1-023 (O) The Joint International Conference on “Sustainable Energy and Environment (SEE)”

1-3 December 2004, Hua Hin, Thailand

The Effective Length of Solar Parabolic Concentrating Collector

Manoon Pidhuwan1, Sombat Teekasap2 and Joseph Khedari1

1
Energy Technology Department, School of Energy and Materials, King’s Mongkut University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok,
Thailand
2
Engineering Faculty, Southeast Asia University, Nongkham, Bangkok, Thailand.

Abstract: This paper presents the effective length of solar parabolic concentrating collector. The system is fabricated with local
materials; using the stainless steel sheet of regular size (1.2 x 2.4 m) as parabolic reflector and carbon steel pipe as absorber. The
collector is fixed at low latitude of Bangkok, 13.4 °N and 100.3 °E. Result of the test showed that even through the system is simple
with low investment cost, both of performance and efficiency was satisfy. From experiments, the temperature of heating media
(thermal oil) was quite steady after media flow proceeds at about 3/4 of total length and so forth at on flow rates. This parameter is
helpful for optimizing others similar system.

Keywords: Parabolic, Effective Length, Solar, Concentrating, PCC.

1. INTRODUCTION x2 = 2 R y (1)
f = R/2 (2)
In the past decades, researchers and engineers tried to find
the best solution for utilizing solar energy, which has a lot of
parameters to be considered such as collector geometry,

R/2
latitude, solar time, solar collecting types and etc. This paper R cc (0,R)
presents geometry of parabolic concentrating collector; PCC
α
with focus on the effective length. The local materials are used
f (0,R/2)
for fabricate the PCC system. Consequently, the experimental
has shown an optimal length of PCC. The system consists of
mainly 3 parts: - y
Firstly, absorber and collector, the parabolic concentrating a/2 x
collector materials used was a regular size of stainless steel
304 sheet of 1200 x 2400 mm and 3 mm of thickness.
Fabricating under the basis of parabolic equation for reflecting Fig. 1 The schematic of parabolic.
direct solar ray to the absorber with a radius of 573 mm and
width of 992 mm. The sheet is width of 1200 mm, it is a curve of R, and
The absorber materials was seam less carbon steel pipe, focus point ‘f’ is a half of R, therefore, α is:
with the inside diameter of 40 mm, and the outside diameter of
48 mm and 2920 mm in length.
R cos α = R / 2 (3)
Secondly, heating collection system, shell and tube heat
cos α = (R/2)(1/R)
exchanger is selected for this experiment with thermal oil as a
working fluid in carrying heat from absorber and relief the α = 60°
heat to water.
Finally, driving and measurement unit, the thermal oil is Thus, a curve length is 1200 mm with α 60°, it can
driven by gear pump. The thermocouple type ‘K’ is installed 5 reconsider to find R in length as:
positions along the absorber for measuring thermal oil
temperature and 2 positions to measure the inlet and outlet b2π = 2 π R (4)
temperature of water. R = [b (1800)] / [2 π α]
The experimental has done at the low latitude of Bangkok
as 13.44 °N and longitude 100.34 °E, and collector is placed Then finding the concentration ratio ‘C’, using a ratio
on East-West. between collecting area; Aa and absorbing area; Ar:

2. DESIGN C = Aa / Ar (5)

The collector is designed with simple parabolic equation
and merged of solar radiation method in order to optimization
the fabrication with local material.
Parabolic Collector
According to the size limitation of stainless steel sheet,
width 1.2 m and long 2.4 m, and rim angle is 180°, that makes
the focus line is in placed the cord line.
The simple parabolic equation can apply to solve above
condition, where x is an axial to place a curve, y is a center
line of focal, R is a radius of parabolic curve, and f is a focal
line, which shown in Fig. 1
Consideration the simple parabolic equation [4]:
Aa, the solar collecting area is calculated by the project area
of collector, and Ar will consider in topic of absorber.
a / 2 = R sin α (6)
a = 2 R sin α
Where ‘a’ is only the width of collector, which is
reconsider to the width of absorber, the shading of radiation:
Absorber
The absorber is designed according to the limitation of the
collector, which considering parameters and common practice,
such as, piping, working fluid velocity, fabrication and also
heat loss. Thereby, the absorber is fabricated by the seamless

67
1-023 (O) The Joint International Conference on “Sustainable Energy and Environment (SEE)”
1-3 December 2004, Hua Hin, Thailand

carbon steel pipe, with the inside diameter of 40 mm, outside

diameter 48 mm and 2920 mm in length to provide the solar 970 230
time between 10:30 and 14:00 hour. 120ฐ

D/2 16' 14.5

(φ r-16') 260 286.45

R 573 286.45
(φ r+16')
φr 600

340 992
y
x
a/2 1200

Fig. 4 The schematic of collector.

Fig. 2 The width of focus line.
3. EXPERIMENTAL
The width of absorber, ‘D’, is defined by:
The collector is fixed, placed on East-West location,
therefore any testing will done on instantaneous technique, the
D = 2 rr sin 0.267 (7)
data was be kept into the data logger, and testing under the
conditions are following:
Furthermore, the collector is fixed; therefore, the altitude
- Clear sky
angle will be affected to the image of all the times. It moves
- Wind speed of 3 to 5 m/s
for 10° per day. Since the pipe is very long, so that two strips
- Ambient temperature 26 to 32 °C
of carbon steel is attached to the tube for increasing the
- Humidity ratio 55 to 70 %
strength of absorber. Strip has the width of 25 mm of each.
- Latitude 13.44 °N and Longitude 100.34 °E
Thus, overall width of absorber ‘w’ is 98 mm [(25x2) + 48]
- Time 10:30 to 14:00 hour
Furthermore, it is necessary to adjust a declination angle
‘δ’ for everyday and also keep duct cleaning before test.
w

D'
rr

Fig. 3 The absorber pipe.

D’ develop = rr sin θ (8)

Fig. 5 The location of collector.
Thus the concentration ratio is modified to:
Testing time is separated for 2 periods; first course is done
C = [(a–w) L] / [w L] (9) on November to December 2000, and another done on
February 2001. The measuring temperature was done at 5
Where ‘L’ is a both of length, collector and absorber pipe. positions on the absorber pipe for thermal oil, and 2 positions
The refection coefficient of collector is approximated range for inlet and outlet water temperature in the heat exchanger.
of 0.8 to 0.85 [9] by polished technique. And the absorber pipe
is coated with black colour and insulated with foiled fiberglass T1 T2 T3 T4 T5
on upper part.
Copper tube pipeline and globe valve is selected for flow Outlet
rate adjustment.
Inlet
260 600 600 600 600 260

Fig. 6 The position of temperature measurement.

68
1-023 (O) The Joint International Conference on “Sustainable Energy and Environment (SEE)”
1-3 December 2004, Hua Hin, Thailand

Thermal oil is controlled by globe valve, which is divided

of 5 flow rates, 0.295, 0.345, 0.415, 0.515 and 0.685 kg/min. 80
The solar energy will be prepared with a data from 70
‘Meteorological department’ in order to reference. The dry 60

block instrument type calibrates the thermocouple K type for 50

40
measuring temperature. P i pe s ur f ace

30 T her mal oi l
y = 20. 285Ln(x ) +32. 093
20 Log

4. RESULTS 10
R 2 = 0. 9822

0
Consideration of 5 thermal oil flow rates 0.295, 0.345, 1 2 3 4 5
0.415, 0.515 and 0.685 kg/min. The maximum solar energy on
to the collector was 880 W/m2, and it creates energy of 338.72
W.
The result is divided for 2 parts; heating performance and
LMTD in term of dimension concern, which briefs the heating Fig. 9 The characteristic curve of LMTD of thermal oil flow
performance shortly following: rate 0.345 kg/min.

80
2000 100 70
60
50
1500
40
P i pe sur f ac e
E n e r g y f r o m c o lle c t o r 30
T her mal oi l
E n e r g y o n c o lle c lt o r y = 1 7. 33Ln(x ) +32. 057
20
Energy (W)

1000 E f f ic ie n c y 50 Log
R 2 = 0. 9849
Efficiency(%)

P o ly 10
0
500 1 2 3 4 5

y = -0 .0 0 5 6 x 3 + 0 .1 2 4 8 x 2 + 8 .4 7 7 5 x + 1 6 6 .5 2
R 2 = 0 .9 8 3 3

0 0
1 0 :3 0 1 1 :0 0 1 1 :3 0 1 2 :0 0 1 2 :3 0 13:00 1 3 :3 0 1 4 :0 0
T im e

Fig. 10 The characteristic curve of LMTD of thermal oil flow

Fig. 7 The relation of efficiency and energy of thermal oil rate 0.415 kg/min.
flow rate at 0.415 kg/min.

The maximum and average efficiency of system is 25.2 % 80

and 21.9 %, respectively. The flow rate given maximum 70
efficiency is 0.415 kg/min, while maximum temperature in 60
working fluid is 75.8 °C by flow rate 0.295 kg/min. 50
40
The absorber pipe is a major heat loss, concerning to the
30
Re, and the environmental, wind has a minor affection heat y = 1 1 . 745Ln(x ) +32. 41 9
P i pe sur f ac e

20
loss. R 2 = 0. 9494
T her mal oi l

10 Log
Reconsideration to the major heat loss, not only the Re, the 0
pipe wing is similar a heat sink instead the heat storage, cause 1 2 3 4 5

the diameter of absorber pipe is bigger than calculation from

theoretical.
The next interesting, is the relation of log mean
temperature difference; LMTD, that is called effective length.
Most of experiments, the curves of LMTD are similar, even Fig. 11 The characteristic curve of LMTD of thermal oil flow
though the thermal oil velocity is changed from low to high, rate 0.515 kg/min.
the characteristic curves are still the same.
80
70
80
60
70
60 50
50 40
40 30 P i pe sur f ac e
P i pe sur f ac e
30 T her mal oi l 20
y = 8. 1 635Ln(x) +32. 623
T her mal oi l
y = 20. 576Ln(x) +35. 973 R 2 = 0. 8729
20 Log
R 2 = 0. 8566 Log 10
10
0 0
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5

Fig. 8 The characteristic curve of LMTD of thermal oil flow Fig. 12 The characteristic curve of LMTD of thermal oil flow
rate 0.295 kg/min. rate 0.685 kg/min.

69
1-023 (O) The Joint International Conference on “Sustainable Energy and Environment (SEE)”
1-3 December 2004, Hua Hin, Thailand

The maximum and minimum LMTD in term of average is

33.85 °C and 23.54 °C, respectively. However, in case of
calculating at 4th position, LMTD is decreased during 3–4 %,
while the cost of collector and absorber is cut off 25 %.

5. CONCLUSION
The collector and absorber can be reduced for 1/4 of
overall length with temperature can be reduced at average of
3.253 %. However, this experimental is only tested on one
curve of low concentration ratio, which is changed to another
curves, if the concentration ratio will be higher, the LMTD
probably changed. The availability will be reconsider to find
an optimization again. Whatsoever, the trend should be as
same as the low concentration ratio.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to express our gratitude to Assoc.
Prof. Dr. Thanakom SOONTORNCHAINACKSAENG, for
his ideas during the study. Also for Somchai Karnchang Co.,
Ltd., for it generosity was providing technician and facilities
for the test unit fabrication.

REFERENCES
[1] Collares-Pereira, M. (1991) High Concentration Two-
Stage Optics for Parabolic Trough Solar Collectors with
Tubular Absorber and Large Rim Angle, Solar Energy, 47,
pp. 457-66.
[2] Thomas, A. and Satish A. (1994) Design Data for The
Computation of Thermal Loss in The Receiver of A
Parabolic Trough Concentrator, Energy Converse, 35, pp.
555-68.
[3] Ge, X. (1996) Solar Collection Assembly of Solar Industry
Heating and Generating Systems with Low Cost and High
Efficiency, Dept. of Thermal Science and Energy
Engineering. Institute of Applied Solar Energy.
[4] Duffie, J. A. and Beckman, W. A. (1990) Solar Energy
Thermal Process. Wiley, New York.
[5] Rabl, A. (1976) Comparison of Solar Concentrators, Solar
Energy, pp. 18, 93.
[6] Wieder, S. (1982) An Introduction to Solar Energy for
Scientists and Engineers. Fairleigh Dickinson University,
John Wiley & Sons.
[7] Meinel Aden B. and Meinel, Marjorie P. (1979) Applied
Solar Energy an Introduction. Optical Sciences Center,
University of Arizona, Addision-Wesley Publishing
Company.
[8] Holman, J.P. (1992) Heat Transfer. 7th ed. McGraw-Hill.
[9] Agnihotri, O.P. and Gupta, B.K. (1981) Solar selective
Surfaces. John Wiley & Sons.

70