Renewable Energy 74 (2015) 139e147

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Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

A detailed nonuniform thermal model of a parabolic trough solar

receiver with two halves and two inactive ends
Ze-Dong Cheng, Ya-Ling He*, Yu Qiu
Key Laboratory of Thermo-Fluid Science and Engineering of MOE, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710049,
China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this paper a detailed one dimensional nonuniform thermal model of a parabolic trough solar collector/
Received 11 December 2013 receiver is presented. The entire receiver is divided into two linear halves and two inactive ends for the
Accepted 31 July 2014 nonuniform solar radiation, heat transfers and fluid dynamics. Different solar radiation and heat transfer
Available online
modes can be taken into consideration for these four different regions respectively. This enables the
study of different design parameters, material properties, operating conditions, fluid flow and heat
Keywords:
transfer performance for the corresponding regions or the whole receiver. Then the nonuniform model
Solar energy
and the corresponding uniform thermal model are validated with known performance of an existing
Parabolic trough solar collector
Nonuniform solar flux
parabolic trough solar collector/receiver. For applications, the uniform thermal model can be used to
Heat transfer analysis quickly compute the integral heat transfer performance of the whole PTC system while the nonuniform
Nonuniform thermal model thermal model can be used to analyze the local nonuniform solar radiation and heat transfer perfor-
mance characteristics and nonuniform heat transfer enhancements or optimizations. Later, it could also
be effectively used with an intelligent optimization, such as the genetic algorithm or the particle swarm
optimization, to quickly evaluate and optimize the characteristics and performance of PTCs under series
of nonuniform conditions in detail.
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The parabolic trough solar collector is currently one of the most
mature and field tested solar thermal technologies for large-scale
exploitations of solar energy [1e3]. It uses mirrored surfaces of a
linear parabolic reflector to focus solar radiation onto an evacuated
tubular receiver placed along the focal line of the parabola. The
receiver mainly includes an inner absorber tube surrounded by an
outer glass cover and supported brackets [1,2]. The concentrated
solar radiation reaching the absorber tube heats the heat transfer
fluid that flows through it, thus transforming the radiant energy
from the sun into useful thermal energy [2e7]. In the solar field,
parabolic trough solar collectors are always built in modules to
operate at up to temperatures of 400
C, and synthetic oil is
commonly used as the heat transfer fluid. The whole solar to
thermal conversion process is coupled with large concentrated
solar radiations, conjugated heat transfers and fluid dynamics,
including all modes of heat transfer and temperature-dependent
properties.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ86 (0)29 82665930; fax: þ86 (0)29 82665445.
E-mail addresses: yalinghe@mail.xjtu.edu.cn, hylepe@gmail.com (Y. Qiu).
Since the 1970s, numerous thermal models have been proposed
for the heat transfer analysis of this process, as it is very important
for quickly calculating thermal losses or collector efficiencies, sizing
the solar field, evaluating the effects of collector degradation and
heat transfer fluid flow rate control strategies on overall solar field
performance [8]. The most important ones are the study of Dudley
et al. [9], Forristall [10], Padilla et al. [11] and Kalogirou [12]. In the
1990s, Dudley et al. [9] developed a significant one dimensional
steady-state analytical model for an LS-2 SEGS parabolic trough
solar collector after many experiments were performed on the
AZTRAK rotating test platform at Sandia National Laboratories. The
results showed good agreements between the theoretical and
experimental collector efficiencies or thermal losses under the
known tested conditions. Based on this, Forristall [10] presented a
more detailed one-dimensional or two-dimensional heat transfer
model for short and long receivers implemented in the engineering
equation solver, to determine the parabolic trough solar collector/
receiver thermal performance with various geometric parameters,
fluid flows, material properties and operating conditions. In recent
years, Padilla et al. [11] proposed a one dimensional numerical heat
transfer analysis of a parabolic trough solar collector/receiver by
applying the mass and energy balance in several segments of the

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2014.07.060
0960-1481/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
140 Z.-D. Cheng et al. / Renewable Energy 74 (2015) 139e147

steel absorber and glass envelope, in which the thermal interaction distributions and temperature-dependent properties) and these
between neighboring surfaces for thermal radiation losses was special considerations made by other researchers (i.e., the
implemented by a comprehensive radiative analysis. Kalogirou [12] nonuniform performance improvements on one half of the
also developed a detailed thermal model of a parabolic trough solar absorber/cover) mentioned above. The entire receiver is divided
collector/receiver using the engineering equation solver. The ther- into two linear halves and two inactive ends, and different solar
mal analysis of the collector receiver takes into consideration all radiation and heat transfer modes can be taken into consideration
modes of heat transfer. Up to now, all these thermal models have for these four different regions respectively. The model is then
been thoroughly tested, experimentally validated and well applied validated with known performance of an existing parabolic trough
for general parabolic trough solar collector systems. Usually, most solar collector, and some further studies for nonuniform heat
of them assumed that the solar energy flux density, wall temper- transfer enhancements or optimizations based on the proposed
ature or physical properties were uniform for the whole circum- model are also discussed.
ferential direction at a cross-section of the receiver.
In fact, the solar flux on the collector absorber side opposite to
2. Nonuniform thermal model
the parabolic trough collector receives large amounts of concen-
trated solar radiation but there is the opposite for the other side of
A detailed schematic diagram of the parabolic trough evacuated
the absorber [13e22], and it is no concentrated solar radiations on
tubular receiver is presented in Fig. 1. It mainly includes an inner
the two inactive ends, i.e., the part includes bellows and glass-to-
stainless steel absorber tube with a solar-selective absorbing
metal joints at either end of the receiver. Because of this, the fluid
coating on its outer surface, an outer glass cover with anti-reflective
inside the tube is heated asymmetrically and thus the temperature
(AR) coatings on its both surfaces, an annular space, getters, bel-
distributions and temperature-dependent properties are nonuni-
lows and glass-to-metal joints (i.e., the inactive ends). The
form. Some significant studies have been published recently to
absorbing coating combines a high absorptance for solar radiation
investigate the nonuniform heat transfers and fluid dynamics in the
and a low thermal emittance to reduce thermal reradiation from
parabolic trough solar receivers by numerical models (three-
the outer absorber surface [10], while the AR coatings are used to
dimensional nonuniform computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
reduce Fresnel reflective losses at the glass surfaces [1,2]. The glass
models) [4,15,19e37], but it is revealed that the numerical methods
cover and the annular vacuum space are used to significantly
need great computation time. Especially, the time-consuming
reduce convection heat losses and protect the coating from
computational process is a critical question for an intelligent opti-
oxidation. The vacuum is initially maintained at about 0.0001 Torr
mization on the PTC performance. For example, it may take several
determined by the Knudsen gas conduction range [5,21], but it may
weeks or months to make a completed intelligent optimization
be degraded with time. The getters are placed in the annular vac-
based on these complex three-dimensional nonuniform CFD
uum space to absorb residual gases that permeate into the annulus
models with the genetic algorithm (GA) or the particle swarm
over time and indicate the status of vacuum, while the vacuum-
optimization (PSO). Alternatively, a new simplified and quick
tight enclosure is sealed by glass-to-metal joints at both ends
thermal model that can take into account these nonuniform con-
with bellows that accommodate for thermal expansion difference
ditions to some extent may also be another feasible method to
between steel and glass materials [1,27]. The space outside the
apply.
bellows at either end provides a place to attach the support
Furthermore, to develop an energy-efficient receiver for solar
brackets.
parabolic trough concentrators, various special considerations on
The nonuniform heat transfer model of the parabolic trough
either side of the receiver were proposed. Reddy et al. [38e43]
solar receiver is based on the energy balance between the incoming
proposed various porous inclusions inserted in one side of the in-
solar radiation (i.e., the solar energy input on the collector opening
ner absorber to enhance heat transfer in the receiver. Grena [44]
minus the optical losses), the heat transfer fluid (HTF), the absorber
presented a new receiver tube half-covered with an IR-reflecting
tube, the glass cover and the surroundings for both the two linear
layer in the non-irradiated half of the glass cover to reduce the
halves and the two inactive ends. Figs. 2 and 3 show the heat
thermal emission. As a preliminary study, this was evaluated by
transfer in a cross-section of the receiver and the thermal resistance
means of optical and thermal simulations with a simplified two
model used in the heat transfer analysis. The incoming solar radi-
halves model derived from that for a linear Fresnel solar collector
ations at the two linear halves of the receiver (as side 1 and side 2
[45], while the reliability and accuracy for the parabolic trough
shown in Fig. 2) and the two inactive ends are nonuniform. Side 2
solar collector need to be further validated and investigated. Al-
toward the reflector receives much higher solar flux than the side 1
Ansary and Zeitoun [46] numerically investigated the conduction
because of the radiation reflected by the parabolic mirror and the
and convection heat losses from a proposed receiver of a half-
two inactive ends receive no concentrated solar radiations at all.
insulated air-filled annulus with a heat-resistant thermal insu-
The incident solar radiation at the side 1 is directly absorbed by the
lation material. Cheng et al. [47] presented three-dimensional nu-
upper half absorber surface and the upper half glass cover which
merical studies on the turbulent flow and coupled heat transfer
enhancement in a novel unilateral multi-longitudinal vortexes
enhanced parabolic trough solar receiver, where longitudinal vor- Getters Annular space Glass cover with AR Evacuation nozzle
tex generators are only located on the side of the absorber tube
with the concentrated solar radiation. Considering the complex
modeling process and the numerical computing cost, mentioned
above, a quick analytical model also needs to be further developed Side 1
HTF
for these special cases.
Thus, a detailed one dimensional nonuniform thermal model is Side 2

proposed and used in this paper, to quickly and accurately estimate

the performance characteristics of the parabolic trough solar re-
ceivers for both the nonuniform conditions occurring in the para- Glass-to-metal joints Absorber Selective coating Bellows
bolic trough solar collector/receiver system (i.e., the nonuniform
solar flux and the corresponding nonuniform temperature Fig. 1. Schematic of the physical model of a PTC tubular receiver.
 Z.-D. Cheng et al. / Renewable Energy 74 (2015) 139e147
qa1, sol
Sky - s q go
gs, r
gi
Air - a qag, r
ao qg1, sol
qga, c
ai
qag, c
Side 1 f the two inactive ends are determined by considering that the en-
qaf, c Side 2
qg2, sol qa, cond
qab, end
qa2, sol qg, cond
Fig. 2. Heat transfer model in a cross-section of a parabolic trough solar receiver.
can be set as a uniform surface heat source (qa1,sol) and a uniform
volumetric heat source (qg1,sol) respectively in the thermal model
later, while the incoming concentrated solar energy reaching the
side 2 is absorbed as qa2,sol and qg2,sol. Most of the radiant energy
absorbed by either side of the absorber tube is conducted through
the steel absorber tube (qa,cond) and eventually transformed into
thermal energy of the HTF by convection (qaf,c).
The remaining energy is transferred back to the glass cover by
thermal radiation (qag,r) and convection (qag,c) and lost through the
support brackets by conduction (qab,end). The heat loss from the
absorber tube (qag ¼ qag,c þ qag,r) reaching the glass cover passes
through the glass wall by conduction (qg,cond) and along with the
radiant energy absorbed by either half of the glass cover (qgi at the
inner surface or qgo at the outer surface) is lost to the ambient air by
convection (qga,c) and to the sky by thermal radiation (qgs,r). The
convection heat transfer mechanism in the annular space depends
on the annulus pressure of the residual gases, which may either be
molecular conduction (free-molecular convection) or natural con-
vection [9,10]. The convection heat transfer between the glass cover
and the atmosphere is also either forced or natural, depending on
whether there is wind around the glass cover. Note that only the
solar energy absorbed by either side of the absorber tube and the
glass tube are indicated by subscripts 1 and 2, as only these terms
are calculated by different expressions for the two halves. The heat
exchange between the two halves is omitted and this simplification
is not expected to introduce severe inaccuracies for small solar
collectors usually used. This is because more accurate simulations
show that the heat conduction and thermal radiation between the
two halves are negligible or very limited, while almost all the
Fig. 3. Thermal resistance network in a cross-section of a parabolic trough solar receiver.
141
thermal exchange between the two halves is due to the HTF [45].
The inactive ends of the receiver are modeled by substituting the
glass cover with a thin-wall steel shell with corresponding prop-
erties and setting all the absorbed solar energy sources to zero [45],
while the heat transfer models are almost the same as the two
halves.
The energy balance equations for both the two linear halves and
ergy is conserved at each surface of the receiver cross-section, as
the surfaces named ai, ao, gi and go shown in Fig. 2. They can be
listed as follows:
qaf;c ¼ qa;cond (1)




qak;sol  qa;cond
¼ qag;c þ qag;r þ qab;end (2)
qag ¼ qag;c þ qag;r ¼ qg;cond þ s$qgk;sol ¼ qgi (3)
qgo ¼ qg;cond þ ð1 þ sÞ$qgk;sol ¼ qga;c þ qgs;r (4)
where the subscript k in qak,sol or qgk,sol is equal to 1 for the side 1 or
2 for the side 2 of the receiver shown in Fig. 2. The coefficient s is
used to calculate the part of the solar energy through the inner
surface of the glass cover (qgi) since the solar absorption in the glass
cover wall is a volumetric phenomenon. It can be derived from a
heat conduction differential equation in a thin-wall cylindrical shell
with an internal heat source, given as [45]:
!
R2gi 1
s¼     (5)
R2go  R2gi 2 ln Rgo Rgi
All terms in the energy balance equations can be classified into
the solar energy absorption of the solid tubes (i.e., the absorber and
glass tubes), useful heat gain or net thermal loss of the parabolic
trough solar collector/receiver (i.e., the useful heat gain of the HTF
under the on-sun condition, or the net thermal loss from the HTF
under the off-sun condition or at the inactive ends), the conduction
heat transfer in the solid tubes, the heat exchange in the annulus
and the thermal loss of the entire receiver. These heat transfer in-
teractions are analyzed in detail below. These depend on the
parabolic trough solar collector/receiver (PTC) optical parameters
(the PTC geometric parameters, the solar irradiation and the optical
loss), material properties, operating parameters (the temperature
and the mass flow of the HTF, and the annulus pressure of the re-
sidual gases) and ambient conditions (the external atmospheric
temperature, the sky temperature and the wind condition).
142 Z.-D. Cheng et al. / Renewable Energy 74 (2015) 139e147
2.1. Solar energy absorption by the solid tubes
The solar energy absorbed in the glass cover or at the absorber
tube is mainly determined by the solar irradiation, solar angle,
optical properties and imperfections of the trough mirrors and
receiver components [10,11]. For different solar angles during the
day or year, the factor named incident angle modifier (Kq) can be
used to account for all optical and geometric losses due to a
nonzero incident angle [12], while the imperfections in either the
reflector (or mirror) or the shape of the concentrator are accounted
by the intercept factor (gif) which is the ratio of the energy inter-
cepted by the receiver to the energy reflected by the focusing devise
[11]. Thus, the energy absorbed by the absorber tube and the glass
cover at side 1 without concentrated solar radiation is given by
[40e42]:
 
qg1;sol ¼ Dao Ig ag (6)
 
qa1;sol ¼ Dao Ig tg aa (7)
And the energy absorbed at side 2 toward the reflector with
concentrated solar radiation is given by:
 
qg2;sol ¼ gif rr Kq ½ða  Dao ÞIb ag (8)
 
qa2;sol ¼ gif rr Kq ½ða  Dao ÞIb tg aa (9)
where Ib and Ig are the beam radiation and the global radiation. rr,
ag and tg and aa are the reflectivity of the reflector, the absorptance
and the transmittance of the glass cover and the absorptance of the
absorber tube, respectively. All the optical properties are assumed
to be independent of temperature and along with the incident
angle modifier and the intercept factor are obtained from a com-
bination of sources in Refs. [9e12].
2.2. Useful heat gain or net thermal loss of the PTC
The useful heat gain or net thermal loss of the PTC is obtained or
caused by the convective heat transfer between the inner absorber
wall and the HTF, which can be calculated by the Newton's law of
cooling as follows:
 
qaf ;c ¼ Sg $pRai haf;c Tai  Tf (10)
where Sg is a sign to indicate the heat flux direction for the heat
transfer from higher temperature to lower temperature. It is
equal to 1 for HTF cooling (under the on-sun condition) or 1 for
HTF heating (under the off-sun condition or at the inactive ends)
in all subsequent equations, and the convection heat transfer
coefficient haf,c, based on the hydraulic diameter of Dh, is given
by:
. conductivity of the glass cover must be substituted with the ther-
haf;c ¼ Nuaf ;c kf Dh (11)
where Dh is usually equal to the inner diameter of the absorber tube
(Dai), but if there is a solid plug inserted in the tube center as used on
the AZTRAK rotating test platform at Sandia National Laboratories
(SNL), Dh is then calculated by Dai  Dplug [48]. The Nusselt number
Nuaf,c depends on the type of flow through the absorber tube which
is determined by the Reynolds number Ref (also based on the hy-
draulic diameter of Dh). For laminar flow with Ref  2300, the
Nusselt number is a constant equal to 4.36 under constant heat flux.
For full developed transitional and turbulent flow with Ref > 2300,
the correlation developed by Gnielinski [49e51] is used. Therefore:
8
> 4:36; Ref  2300;
>
>  
<
ðf =8Þ Ref  1000 Prf  0:11
Nuaf ;c ¼ Prf
>
>   ; Ref > 2300:
>
: 1 þ 12:7ðf =8Þ0:5 Pr 2=3  1 Prw
f
(12)
with the friction factor f calculated by the Filonenko equation [52]:
h   i2
f ¼ 1:82 ln Ref  1:64 (13)
The HTF is synthetic oil (e.g., Syltherm 800 and Therminol VP-1
usually used in the PTC system, both have temperature-dependent
properties), which along with other HTF types can be found in
Refs. [10,29,32,53]. Thus, here kf, Ref and Prf are evaluated according
to the mean HTF temperature while Prw is calculated according to
the inner absorber wall temperature. The correction term (Prf/
Prw)0.11 is used to adjust the fluid property variations between the
inner absorber wall temperature and the bulk fluid temperature.
2.3. Conduction heat transfer in the solid tubes
Conduction heat transfer through the steel absorber wall and
the glass cover wall are determined by the Fourier's law of con-
duction through a thin-wall cylindrical shell respectively, can be
given by [49,50]:
h  . i
qa;cond ¼ Sg $p ka Ta lnðDao =Dai Þ ðTao  Tai Þ (14)
h  .   i 
qg;cond ¼ p kg Tg ln Dgo Dgi Tgi  Tgo (15)
Under the on-sun condition, the temperature of the outer
absorber surface (Tao) is larger than that of the inner surface (Tai),
but it is reversed under the off-sun condition or at the inactive ends.
Thus Sg is also used to indicate the heat flux direction for the heat
transfer from higher temperature to lower temperature as
described above. The thermal conductivity in these terms depends
on the solid tube material type and the temperature. It changes
slightly for Pyrex glass during the temperature range of PTC [54],
thus the thermal conductivity of the glass cover kg ðTg Þ is assumed
as a constant of 1.04 W m1 K1. But the thermal conductivity of the
stainless steel absorber ka ðTa Þ changes approximately as a linear
function of the temperature. The correlations for different material
types (e.g., 304L, 316L, 321H, copper, etc) can be determined by
linearly fitting data from metal handbooks [12]. Here the correla-
tion from Ref. [45] for steel tubes is adopted:
 
ka Ta ¼ 14:106 þ 0:0138Ta ; with Ta ¼ ðTai þ Tao Þ=2 (16)
In the simulation of inactive ends, the value of the thermal
mal conductivity of the substitutive thin-wall steel shell, with the
same expression as ka ðTa Þ but based on the average temperature of
the steel shell [45].
2.4. Heat transfer in the annular space
In the annular space between the absorber tube and the glass
cover, heat transfer occurs by thermal radiation and convection
heat transfer. As was mentioned before, the convection heat
transfer mechanism in the annular space depends on the presence
of residual gases in this space or the annulus pressure of the re-
sidual gases. It may either be molecular conduction (or free-
 Z.-D. Cheng et al. / Renewable Energy 74 (2015) 139e147
molecular convection) at low pressures (0.013 Pa) or natural
convection at higher pressures (>0.013 Pa) [55]. The threshold level
of vacuum is about 0.0001 Torr (0.013 Pa) which is determined by
the Knudsen gas conduction range to make heat losses by con-
duction and convection through the residual gases insignificant. As
the vacuum may be degraded over time, the natural convection also
needs to be modeled to evaluate the PTC performance under these
conditions. The thermal radiation heat transfer occurs due to the
temperature difference between the outer absorber surface and the
inner glass cover surface and it is simplified by assuming that the
glass cover is opaque to infrared radiation with gray and diffuse
surfaces [10].
2.4.1. Radiation heat transfer
The thermal radiation heat transfer between the outer absorber
wall and the inner cover surface is estimated with the following
equation [12,50]:
h  4 i
qag;r ¼ pRao s3 ag ðTao þ 273:15Þ4  Tgi þ 273:15
with
" !#1
1 Dao 1  3 gi
3 ag ¼ þ
3 ao Dgi 3 gi
where 3 ao and 3 gi are the emissivity of the selective absorbing
coating and the inner glass surface respectively. The glass emis-
sivity has a constant value of 3 gi ¼ 0.90 [11,54], while the coating
emissivity is usually a nearly linear function of wall temperature
and coincides with the selective coating types (e.g., black chrome,
cermet) [10]. Taking Luz cermet used on the AZTRAK rotating test
platform at SNL as an example, it can be given by [10,12]:
3 ao ¼ 0:000327ðTao þ 273:15Þ  0:065971
It should be noted that several assumptions were made in the
above equations, i.e., opaque glass cover to infrared radiation,
long concentric isothermal cylinders with gray and diffuse sur-
faces and non-participating gas for thermal radiation in the
annulus. All units of the temperatures are in degrees Celsius to be
consistent with other equations. For the inactive ends, the value
of the thermal emissivity of the glass must be substituted with
the emissivity of the thin-wall steel shell as 0.0434 þ 0.1062 ln Tgi
[45].
2.4.2. Convection heat transfer
The convection heat transfer in the annulus can be calculated by
a unified formula with different effective convection heat transfer
coefficients (hag,c) for the molecular conduction (or free-molecular
convection) and the natural convection [9], as follows:
 
qag;c ¼ pRao hag;c Tao  Tgi
where the effective convection heat transfer coefficient can be
examined as presented below, based on the theory of conduction
heat transfer and kinetic theory [9].
When the annulus is under vacuum (pressure 0.013 Pa), the
intermolecular collisions seldom occur, thus the heat transfer is
free-molecular convection dominated. The effective heat transfer
coefficient for the annular space is given by [9e12,56,57]:
k Swinbank [59] as Ts ¼ 0.0553(Tgo þ 273.15)1.5  273.15 in the
hag;c ¼    gas    (21)
ðDao =2Þln Dgi Dao þ B0 lgas Dao Dgi þ 1
143
with
2  C0 9ggas  5
B0 ¼ $   (22)
C0 2 ggas þ 1
 
Tag þ 273:15
lgas ¼ 2:331  1020 (23)
Pgas d2gas
where kgas, ggas, Pgas, dgas, lgas and C0 are the thermal conductivity of
the annulus gas at standard temperature and pressure
(W m1 K1), the ratio of specific heats of the annulus gas, the
annulus gas pressure (mmHg), the molecular diameter of annulus
gas (cm), the mean-free-path between collisions of a molecule (cm)
and the accommodation coefficient respectively, which can be
referred to vacuum in annulus condition in Ref. [12] and evaluated
at the average temperature Tag ¼ ðTao þ Tgi Þ=2.
When the vacuum is lost over time with ambient air (pressure
(17) >0.013 Pa), the heat transfer is natural convection dominated. The
effective heat transfer coefficient can be substituted by [10,58]:
 0:25
2:425kag Raag;Dao Prag
hag;c ¼ Fag  0:25 (24)
2pRao 0:861 þ Prag
(18)
with
h   0:6 i1:25
Fag ¼ 1 þ Dao Dgi (25)
where kag, Prag and Raag;Dao are the thermal conductivity of annulus
gas, the Prandtl number and the Rayleigh number for gas properties
evaluated at Tag ¼ ðTao þ Tgi Þ=2, respectively.
(19) 2.5. Thermal loss of the entire receiver
The thermal losses and the thermal efficiency are the most
important performance characteristics of the PTC system. The
thermal efficiency of the PTC system is defined as the ratio of the
heat transferred to the HTF to the solar radiation absorbed by the
absorber tube calculated previously. The thermal loss of the entire
parabolic trough solar receiver mainly includes the thermal radia-
tion heat loss to the sky, the convection heat loss to the atmosphere
and the conduction heat loss to support brackets, which are
examined separately below.
2.5.1. Thermal radiation heat loss to the sky
Compared to the large sky, the whole glass cover can be
assumed to be a small convex gray object in a large blackbody. Since
it is common practice to model the sky as a blackbody and to use an
effective sky temperature (Ts) to compensate for the difference
(20)
[10,12], especially for non-clear conditions. Thus the net radiation
transfer, caused by the temperature difference between the outer
glass cover surface and the sky, can be given by [48e50]:
h 4 i
qgs;r ¼ pRgo s3 go Tgo þ 273:15  ðTs þ 273:15Þ4 (26)
where 3 go is the emissivity of the outer glass cover surface with a
constant value of 0.90 [11,54]. Ts depends on the meteorological
conditions and it can be approximated by a simple relation from
absence of meteorological data [11]. For inactive ends, the value of
144 Z.-D. Cheng et al. / Renewable Energy 74 (2015) 139e147
the thermal emissivity of the glass must be substituted with the
emissivity of the thin-wall steel shell as 0.0434 þ 0.1062 ln Tgo [45].
2.5.2. Convection heat loss to the atmosphere
The convection heat transfer from the glass cover to the atmo-
sphere may be either natural or forced, depending on whether
there is wind around the glass cover. Both can be determined from
Newton's law of cooling [10,12]:
 
qga;c ¼ pRgo hga;c Tgo  Tair
 temperature-dependent properties, the mass flow rate, the energy
hga;c ¼ Nuga;Dgo kair Dgo
where the convection heat transfer coefficient hga,c or the Nusselt
number Nuga;Dgo also depends on whether the convection heat
transfer is natural (no wind) or forced (with wind). For heat con-
vection with no wind, the correlation developed by Churchill and
Chi [11,60] is recommended for the long horizontal cylinder (glass
cover) under natural convection, as follows [11,12]:
8 92
< 1=6
0:387Raga;Dgo = Refs. [9] and [10]. The Sandia test was performed for both on-sun
Nuga;c ¼ 0:60 þ h   i
9=16 8=27 ;
:
1 þ 0:559 Prga
where Prga and RagaDgo are the Prandtl number and Rayleigh
number for the ambient air evaluated at Tga ¼ ðTgo þ Tair Þ=2,
respectively.
For heat convection with wind, the Nusselt number is estimated
with Zhukauskas' correlation for a horizontal cylinder (glass cover)
in cross flow [11,12,60]:
n0   0:25
Nuga;c ¼ Cmn Rem 0
air;D
Prair Prair Prgo
go
where Reair;Dgo and Prair are evaluated according to the air tem-
perature while Prgo is calculated according to the outer glass wall
temperature. The constants Cmn, m0 and n0 suggested for this
equation are given by [10,48,60].
2.5.3. Conduction heat loss to support brackets
The solar receiver is placed at the collector focal line by support
brackets that run from the collector structure to the absorber tube.
There is a support bracket at each end of every receiver element,
consisting of two rectangular connection tabs and two square
metallic tubes [10,11]. The two connection tabs form the smallest
cross-section area near the base of the support bracket where
conduction heat transfer occurs from the absorber tube, and the
square tubes are the parts of the support brackets that are exposed
to convection heat transfer to the environment. To calculate the
bracket losses, the support bracket is treated as an infinite fin with
base temperature (Tbase ¼ Tgo  10) at the absorber end where the
bracket is attached [10,11]. The bracket heat loss for each half of the
solar receiver is estimated with the following equation [48].
 0:5
qab;end ¼ hba;c Pb kb Ab;cs ðTbase  Tair Þ=ð2Lr Þ
where Lr is the length of the solar receiver, Pb is the perimeter
around the two square tubes that run from the absorber attach-
ment bracket to the collector structure, Ab,cs is the cross-sectional
area of the two connection tabs connecting the tubes to the
absorber bracket. kb is the conduction coefficient for the support
bracket with a constant equal to 48.0 W m1 K1 (plain carbon steel
at 600 K). hba,c is the average convection coefficient of the bracket
and assumed as uniform over the length of the fin. It depends on
the wind speed and can be calculated by the same expressions for
no wind and wind cases mentioned above [10].
3. Model validation and discussion
To solve the energy balance of the receiver, the expressions
(5)e(31) for the corresponding conditions are substituted in
equations (1)e(4), forming a nonlinear systems with the interme-
diate temperatures (i.e., Tai, Tao, Tgi and Tgo) as unknown. The
nonlinear algebraic equations were written in Fortran 6.5 and
(27)
solved iteratively within a few seconds if the HTF temperature and
(28)
absorbed at the absorber surface and in the glass cover on both
sides are specified under given operating conditions. From the
temperatures obtained, the fluid flow and heat transfer perfor-
mance characteristics can be calculated accordingly.
In order to validate the proposed nonuniform thermal model, it
was compared with known experimental performance data of the
LS-2 collector tested at the AZTRAK rotating platform at the SNL [9],
with the same collector geometrical configuration, operating con-
ditions, material and optical properties summarized in Table 1 or in
(29) and off-sun condition and different scenarios for the annulus
(vacuum and air), using Syltherm 800 as HTF. A 2-inch diameter
solid plug used as the flow restriction device was centered inside
the absorber tube, due to limitations in the experimental set up. In
addition, to corroborate the assumption that heat exchanges be-
tween the two halves are negligible or very limited, the nonuniform
thermal model are also compared with a corresponding uniform
thermal model of uniform solar energy around the whole PTC
cross-section. The uniform thermal model is performed by setting
the values of heat sources at the absorber surface and in the glass
(30) cover as the averages of that in the two halves of the nonuniform
thermal model.
Fig. 4 shows a comparison of the known experimental efficiency
and heat loss with the values determined from the nonuniform or
uniform thermal model developed, when vacuum exists in the
annulus. Similar results for air in the annulus are presented in Fig. 5.
From these figures, it can be seen that the agreement between the
experimental results and those obtained by the nonuniform or
uniform thermal model is very acceptable for all cases. The model is
validated for the whole operating temperature range of PTC sys-
tems and as seen the deviation increases slightly with increasing
operating temperature. One of the possible reasons is the depen-
dence of the optical properties on the temperature which was
ignored [12]. Another is from the assumption that there is no
thermal interaction between the neighboring surfaces, which
eventually underestimates the radiation losses at high absorber
temperatures slightly. A comprehensive radiative analysis with the
temperature-dependent optical properties can be further imple-
mented for radiation heat transfer in the annulus and from the glass
cover to the sky or surroundings [11].
In addition, the difference between the collector efficiency and
heat loss calculated by the nonuniform and uniform thermal model
(31) Table 1
Main parameters, conditions and optical properties of the parabolic trough solar
collector [9e12].
PTC parameters and conditions Optical
properties
a 5m da 0.003 m rr 0.930
L 7.8 m Dgi 0.110 m tg 0.950
fr 1.84 m Dgo 0.115 m ag 0.023
Dai 0.064 m dg 0.0025 m 3g 0.900
Dao 0.070 m HTF Syltherm 800 aa 0.960
 Z.-D. Cheng et al. / Renewable Energy 74 (2015) 139e147 145

80 results agree well with the experimental data, proving that the
nonuniform or uniform thermal model used in the present study is
75 feasible and reliable. For applications, the uniform thermal model
can be used to quickly compute the integral heat transfer perfor-
mance of the whole PTC system while the nonuniform thermal
70
model can be used to analyze the local nonuniform solar radiation
and heat transfer performance characteristics and nonuniform heat
Efficiency / %

65 transfer enhancements. This enables the study of different design

parameters, material properties, operating conditions, fluid flow
60 and heat transfer performance for the two nonuniform regions or
Air condition (Dudley et al.) the whole receiver.
55 Experimental data (Dudley et al.) As compared to the time-consuming three-dimensional CFD
Uniform thermal model PTC models, this quick nonuniform thermal model provides a
50 Nonuniform thermal model research idea/strategy/tool or certain reference significance for
Vacuum conditon (Dudley et al.) evaluating the characteristics or determining the limitations of
45 nonuniform conditions in PTCs. It could also be effectively used
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 with an intelligent optimization (e.g., GA or PSO) to evaluate and
Average Temperature Above Ambient /K optimize the characteristics and performance of PTCs under series
of nonuniform conditions in detail within a few hours compared to
Fig. 4. Comparison of collector efficiency calculated from the proposed model with the complex modeling process of the intelligent optimization with
experimental data of cermet coating under on-sun case [9]. three-dimensional nonuniform computational fluid dynamics
models which need great computations time of several weeks or
is very small under on-sun condition whereas there is almost no months. Before that, a comprehensive radiative analysis with the
difference under off-sun condition. It corroborates the assumption temperature-dependent optical properties for radiation heat
that heat exchanges between the two halves can be ignored for transfer in the annulus and from the glass cover to the sky or sur-
small solar collectors available under the conditions studied [45]. rounding, and the validation for other conditions or corresponding
Other conditions or corresponding correlations could be further correlations need to be studied further.
studied later. For applications, the uniform thermal model can be
used to quickly compute the integral heat transfer performance of Acknowledgments
the whole PTC system while the nonuniform thermal model can be
used to analyze the nonuniform solar radiation and heat transfer The study is supported by the National Natural Science Foun-
performance characteristics and nonuniform heat transfer en- dation of China (No. 51306149), the China Postdoctoral Science
hancements, considering different design parameters, material Foundation (No. 2014M550489), and the Research Project of Chi-
properties, operating conditions, fluid flow and heat transfer per- nese Ministry of Education (Nos. 20120201130006, 113055A).
formance for the corresponding regions or the whole receiver.
Nomenclature
4. Conclusions
A area (m2)
This study presented a detailed one dimensional nonuniform or a aperture width (m)
uniform thermal model of a parabolic trough solar collector system. D diameter (m)
This work was carried out by dividing the entire receiver into two Dh hydraulic diameter (m)
linear halves and two inactive ends with different solar radiation Dplug diameter of the solid plug (m)
and heat transfer modes. The model is then validated with known dg outer diameter of glass cover (m)
performance of an existing PTC. It is revealed that the numerical f friction factor
fr focal length (m)
180 h convective heat transfer coefficient (W m2 K1)
Lr receiver length (m)
160 Air condition (Dudley et al.)
Experimental data (Dudley et al.) Nu Nusselt number
140 Uniform thermal model k thermal conductivity (W m1 K1)
Nonuniform thermal model Kq incident angle modifier
-2

120
Thermal Loss / Wm

Vacuum conditon (Dudley et al.) Ib the beam radiation (W m2)

100 Ig the global radiation (W m2)
Pr Prandtl number
80 R radius (m)
Ra Rayleigh number
60 Re Reynolds number of HTF
40 q heat flux per unit length (W m1)
qv volume flow rate (L min1)
20 T temperature (
C)
Vw wind speed (m s1)
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
Greek symbols
Average Temperature Above Ambient /K
a absorptivity of the absorber
Fig. 5. Comparison of thermal losses calculated from the proposed model with ag absorptivity of the glass cover
experimental data of cermet coating under off-sun case [9]. d thickness (m)
146 Z.-D. Cheng et al. / Renewable Energy 74 (2015) 139e147

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