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Journal Reference
Applied Thermal Engineering, Volume 87, 2015, Pages 381-388.
Yinfeng Wang1, Yuezhao Zhu1, Haijun Chen1, Xin Zhang1, Li Yang2, Chuanhua Liao1
[expand title=”Show Affiliations”]- Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Process Enhancement and New Energy Equipment Technology, School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, China
- College of Environment, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, China
Abstract
A tracking compound parabolic concentrating (TCPC) solar collector with concentration ratio of 2.3, which combine the CPC heat pipe evacuated tubular receiver and crank rod transmission mechanism together, was developed and studied in this paper. A theoretical model was created to simulate the solar incident angles and the optical performance of the TCPC collector. In addition, thermal performances of the TCPC collector at different operation modes were investigated experimentally. The simulation results show that, the transversal projection angle (θt) is the vital factor that affects the optical performance. When θt is within the range of −23.5° and 23.5°, the incident angle modifier (IAM) of the TCPC collector reaches 0.95∼1.14. By means of tracking, the average optical efficiency is over 60%, while it is decreased to 30% under the fixed mode (FM). The output energy of the TCPC collectors during the test period can be highly increased, which is 1.9∼2.3 times higher than that at the FM. Furthermore, the intermittent tracking mode (ITM) is more power frugal and efficient as the average optical efficiency is 3.6% higher than that at the Continuous tracking mode (CTM). These verify that the ITM is the optimal operation mode for the TCPC collectors.
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