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Experimental Investigation of Parabolic Trough-Type Solar Collector Integrated with Storage Tank Under the Northern Indian Climatic Conditions

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Advances in Air Conditioning and Refrigeration

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering ((LNME))

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Abstract

Currently, the trough-type solar collector incorporated with storage unit is receiving significant attention because of their capacity to retain excess heat during non-availability of insolation. Thus, the objective of present study is to investigate the trough collector thermal performance which is built-in with storage container experimentally. The study is performed for south-facing and tracking modes of working in the end of November month. The performance is estimated in terms of collector thermal efficiency, gain in useful heat, storage tank water temperature rise, system overall and charging efficiency by fabricating and testing the simple structure of parabolic trough collector (PTC) system. Results show that PTC is capable to heat the water stored in the storage tank during both modes of working. The highest collector thermal efficiency is obtained as 54.4 and 53.04% during south-facing and tracking modes, respectively. The maximum system charging efficiency is found to be 87.98% in south-facing and 89.8% in tracking modes.

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Abbreviations

A a :

aperture area (m2)

C pf :

working fluid specific heat (J/kg K)

C p,st :

stored fluid specific heat (J/kg K)

D ai :

receiver internal diameter (m)

D ao :

receiver external diameter (m)

D ci :

glass cover internal diameter (m)

D co :

glass cover external diameter (m)

E co :

collected energy (J)

E st :

stored energy (J)

\(F\) :

focal length (m)

H:

inner storage tank height (m)

\(I\) :

solar beam irradiance (W/m2)

\(L\) :

length of the collector (m)

Lsr:

length of supporting rod (m)

\(\dot{m}\) :

working fluid mass flow rate (kg/s)

m :

stored fluid mass in storage container (kg)

Q u :

gain in useful heat (W)

S a :

arc length of parabola (m)

T fi :

temperature of fluid at inlet (°C)

T fo :

fluid exit temperature (°C)

ΔT:

receiver inlet and exit temperature difference (°C)

T st :

storage tank fluid temperature (°C)

w I :

solar beam irradiance error (%)

w m :

mass flow rate error (%)

w ΔT :

temperature rise in the receiver error (%)

w η :

collector thermal efficiency error (%)

W a :

aperture width (m)

x :

half of aperture width (m)

X :

thermocouple height from bottom of inside storage tank (m)

y :

parabola depth from focal axis (m)

k :

at any instant time

k + 1:

one hour period after kth time

i:

inner

o:

outer

Ï•r:

chosen rim angle in (°) as 90°

ηI:

instant thermal efficiency

η ch :

charging efficiency

η ov :

overall efficiency

Фbr:

ball bearing diameter (m)

Фic:

inside diameter of collar (m)

Фoc:

outside diameter of collar (m)

Фsr:

supporting rod diameter (m)

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. AEE(M), ONGC, Ahmedabad, India

    Devander Kumar

  2. National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, 136119, Haryana, India

    Sudhir Kumar

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  1. Devander Kumar
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  2. Sudhir Kumar
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Correspondence to Devander Kumar .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Mechanical Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, India

    Maddali Ramgopal

  2. Mechanical Engineering Department, C. V. Raman College of Engineering, Bhubaneswar, India

    Sachindra Kumar Rout

  3. School of Mechanical Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar, India

    Sunil Kr Sarangi

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Kumar, D., Kumar, S. (2021). Experimental Investigation of Parabolic Trough-Type Solar Collector Integrated with Storage Tank Under the Northern Indian Climatic Conditions. In: Ramgopal, M., Rout, S.K., Sarangi, S.K. (eds) Advances in Air Conditioning and Refrigeration. Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6360-7_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6360-7_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-15-6359-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-15-6360-7

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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