Parabolic Trough Collector and Central Receiver Coupled with Fresnel Lens: Experimental Tests

Renewable energies have a high impact on power energy production and reduction of environmental pollution worldwide, so high efforts have been made to improve renewable technologies and research about them. This paper presents the thermal performance results obtained by simulation and experimental tests of a parabolic trough collector with central receiver coupled to Fresnel lens, under different configurations on the pipe. The simulation method was computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis in Solid Works® soft-ware tool, which works with Naiver-Stokes equations to converge on a solution. Experimental tests were formed with all configurations proposed and three observations for each one, a total of 12 observations were performed in all research. As a result, the best thermal performance in simulation was achieved with the Fresnel lens and black pipe collector, with a maximum temperature of 116 °C under 1 000 W/m2 radiation, the same system achieved in experimental tests a maximum temperature of 96 °C with a radiation of 983 W/m2.