Thermal performance and stress analyses of the cavity receiver tube in the parabolic trough solar collector

A light ray tracing model and a heat transfer model were built to analyse the heat flux distribution and heat transfer in a 1m cavity receiver tube with Parabolic Trough Collectors as the concentrator. The numerical methods were used to simulate the thermal stress and deformation of the receiver tube. The temperature fields of the receiver tube and the thermal stress distribution in the steel tube at the cross section and along the fluid flowing direction were presented. It is obtained from this study that non-uniform heat flux distribution is absorbed at the receiver tube outer surface due to the structure of the cavity receiver tube. Temperature fields in the steel receiver tube at the inlet and the outlet match well with the incident solar radiation. An eccentric circle temperature gradient is observed at cross section of the outlet fluid. The equivalent stress is a complex result of solar heating flux, energy transfer inside the PTC and the fluid and steel characteristics. Highest deformation is 3.1mm at 0.82m. On increasing the fluid mass flow rate, higher fluid mass flow rate results in higher equivalent stress along the absorber tube.