Design, simulation and optimization of a compound parabolic collector

• The thermal and the optical design of a compound parabolic collector are presented.
• The geometry of the reflector is optimized in order to give maximum intercept factor.
• Pressurized water and thermal oil are compared thermally as working fluids.
• Pressurized water performs better because of its thermal properties.
• Solidworks flow simulation is the tool for optical and thermal analysis.

In this study, the optical and the thermal performance of a compound parabolic collector (CPC) with evacuated tube are presented. In the first part, the optimization of the reflector geometry is given and in the next part the thermal analysis of the solar collector is presented. The design of the reflector has a great impact on the solar energy exploitation and for this reason is analyzed in detail. In the thermal analysis of the collector, the two most usual thermal fluids, the pressurized water and typical thermal oil, are compared. Pressurized water performs better and it is the most suitable working fluid for transferring the heat because of its properties; something that is analyzed in this study. Moreover, the optical efficiency of the collector for various solar angles (longitude and transverse) is investigated and the heat flux distribution over the absorber is given. In the last part, the temperature distribution over the absorber and inside the fluid are presented and a simple validation of the thermal model is also presented. The model is designed in commercial software Solidworks and simulated in its flow simulation studio.