Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Cheng, Z.D.
• He, Y.L.
• Cui, F.Q.
• Du, B.C.
• Zheng, Z.J.
• Xu, Y.

Titel

Comparative and sensitive analysis for parabolic trough solar collectors with a detailed Monte Carlo ray-tracing optical model

Ist Teil von

• Applied energy, 2014-02, Vol.115, p.559-572

Ort / Verlag

Kidlington: Elsevier Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2014

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• •It is to present comparative and sensitive analysis for PTCs with the MCRT method.•A detailed PTC optical model was developed based on a novel unified MCRT model.•Reference data determined by the divergence effect is useful to design a better PTC.•Different PTCs have different levels of sensitivity to different optical errors.•There are no contradictions between accuracy requirements of different parameters. This paper presents the numerical results of the comparative and sensitive analysis for different parabolic trough solar collector (PTC) systems under different operating conditions, expecting to optimize the PTC system of better comprehensive characteristics and optical performance or to evaluate the accuracy required for future constructions. A more detailed optical model was developed from a previously proposed unified Monte Carlo ray-tracing (MCRT) model. Numerical results were compared with the reference data and good agreements were obtained, proving that the model and the numerical results are reliable. Then the comparative and sensitive analyses for different PTC systems or different geometric parameters under different possible operating conditions were carried out by this detailed optical model. From the numerical results it is revealed that the ideal comprehensive characteristics and optical performance of the PTC systems are very different from some critical points determined by the divergence phenomenon of the non-parallel solar beam, which can also be well explained by the theoretical analysis results. For different operating conditions, the PTC systems of different geometric parameters have different levels of sensitivity to different optical errors, but the optical accuracy requirements from different geometric parameters of the whole PTC system are always consistent.