Performance Characteristics of ParabolicTrough Solar Collector System forHot Water Generation
Abstract
A parabolic trough solar collector of aperture area one square meter was designed and developedfor hot water generation. The collector’s performance was tested according to ASHRAE Standard 93,1986. The test slope and intercept of the collector efficiency equation were found to be 0.3865 and0.6905 respectively. The collector efficiency equation obtained in the present work compares wellwith the other reported literature. The collector’s time constant obtained from the test was 67 seconds.The collector’s half acceptance angle determined from the test was 0.5o, which in combination withthe tracking system maximum error (0.18o) implies that the collector works continuously at maximumpossible efficiency.
Keywords
parabolic trough collector, collector test, collector thermal efficiency, collector time constant, acceptance angle, solar hot water generation.