Conjugate Heat Transfer for Circular Absorber in Parabolic Trough Concentrator

PTC형 집열기의 원관형 흡수기에서의 복합열전달

In the present study, the characteristics of conductive and convective heat transfer occurred in a circular absorber of PTC (parabolic trough concentrator) for medium temperature solar energy utility were numerically investigated. A circular tube was considered as an absorber and the shape of PTC modeled in this study was based on the system that was installed in Korea Institute of Energy Research. Not only convection inside the tube but also conduction through the wall of the tube were analyzed, simultaneously. Circumferentially non-uniform heat flux that was simulated from the non-uniform solar disc model proposed by Jose was applied as thermal boundary condition on the tube surface. And, hydrodynamically fully developed laminar velocity profile was used as the inlet boundary condition and it was assumed that the working fluid was water. And, local heat fluxes at the interface of the tube and the working fluid were calculated for different wall thickness and thermal conductivity of the tube at various Reynolds number. Based on the results, the effects of thermal conduction of the tube on the local heat transfer were investigated.