Development of a novel two-stage parabolic dish collector-receiver system for efficiency improvement

ABSTRACT

This paper is related to the solar radiation concentrating at two focus points, at which three stages of receivers are located. It refers to the improvement of the thermal collection efficiency of the parabolic dish concentrator (PDC) system by using a twin-staged concentrator and three-staged receiver system. It discloses system design that concentrates the incident solar energy in varying proportions subsequently at low-, medium-, and high-temperature solar cavity receiver stages. It is seen that the modified design demonstrated increased thermal collection efficiency as compared to the conventional single-stage system. It improved the system efficiency by about 12.4% for lesser flow Reynolds number (Re). For the entire studied flow range, the average percentage increase in system thermal efficiency is about 8.6%. The twin-stage system demonstrated insignificant improvement in the flow transition zone. In the case of a developed system, the percentage contributions of losses by conduction, convection, and radiation are varying from 1.5–2.7%, 59–62%, and 36–37%, respectively.

KEYWORDS:

• Cavity receiver
• solar collector
• two-stage
• thermal efficiency
• multistage receiver

Acknowledgments

This research work is financially supported by the State Council for Science, Technology, and Environment, Shimla, H.P. (DST), Govt. INDIA, Grant No. SCST&E(R&D)/2017-2.6(1). The authors are thankful to Mr. Kartik Rana and Mr. Varinder Kumar for the supporting hands provided during testing and fabrication of the experimental facility.

Conflicts of Interest

It is hereby declared that there is no potential or actual conflict of interest comprising any personal, monetary, or dealings with other persons and/or establishments within the last 2 years of the initiation of the submitted work.

Nomenclature

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the State Council for Science, Technology, and Environment, Shimla [Grant No. SCST&E(R&D)/2017-2.6(1)].

Notes on contributors

Santosh B. Bopche

Dr. Santosh Bopche received his PhD from the one of the premier institutions, IIT Bombay, India in 2012, in the stream of Thermal and Fluids Engineering. He is serving National Institute of Technology Hamirpur since Dec. 2015, as Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Rohit Kumar

Rohit Kumar received his bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering from NIT Uttarakhand, India. He is Master research scholar at National Institute of Technology Hamirpur (H.P), India.

Inderjeet Singh

Inderjeet Singh received his master degree in Thermal Engineering from Punjab Technological University, India, in 2016. He is “Junior research fellow” working on the SCSTE, Shimla, sponsored project at National Institute of Technology Hamirpur (H.P), India.