Open Access

ARTICLE

Heat Transfer Enhancement of the Absorber Tube in a Parabolic Trough Solar Collector through the Insertion of Novel Cylindrical Turbulators

by Yasser Jebbar^1,2,*, Fadhil Fluiful², Wisam Khudhayer³

1 Department of Electrical Techniques, Al-Mussaib Technical Institute, Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University, Babil, Iraq
2 Department of Physics, Collage of Science, University of Kerbala, Karbala, Iraq
3 Department of Energy Engineering, Collage of Engineering/Al-Musayab, University of Babylon, Babil, Iraq

* Corresponding Author: Yasser Jebbar. Email:

Fluid Dynamics & Materials Processing 2024, 20(6), 1279-1297. https://doi.org/10.32604/fdmp.2024.050753

Received 16 February 2024; Accepted 30 April 2024; Issue published 27 June 2024

Abstract

This study includes an experimental and numerical analysis of the performances of a parabolic trough collector (PTC) with and without cylindrical turbulators. The PTC is designed with dimensions of 2.00 m in length and 1.00 m in width. The related reflector is made of lined sheets of aluminum, and the tubes are made of stainless steel used for the absorption of heat. They have an outer diameter of 0.051 m and a wall thickness of 0.002 m. Water, used as a heat transfer fluid (HTF), flows through the absorber tube at a mass flow rate of 0.7 kg/s. The dimensions of cylindrical turbulators are 0.04 m in length and 0.047 m in diameter. Simulations are performed using the ANSYS Fluent 2020 R2 software. The PTC performance is evaluated by comparing the experimental and numerical outcomes, namely, the outlet temperature, useful heat, and thermal efficiency for a modified tube (MT) (tube with novel cylindrical turbulators) and a plain tube (PT) (tube without novel cylindrical turbulators). According to the results, the experimental outlet temperatures recorded 63.2°C and 50.5°C for the MT and PT, respectively. The heat gain reaches 1137.5 W in the MT and 685.8 W in the PT. Compared to the PT collector, the PTC exhibited a (1.64 times) higher efficiency.

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Keywords

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