Performance of compound parabolic concentrator solar air flat plate collector using phase change material

This work involves an experimental investigation on two different new models of Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) solar air flat plate collector with adding paraffin wax Phase Change Material (PCM). The first model is called involute shape model, whereas the second model is called normal shape model. To explore the best model performance, the structures of compound parabolic concentrator models have two symmetric giant parabolic mirror reflectors, similar concentration ratio of 1.7, similar flat plate receiver with 12 tubes filled by paraffin wax phase change material. The performances of both models are presented together for purpose of comparison. The tests have been performed in April and May 2023 in Mosul city/Iraq under standard conditions for around 11 h during the day. The outcomes indicated that rising in air mass flowrate leads to rise the receiver performance. The findings confirm that the thermal efficiency of normal shape is more efficient than involute shape by 7.6%, 13%, and 11.7% for 0.0085 kg/s, 0.0174 kg/s, and 0.027 kg/s, respectively. The optimum thermal performances for involute and normal shapes have been obtained equal 65.4% and 77.1% for 0.027 kg/ s, respectively. For constant air flowrate, the performance of normal shape is higher than involute shape by 15.5% (14th May), 12.6% (27th April) and 11.8% (15th April). A significant temperature change has been found in involute shape as compared to normal shape. The outlet temperature of normal shape is always lower than the involute shape for all air mass flowrate. It is demonstrated that phase change material and the position of the receiver have considerable influence on the model performance. The current work provides an important in-formation for evaluating the compound parabolic concentrator model performance for Mosul/city.