Study on radiation flux of the receiver with a parabolic solar concentrator system

The solar receiver plays a key role in the performance of a solar dish electric generator. Its radiation flux distribution can directly affect the efficiency of the parabolic solar concentrator system. In this paper, radiation flux distribution of the receiver is simulated successfully using MCRT method. The impacts of incident solar irradiation, aspect ratio (the ratio of the receiver height to the receiver diameter), and system error on the radiation flux of the receiver are investigated. The parameters are studied in the following ranges: incident solar irradiation from 100 to 1100 W/m(2), receiver aspect ratio from 0.5 to 1.5, and the system error from 0 to 10 mrad. A non-dimensional parameter Theta is defined to represent the ratio of radiation flux to incident solar irradiation. The results show that the maximum of Theta is about 200 in simulation conditions. The aspect ratio and system error have a significant impact on the radiation flux. The optimal receiver aspect ratio is 1.5 at a constant incident solar irradiation, and the maximum of radiation flux increases with decreasing system error, however, the radiation flux distribution can benefit from a large system error. Meanwhile, effects of integral dish and multi-dishes on the radiation flux distribution have been investigated. The results show that the accuracy of two cases can be ignored within the same parameters. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.