Abstract
In order to analyze the performance comparison of dish solar collector with mirror arrays and receiver shapes, the radiative heat flux distribution inside the cavity receiver is numerically investigated. The solar irradiation reflected by dish solar collector is traced using the Monte-Carlo method. Five different dish solar collectors and three different cavity receivers are considered. A parabolic-shaped perfect mirror of which diameter is 1.5 m is considered as a reference dish solar collector and four different arrays of twelve identical parabolic-shaped mirror facets of which diameter are 0.4 m are used. Their reflecting areas, which are $1.5\;m^2$, are the same. Three different cavity receiver shapes are dome, conical, and cylindrical. In addition, the radiative properties of the concentrating surfaces can vary the thermal performance of the cavity receiver so that variation of the surface reflectivity of each mirror is considered. Based on the calculation, the design information of dish solar collector for producing the electric power can be obtained. The results show that the dome type has the best performance in receiver shapes and the 2AND4 INLINE has the best performance in mirror arrays except perfect mirror.
