Nov 12, 2007 the spring causes the solar collector to swings smoothly back to face the sun and the cycle starts again. Large scale concentrators today use automated tracking systems that can track the sun on a biaxial path powell, 89. Each sca is an independently tracking parabolic trough solar collector made up of parabolic reflectors mirrors, the metal support structure, the receiver tubes, and the tracking. The sunlight which enters the mirror parallel to its plane of symmetry is focused along the focal line, where objects are positioned that are intended to be heated. Parabolic trough solar collector an overview sciencedirect topics. The aim of the research project is to test the solar tothermal energy efficiency of a tracking linefocus parabolic trough solar collector ptsc. Solar tracking for a parabolic dish used in a solar thermal brayton cycle w.
Ls3 aperture 125 m long galvanized steel design optimized factory assembly process qc testing of structure alignment during assembly process. Mit, bulandshahr vgi, greater noida vgi, greater noida. The fluid path has no moving parts, only the reflectors move to track the sun. Selection and evaluation of different tracking modes performance for parabolic trough solar collector. Csiro has built a solar thermal parabolic trough collector field which will produce 80kw th at wm2 beam irradiation at temperatures up to 280oc. The dish structure must fully track the sun to reflect the beam into the thermal receiver. Without tracking the collector becomes almost useless except for a very short time period once a day. Monoaxial tracking system for parabolic trough collector to cite this article. It points out the types of situations where parabolictrough solar water heating is most likely to be cost effective and describes the espc process available to federal facilities for parabolictrough projects. Federal technology parabolictrough solar alert water heating. A parabolic dish reflector pdr, shown schematically in figure 3. About a dozen or more of scm make each sca up to 200 metres 656 ft 2 in length. The tracking system i remember uses a parabolic trough to focus the sun on a heatpipe located at its focus. This is determined by measuring the temperature rise of water as it flows through.
And the tracking of the sun is done by rotating swinging the box around the receiver tube which is fixed with respect to the ground. The fourthmajor csp technology uses a 2 axis tracking parabolic dish to continuously focus sunlight onto the receiver of a stirling engine. Thanks to this unique crosstechnology expertise, soltigua can deliver to its clients. Large scale concentrators today use automated tracking systems that can. Thus, one can argue the more effective use of natural gas is in a combined cycle plant, not as backup to a csp plant. Design and development of an educational solar tracking parabolic. In todays climate of growing energy needs and increasing environmental concerns, alternative of nonrenewable and fossil fuels have to be investigated. A scm could have a length up to 15 metres 49 ft 3 in or more.
But, georges plans for the tracking parabolic collector are an exception. In addition, sidebars provide indicators that a system. The temperature of the fluid in the pipe increases as it flows down the pipe, along the solar collectors. The solar option and solar collector solar energy is a very large, inexhaustible of energy, the power from the sun intercepted. Heliostats are tracking mirrors that reflect solar energy onto a fixed target. The collector field consists of many large singleaxistracking ptc collectors, installed in parallel rows aligned on a northsouth horizontal axis and tracking the. Automatic solar tracking system for parabolic trough collector duration. Us9249990b2 multiple parabolic trough solar collector. Parabolictrough concentrator the accuracy of the solar tracking depends to a great extent on the solar coordinates at a particular. This page concentrates on providing links, information and plans for build it yourself concentrating collectors and heliostats. The term solar collector commonly refers to a device for solar hot water heating, but may refer to large power generating installations such as solar parabolic troughs and solar towers or non water heating devices such as solar air heaters solar thermal collectors are either nonconcentrating or concentrating. A parabolic trough solar collector uses a mirror in the shape of a parabolic cylinder to reflect and concentrate sun radiations towards a receiver tube located at the focus line of the parabolic cylinder. Pdf innovative tracking system for parabolic dish solar collector.
In the present work an automatic sun tracking system for parabolic trough collector is designed fabricated and experimental. Abengoa solar parabolic trough collector technology. How to build a tracking parabolic solar heater george plhak. The solar field is modular in nature and comprises many parallel rows of singleaxis tracking parabolic trough solar collectors, usually aligned on a northsouth horizontal axis. A parabolic trough is made of a number of solar collector modules scm fixed together to move as one solar collector assembly sca.
A parabolic trough is a type of solar thermal collector that is straight in one dimension and curved as a parabola in the other two, lined with a polished metal mirror. Meyer department of mechanical and aeronautical engineering, university of pretoria abstract solar thermal brayton cycles utilise concentrated sun rays and can be used to power microturbine generators. Solar tracking is also necessary for efficient use of concentrating collectors. Heliostat field collector hfc point 1001500 1502000 twoaxes parabolic dish reflector pdr point 100 100500 tracking cylindrical trough collector ctc tubular 1050 60300. They are basically unusually shaped mirrors parabolic in shape that focus the heat of the sun on a pipe carrying a special fluid.
Types of solar collectorstypes of solar collectors note. A solar bowl is a type of solar thermal collector that operates similarly to a parabolic dish, but instead of using a tracking parabolic mirror with a fixed receiver, it has a fixed spherical mirror with a tracking receiver. Performance evaluation of parabolic trough solar collector. Performance evaluation of flat plate collector watt the useful heat output of a flatplate solar collector is given by 18. In a solar cooker, for example, food is placed at the focal line. Concentration ratio is defined as the aperture area divided by the receiverabsorber area of the collector. Manual making of a parabolic solar collector gang xiao laboratoire j. An alternative mode of tracking was adopted which is a hydraulic control system. Numerical modelling of a parabolic trough solar collector. However, comparison analysis on the operation performance of the parabolic trough solar collectors in di erent regions was still relatively. Gas turbinesolar parabolic trough hybrid designs preprint. Selection and evaluation of different tracking modes. An inclined single axis tracking parabolic trough collector was designed to generate hot water or steam at a pressure close to ambient. Design, construction, and test of a miniature parabolic.
Energy equations for the computation of parabolictrough collector efficiency using. N produced in trough helioman 332 dualaxis parabolic tracking solar collectors. Concentrating solar collectors use shaped mirrors or lens to provide higher temperatures that flat plate collectors. Dependent on geographical location, 6 to 8 solar collector assemblies are required for each mw of electricity to be generated, and each collector assembly requires an individual tracking, control. Each sca is an independently tracking parabolic trough solar collector made up of parabolic reflectors mirrors, the metal support structure, the receiver tubes, and the tracking system that includes the drive, sensors, and controls. The parabolic trough collector uses a monoaxial tracking system, while the parabolic dish collector and the one with central receiver use for orientation biaxial tracking systems. Solar collector is a mechanical device which captures the radiant solar energy and converts it to useful thermal energy 4. In 2010, i wrote how to build a tracking parabolic solar collector describing my self designed and built working prototype and test results. Solar collector in the shape of a parabolic mirror reflects the incident solar energy on the longitudinal axis of the solar collector. Pdf this paper presents the performance study on single axis solar parabolic trough collector ptc with solar tracking for varied flow rate of. Jun 08, 2016 last year be mechanical project on automatic solar tracking system with glass as reflector for parabolic trough collector. The outlet temperature of the fluid from the collector 20. Tracking the sun in both azimuth and elevation, these collectors keep the suns rays normal to the collector surface.
The use of solar energy for heat production dates from antiquity. When this is done, the cofocal point then becomes a cofocal line. Smart the collector starts tracking the sun in the east and automatically follows the sun all day. Solar tracking for a parabolic dish used in a solar thermal. Parabolic trough collectors are the low cost implementation of concentrated solar power technology that focuses incident sun light on to a tube filled with a heat transfer fluid. Pisticci used in the dualaxis tracking parabolic trough solar collector for the saturated steam production at 280c in a chemical plant gang et al.
Solar energy collection is most efficient at the equator, where gross thermal powersolar power is approximately 1,000 wm2 of direct solar radiation. Data for twoaxis trackers represent the maximum solar radiation at a site available to a collector. Pdf an overview on parabolic trough solar collectors. A typical array of solar collectors is seen opposite. Soltigua is the only company offering solar tracking technologies for both pv trackers, and concentrated solar thermal collectors such as parabolic troughs and linear fresnel. If i remember the story, and it has been some years, the inventors of this system tried photo cells to regulate the tracking of the mirror but found that the mirror hunted. The parabolic trough solar collector consists of a stainless steel parabolic reflector, a flat solar receiver, a thermal storage tank and a closed loop tracking system. As all you thermodynamic adepts will know, you can get more energy out of a heat engine with a greater delta t, even though you have only the same input of energy. Pdf design, fabrication and experimental testing of solar. Plan book 90 pages in color with 205 photos and illustrations shows how i made my tracking parabolic solar collector in detail, complete method and sources of materials with many alternatives, performance testing together with full size patterns for the rib, hanger and motor drive base. Tracking is particularly important in solar energy collection systems that operate under concentrated sunlight. Modeling and experimental investigation of parabolic trough solar. Research article performance simulation comparison for. This reduces efficiency, but makes it cheaper to build and operate.
Pdf the efficient conversion of the direct solar radiation into heat by using concentrating solar collectors involves a biaxial tracking system. Automatic solar tracking system for parabolic trough collector. Parabolic trough is also considered one of the most mature and most commercially proven technologies in the utility scale csp facilities mendelsohn et al. Integrated solar combined cycle iscc systems avoid this pitfall by injecting solar steam into the fossil power cycle. The basic component of the solar field is the solar collector assembly sca.
The aim of the research project is to test the solartothermal energy efficiency of a tracking linefocus parabolic trough solar collector ptsc. Parabolictrough solar concentrating systems are parabolicshaped collectors made of reflecting materials. A solar tracking system having particular utility for insuring that a relatively lightweight solar collector is properly positioned with respect to the sun. A more sophisticated parabolic collector trough can be designed, that avoids the need to track the sun altogether, by combining two parabolas together, to form the compound parabolic trough solar collector. The tracking and orientation of parabolic trough is very important for efficient performance of collector. Improvements in efficiency of solar parabolic trough. Pdf design, fabrication and experimental testing of. Pdf performance enhancement of solar parabolic trough. Heliostat field collector hfc point 1001500 1502000 twoaxes parabolic dish reflector pdr point 100 100500 tracking. Energy equations for computation of parabolictrough. Design and development of selfsustainable solar energy. A parabolic reflector surface is included to provide a line of focus of the sunlight directed toward a cylindrical energy absorption tube.
I tried to show what a determined person can do with ordinary tools and materials, a good hardware store and a bit of perseverance a high performance do it. Normally i am pretty skeptical of plans and guides for solar projects offered for sale over the internet. Design, fabrication and experimental testing of solar parabolic trough collectors with automated tracking mechanism. Solar tracking for a parabolic dish used in a solar. Solar radiation data manual for flatplate and concentrating. The collectors reflect the incident solar radiation onto its focal line toward a receiver that absorbs the concentrated solar energy to raise the temperature of the fluid inside it as shown in fig. Parabolic solar collector collects the radiant energy emitted from the sun and focuses it at a point.
Performance evaluation of dualaxis tracking system of parabolic. A parabolic trough solar collector uses a mirror in the shape of a parabolic cylinder to reflect. Each solar collector has a linear parabolicshaped reflector that focuses the suns direct beam radiation onto a linear receiver absorber tube located at the. A solar thermal collector collects heat by absorbing sunlight. Because of its singleaxis tracking, all the solar radiations fall parallel to its. Each sca is an independently tracking parabolic trough. This page concentrates on providing links, information and plans for build it. Ragheb 2011 the interest in the parabolic trough technology did not rise again until 1977, when the us department of energy as well as the german federal ministry of research and technology began to fund the.
Design and development of an educational solar tracking. Oneaxis tracking flatplate collector with axis oriented northsouth 4 twoaxis tracking flatplate collectors. Simplified methodology for designing parabolic trough. Xiao gang 08 a closed parabolic trough solar collector is studied in which a hermetic box with a transparent cover and the parabolic reflector forming the back parabolic trough concentrated solar collector. Solar energy, parabolic trough collector, automatic tracking mechanism, sun tracking. Parabolic trough collector application in egypt built in 19 source. For this purpose, tracking mechanisms similar to the ones described in the previous. Performance of cylindrical parabolic collector with. The collector does not use conventional azimuth tracking in order to keep the suns rays directed toward the parabolas focus as the sun moves across the sky. A trough collector for solar energy, with multiple parallel troughs preferably being contained within a single unit. The current study represents the modification of parabolic trough solar collector, with the using of solar tracking tilt sensor with the continuous water circulation rate of 0. Parabolic trough power plants use parabolic trough collectors to concentrate the direct. Pdf innovative tracking system for parabolic dish solar.