Influence of non-ideal optical factors in actual engineering on the safety and stability of a parabolic trough collector

The influence of non-ideal optical factors in actual engineering on the thermal performance of the parabolic trough system was investigated. The flux distribution on the outer wall of the absorber tube distorted by non-ideal factors was calculated using the ray-tracing method and was set as the boundary condition of the model of the tubular receiver based on the finite volume method. The numerical results were compared with experimental data of the LS2 parabolic trough collector test platform and a good agreement was observed, proving that the model and method of this work is reliable. More details of the results show that the temperature field and the characteristics of the fluid dynamics under non-ideal flux distribution conditions are different from those under ideal conditions. It was revealed that the maximum circumferential temperature difference on the outer surface of the absorber under the worst flux distribution was 2 times that under ideal flux distribution, which could cause serious thermal strain and affect the photo-thermal conversion process. 0.7° is recommended as the limit value of tracking errors to ensure the thermal efficiency of the receiver at a high level.

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