Modelling of Solar parabolic trough collector considering Unsymmetrical Heat Flux

Concentrated solar power is one of the ways to convert solar energy into process heat or electricity. Now a day's different types of collectors are available but Parabolic Trough Collector (PTC) is used in the current study. The basic working principle for this type of collector is that it receives the parallel solar rays on the collector after reflection converges linearly on the absorber tube which is a circular pipe through which the fluid flows and thus solar energy is transferred to the fluid. The solar energy is thus utilized in heating the fluid flowing in the absorber tube. The solar radiation effect after the reflection from the collector has been modeled using the Monte Carlo Ray Tracing technique (MCRT). The heat flux is uniform in the longitudinal direction of the tube but it varies in the circumferential direction of any axial location. Most of the authors used constant heat flux on the collection tube. The current study aims to apply the unsymmetrical heating load over the absorber tube of PTC to perfectly simulate the actual condition.