Comparative performance assessment of different absorber tube geometries for parabolic trough solar collector using nanofluid

Parabolic trough collector is the most mature and widely deployed concentrated solar power technology with temperature ranging from 325 to 700 K. In this study, three different absorber tube geometries (smooth absorber tube, absorber tube with twisted tape insert and tube with longitudinal fins) of commercially available LS-2 collector are modeled and investigated using engineering equation solver. The objective of this study is to present a numerical comparative analysis of the available thermal enhancement techniques. Comprehensive energetic and exergetic performance of different tube geometry configurations using Al2O3/water as a heat transfer fluid has been compared to assess the nature of exergy destruction due to the fluid’s pressure, due to the heat transfer between sun and the receiver wall and due to the temperature difference between receiver wall and heat transfer fluid temperature. Furthermore, pure base fluid (water) along with the nanofluid is used to evaluate the system’s performance (thermal efficiency, exergetic efficiency, heat transfer coefficient, receiver temperature, pressure drop, pumping work demand and friction factor). Smooth absorber tube with pure base fluid is the reference case, while five cases (smooth tube with nanofluid, tube with pure water and fins inserted, tube with nanofluid and fins inserted, tube with pure water and twisted tape inserted, tube with nanofluid and twisted tape inserted) are investigated. Thermal efficiency of absorber tube with twisted tape insert and nanofluid is almost 72.26%, followed by tube with internal fins (72.10%), while smooth absorber tube has nearly 71.09%. Heat transfer coefficient of twisted tape inserted tube with nanofluid and longitudinal fins tube with nanofluid is greater than smooth absorber tube to almost 118.23% and 103.26%, respectively. The emphasis is also given to the pressure drop of the examined cases as it depends up on the friction factor of the absorber tubes. The use of nanofluid and twisted tape inserts leads to higher thermal enhancement, followed by the nanofluid and internal fins inserted tube. The nanoparticle concentration is also varied to investigate its effect on different performance parameters of the system.