Experimental Analysis of Solar Dish Concentrators with Cylindrical, Oval, and Conical Cavity Receivers

Three experimental models including cylindrical, oval, and conical cavity receivers were analyzed and tested to estimate the optimum geometry for parabolic dish collector cavity receivers PDCcr. The main contribution of this paper is that new experimental models are suggested and examined to strengthen the capability of absorbers of solar thermal dish collectors to absorb solar energy. The models were examined for three values of mass flow rates and five values of inlet temperatures of the heat transfer fluid. The thermal performance was evaluated by estimating the thermal efficiency eta(th), exergetic performance eta(ex), and pressure difference. The results recorded the highest values eta(th) and eta(ex) for the conical cavity receivers, equal to (eta(th) =82.1%) and eta(ex) =23.76%), and the lowest values of the pressure drop.