Thermal performance analysis of a novel linear cavity receiver for parabolic trough solar collectors

The trough solar thermal power generation system is one of the most mature solar thermal power generation systems. A novel major arc-shaped linear cavity receiver with a lunate channel based on the black cavity effect principle for parabolic trough solar collectors is proposed in this work. The effects of the inclination angle, collecting temperature, surface emissivity and aperture width on the heat loss are thoroughly analyzed with a two-dimensional numerical model coupling natural convection with surface radiation. In addition, the thermal performance of the proposed linear cavity receiver is compared with that of the Solel's UVAC series evacuated collector tube. The results show that: (1) The natural convection heat loss is significantly affected by the inclination angle, while the radiation heat loss is mainly affected by the surface emissivity and the collecting temperature. (2) The aperture width of the receiver has a great impact on the thermal performance. The larger the aperture width is, the greater the heat losses. However, the aperture width can also affect the optical performance and the manufacturing cost. The reasonable aperture width for this kind of linear cavity receiver is about 50-70 mm with consideration of all these factors. (3) The proposed linear cavity receiver demonstrates comparative or even better thermal performance as traditional evacuated collector tubes, especially in high temperature range. In general, the proposed linear cavity receiver has the comparative shape and size as the traditional evacuated collector tubes. More importantly, it has the advantages of raising the collecting temperature and reducing the production and maintenance costs. Therefore, it can be used to replace the evacuated collector tube which has poor performance due to long-term operation.