space and newlinewater heating in buildings. Fossil fuel including coal, petrol, and diesel are the newlinemain source of energy whose overexploitation has led to the climate change, newlineand resource depletion. The aftermath such as global warming, pollution, and newlineloss of diversity has forced nations to shift their attention towards the newlineutilization of renewable energy resources such as solar, wind, geothermal and newlinetidal. As an initiative to mitigate these ill effects, the Kyoto Protocol, an newlineinternational treaty, was adopted in 1997, aiming to reduce the emission of newlinegases that contribute to global warming. Since then most of the countries newlinestarted utilizing the renewable source of energy and their consumption pattern newlinehas started gradually increasing every year, especially the solar energy. As per newlineIEA 2021 report, solar thermal consumption is projected to grow 2.5 times newlinefaster than anticipated during 2021-2026. The quantity of heat energy newlineconsumption from non-renewable sources is declining over time. newlineSun is one of the few potential sources that can meet the rising energy newlinedemand and therefore has attracted extensive research attention. Mature newlinetechnologies for conversion of solar energy to thermal energy are available in newlinethe market. Among the various concentrated solar power technologies, newlineparabolic trough collector is the most commercially successful technology newlineavailable for delivering process heat in the range of 1400C to 4000C. newlineNumerous research on performance improvement of a PTC system have been newlinecarried out for the past 3 decades. In a solar thermal system, the receiver plays newlinea critical role in influencing the overall efficiency of the system. Thus, a great newlinedeal of attention is being paid in enhancing the heat transfer of the receiver. newline