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Comparative Study on Heat Flux and Temperature Distribution Performance of Linear Fresnel Collector Based on Uniformity Index

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Abstract

Linear Fresnel collector system as main solar energy collecting technology is widely studied. The secondary reflector has significant influence on the heat flux distribution on the linear Fresnel collector. In this work, the heat flux and temperature distribution on linear Fresnel collector is compared with different secondary reflectors of simple trapezoidal concentrator, segmented parabolic concentrator and compound parabolic concentrator under varied incident ray angle. The uniformity index is applied to evaluate the Linear Fresnel reflector system heat flux distribution performance. The results show that the value of uniformity index increases with the increasing of incident ray angle. The compound parabolic concentrator has the highest value of uniformity index compared with simple trapezoidal concentrator and segmented parabolic concentrator in this work. The highest value of uniformity index is 0.8137 with compound parabolic concentrator. This work provides effective and practical guide to design and evaluate the secondary reflector in linear Fresnel reflector system.

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Abbreviations

D :

width of the mirror/m

f :

focal length/m

H :

height of receiver from axial plane of mirrors/m

Q n :

distance of n-th mirror axis from central plane of the collector/m

r t :

absorber tube radius/m

r g :

glass envelope radius/m

S n :

distance between the adjacent mirror axes/m

W :

the width of the opening of the secondary concentrator/m

CPC:

Compound Parabolic Concentrator

DNI:

Direct Normal Irradiance/W·m−2

LFC:

Linear Fresnel reflector

SPC:

Segmented Parabolic Concentrator

TC:

Trapezoidal Concentrator

α :

sunlight incident angle/(°)

α n :

mirror elements normal direction elevation angle/(°)

α S :

elevating angle/(°)

β n :

the nth mirror and the horizontal plane angle/(°)

γ n :

mirror elements normal direction azimuth

γ S :

Azimuth/(°)

θ a :

acceptance angle/(°)

n :

number of the primary reflector

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Acknowledgment

This research has been financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (51906003), Hebei province key research and development program (19214303D) and Inner Mongolia Science and Technology Major Project (2021SZD0036).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MOE Key Laboratory of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation, Beijing Key Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Energy Conversion, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China

    Yuting Wu, Li Qian, Cancan Zhang, Songtao Han, Hexin Sun & Junnan Niu

  2. Jizhong Energy Jingxing Mining Group Co. Ltd., Shijiazhuang, 050000, China

    Yingkun Cheng

  3. Hebeijingkuang New Energy Technology Co. Ltd., Shijiazhuang, 050100, China

    Shengjie Sang

Authors
  1. Yuting Wu
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  2. Li Qian
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  3. Cancan Zhang
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  4. Songtao Han
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  5. Hexin Sun
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  6. Junnan Niu
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  7. Yingkun Cheng
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  8. Shengjie Sang
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Correspondence to Cancan Zhang.

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Wu, Y., Qian, L., Zhang, C. et al. Comparative Study on Heat Flux and Temperature Distribution Performance of Linear Fresnel Collector Based on Uniformity Index. J. Therm. Sci. 31, 678–688 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-022-1613-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-022-1613-x

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