Numerical simulation of mixed convection outside the parabolic trough solar receiver

In this paper, the effect factors of the mixed convection outside a parabolic trough solar receiver are summarized. Based on the configuration of the collector of the Shiraz 250 kW parabolic trough solar thermal electric generation system, several different and typical collectors are designed by adopting the optimal aperture ratio. And the effects of these collector configurations and positional parameters on the mixed convection outside the receiver are numerically simulated. The results show that the mixed convection heat loss outside the parabolic trough solar receiver increases with the increase of the distance from the collector to the ground but the increasing trend gradually decreases, decreases with the increase of the gap between the two parts of the collector. The heat loss is influenced by the pressure and velocity field of wind flow formed by these different collector configurations and operation angles, and exhibits a certain variation trend with the constructure parameters. From this work, a further study on the complicated coupled heat transfer of the receiver tube can be carried out.