Thermo-mathematical modeling of parabolic trough collector

• A comprehensive thermo-mathematical modeling for PTSC was developed.
• Solar, optical and thermal characteristics of PTSC were modeled.
• Developed thermal model was compared with the experimental results of SNL.
• Yielded better consistency compared with the other model studies.
• Characteristic curves of a PTSC were examined under different operating conditions.

A comprehensive thermo-mathematical analysis for parabolic trough solar collector (PTSC) was completely performed in this study. Based on actual system parameters, solar, optical and thermal models were developed by using differential and non-linear algebraic correlations. Obtained solutions for the differential equations were integrated into Engineering Equation Solver (EES) and solved simultaneously with the all model equations. The developed model was compared to the experimental data of Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) and yielded satisfactory results showing a pretty good consistency with respect to the other model studies. Finally, the current model was applied to an existing PTSC module to analyze the performance characteristics under different operating conditions.