SET2009 - 8th International Conference on Sustainable Energy Technologies, .Aachen, Germany.
August 31st to 3rd September 2009
Page 1 of 6
Numerical simulation of a linear Fresnel solar collector
concentrator
Jorge Facão, Armando C. Oliveira
Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto (New Energy Tec. Unit)
Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
ABSTRACT: A trapezoidal cavity receiver for a linear Fresnel solar collector is
analysed and optimized via ray-trace and CFD simulations. The number of receiver
absorber tubes and the inclination of lateral walls in the cavity are checked with
simplified ray-trace simulation. The CFD simulation makes possible to optimize
cavity depth and rock wool insulation thickness. The simulated global heat transfer
coefficient, based on primary mirror area, is correlated with a power-law fit instead
of a parabolic fit. The correlation results are compared with heat transfer
coefficients available for linear Fresnel collector prototypes.
Keywords: concentrating solar collector, linear Fresnel, ray-trace, CFD, simulation.
NOMENCLATURE
cp
D
f
r
T
Ta
tinsulation
Ttubes
U
specific heat, J/(kgK)
receiver depth, mm
focal length, m
radius of curvature, m
temperature, K
ambient air temperature, ºC
insulation thickness, mm
absorber tubes temperature, ºC
global heat transfer coefficient,
W/(m2K)
Greek symbols
α
external heat transfer convection
coefficient, W/m2K
λ
thermal conductivity, W/(mK)
φ
angle between optical axis and line
from reflector focus, deg
μ
viscosity, kg/(ms)
θ
sun incidence angle relative to
aperture normal, deg
ψ
tracking angle, deg
1. INTRODUCTION
When looking at reducing CO2
emissions, the greatest task in creating
viable solar energy conversion systems is
that of reducing system cost. The solution to
this problem does not necessarily lie on
creating the most efficient system, but more
on the development of a system that has the
lowest lifetime cost per unit of electricity
converted from solar energy. A linear
Fresnel solar collector concentrator may
have a lower efficiency than other
concentrating geometries, but the likely
reduced cost may well compensate that,
providing a solution for cost-effective solar
energy collection on a large scale [1]. The
linear Fresnel collector concept uses a
number of rows of relatively small one-axis
tracking mirrors that concentrate the
radiation on a linear receiver.
The advantages of linear concentrating
Fresnel collectors include relatively simple
construction, low wind loads, a stationary
receiver and high ground usage [2].
In this paper, the optical and thermal
performance of a new trapezoidal cavity for
a small linear Fresnel receiver are analysed,
using
simplified
ray-tracing
and
computational fluid dynamics. Natural
convection inside the cavity, thermal
SET2009 - 8th International Conference on Sustainable Energy Technologies. Aachen, Germany
31st August to 3rd September 2009
Page 2 of 6
The maximum temperature achieved in
the receiver tubes was fixed through the
operating temperature of an organic Rankine
cycle (power cycle) driven by the linear
Fresnel collectors, designed to operate at
230ºC
radiation between surfaces and conduction
through the walls are simulated, and the
overall heat loss coefficient is evaluated.
The system uses 10 rows of 4 reflector
mirrors with a north-south tracking axis –
see figure 1. The primary mirrors are
cylindrical with different small curvatures.
The mirror width is 0.4 m, the length is 3 m,
and mirror spacing is 0.15 m. The total
mirror area is approximately 48 m2. The
linear receiver is composed of 6 pipes with
an inside diameter of ½ inches, placed 2.5 m
above the mirrors, as shown in figure 1,
inside an insulated trapezoidal cavity.
2. RAY-TRACE SIMULATION
Ray-trace was used for optical efficiency
simulations of the concentrating collector.
The process consists in following the paths
of a large number of rays of incident
radiation throughout the system. For
reflecting surfaces, the direction and point
of intersection of an incident ray with the
reflecting surface are determined. The
normal to the surface in each point is also
determined, and the reflected ray follows the
principle that the angle of reflection equals
the angle of incidence. The input data for
the simulations are solar geometry and
normal beam radiation intensity. Exhaustive
ray-trace simulation enables to study the
sensitivity of delivered energy to height and
width of the receiver, collector tracking
orientation,
climate,
and
design
modifications. We concentrated our
attention in design optimization and
behaviour of the receiver cavity, which
means that a simplified ray-trace analysis
was carried out.
The tracking angle ψi of the ith reflector
was calculated according to Rabl [3]:
ψi =
θi
ψi
Figure 1: Schematic representation of the
collector system (view from above and EastWest plane view).
(φi − θ )
2
(1)
where φi is the angle between optical axis
and the line from focus to reflector, θ is the
incident angle of the sun relative to the
aperture normal.
It is known that the parabolic
concentrator is the unique reflector shape
that focuses beam radiation into a single
point. However, the manufacture of a
parabolic reflector is too expensive. In this
system, we adopted cylindrical mirrors with
different curvature. The mirror radius of
SET2009 - 8th International Conference on Sustainable Energy Technologies. Aachen, Germany
31st August to 3rd September 2009
Page 3 of 6
curvature ri depends on the focal length f of
the mirror, and the tracking angle:
ri =
2f
cos(ψ )
(2)
calculate the other two parameters, radiation
proprieties of the reflectors, absorbers and
cover are needed. A three-dimensional
exhaustive ray-trace analysis must also be
carried out, which is out of the scope of this
work.
For radius of curvature calculation
(equation 2), we adopted the tracking angle
for perpendicular incident radiation (θ = 0),
and for focal length the distance from mirror
centre to absorber centre.
Table I presents the calculated radius of
curvature for the mirrors (numbered from
centre to extremity).
Table I: Radius of curvature for the
different mirrors.
___________________________________
φ (º)
ψ (º)
f (m)
r (m)
mirror
__________________________________________
1
6.28
3.14
2.52
5.04
2
18.26
9.13
2.63
5.33
3
28.81
14.41
2.85
5.89
4
37.60
18.80
3.16
6.67
5
44.71
22.36
3.52
7.61
__________________________________________
Figure 2 presents ray-trace simulation
results for an incidence angle of 30º. The
inclination of the lateral absorber walls’
cavity was fixed at 50º, which is about the
complementary angle of φ5. The radiation is
more or less evenly distributed in the
absorber tubes. Some rays are intersected by
the absorber shade and by adjacent mirror
shade before reaching the mirrors. The
geometry of the cavity, with 6 tubes and an
inclination of 50º, optically fulfils the
requirements of the Fresnel collector.
3. HEAT LOSS COEFFICIENT
The efficiency parameters usually used in
solar collector analyses are: the optical
efficiency, the incidence angle modifier and
the heat loss coefficient. To calculate the
heat losses from the absorber tubes, CFD
simulations were carried out, taking into
account all heat transfer mechanisms:
radiation, convection and conduction. To
Figure 2: Ray-trace simulation for an
incidence angle of 30º; cross section and
zoomed absorber area.
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
has been greatly developed over recent
years, mostly due to the rapid advance of
computer technology. It is now possible to
solve scientific problems in complex
geometries. Natural convection inside the
cavity, thermal radiation between surfaces
and conduction through the walls was
simulated in this work using Fluent software
[4].
Several simplifying assumptions were
used:
• steady state;
• laminar flow;
• equal temperature of all receiver pipes;
• symmetry across the vertical mid-plane;
SET2009 - 8th International Conference on Sustainable Energy Technologies. Aachen, Germany
31st August to 3rd September 2009
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•
•
•
•
the cavity cover has negligible thermal
mass; it was modelled as having a
uniform
temperature,
considering
radiation (emissivity) on both sides and
a fixed external convection coefficient;
the cavity cover is opaque to long-wave
radiation;
the effect of cavity window heating, due
to absorptance of the glass, was
neglected;
the pipe temperatures were fixed and
resulting heat losses calculated.
Figure 3: Trapezoidal geometry of the
Fresnel receiver cavity.
The cavity geometry is presented in
figure 3. To simulate the actual cavity is
complicated. The methodology was first to
separate the simulated geometry in two
parts: the geometry situated below the pipes,
and the geometry above the pipes, which it
is repeated 10 times in the receiver. The
circular pipes were approximated by regular
hexadecagons, to avoid elements with high
skewness, which lead to convergence
difficulties and inaccuracies in the
numerical solution [5].
The grid was set up with Fluent’s grid
generation package, Gambit. A hybrid grid
was adopted, with an elementary volume
size of 0.2 mm for the geometry below the
tubes, and a triangular one with an interval
size of 0.05 mm for the geometry above the
tubes. To check grid independence, a model
with a resolution increased by a factor of 2,
in all directions, was tested. This represents
an increase in the number of cells of 4 times,
and also an increase in computation time of
approximately 4 times [5]. The heat loss
coefficients with both grid sizes had a
relative difference of 0.0011%, which
means that the solution can be considered
independent of the grid size.
The density of air was approximated by
the Bousinesq model. This model treats the
density as a constant value in all equations,
except for the buoyancy term in the
momentum equation. The air temperature
considered in the Bousinesq model was 350
K, and the thermal expansion coefficient
was 0.002857 K-1.
The model used to simulate thermal
radiation was the Discrete Transfer
Radiation Model (DTRM). The main
assumption is that the radiation leaving the
surface element in a certain range of solid
angles can be approximated by a single ray.
The polar (theta) divisions and azimuthal
(Phi) divisions control the number of rays
being created from each surface cluster. The
number of theta divisions was set to 4 and
the number of phi divisions was set to 16.
These values were changed from the default
values, until the total heat transfer rate from
the tubes was equal to the total heat transfer
rate in walls and cover.
The air properties were correlated by
quadratic polynomials, as a function of
temperature.
Three temperatures of the tubes were
simulated: 110ºC, 170ºC and 230ºC. The
tube emissivity was fixed at 0.49, similar to
the value used by Pye [6]. External
convection was simulated with 2 different
values of the heat transfer coefficient: 5 and
10 W/(m2K), considered representative of
two different wind speeds. External air
temperatures considered were 15, 25 and
35ºC. The wall internal emissivity was taken
as 0.1 [5]. In the cover, a mixed thermal
boundary condition was considered, with
external and internal emissivities of 0.9 [5],
an external heat transfer coefficient of 5 and
10 W/(m2K); the same three values of
external air temperature were considered,
SET2009 - 8th International Conference on Sustainable Energy Technologies. Aachen, Germany
31st August to 3rd September 2009
Page 5 of 6
Table II: Influence of receiver depth;
tinsulation=35 mm, Ttubes=230ºC, Ta=20ºC and
α=5 W/(m2K).
___________________________________________
D [mm]
30
45
60
U [W/(m2K)]
0.2405
radiation loss [%] 68
0.2400
0.2438
73
75
_____________________________________________________
The influence of rock wool insulation
thickness was also analysed. As expected,
the heat transfer coefficient decreases with
insulation thickness. The change from 20
mm to 35 mm represents a 7% reduction in
the heat transfer coefficient (from 0.2565 to
0.2400 W/m2K), while from 35 mm to 50
mm it represents a 4% reduction (to 0.2317
W/m2K); 35 mm should be chosen, taking
into account the heat transfer coefficient
value and that the increase in insulation
thickness leads to more significant shading
in the Fresnel collector.
Eighteen combinations were simulated
and the heat loss coefficient based on
primary mirror aperture area was calculated
as a function of the difference between
average tube temperature and ambient air
temperature, as presented in figure 5. A
power-law trendline was chosen to fit to the
results. Its correlation coefficient is 0.85.
0.3
y = 0.0309x 0.389
R2 = 0.8511
0.25
0.2
U [W/m 2K]
with a sky temperature 5ºC lower than air
temperature.
In the CFD simulations, the solution was
considered as converged when residuals
were lower than 10-8 for the energy equation
and 10-5 for the other equations.
Two geometrical parameters were
changed and analysed, in order to choose the
best geometry: the rock wool insulation
thickness and the receiver depth D. Table II
presents the global heat transfer coefficient
for three receiver depths: 30, 45 and 60 mm.
The receiver with 45 mm presents the
lowest heat transfer coefficient, although the
differences are very small. Radiation losses
dominate heat transfer, compared to
convection losses, as shown in table II.
Radiation losses increase with receiver
depth, because cover and lateral wall surface
is increased. Flow patterns in the cavity are
presented in figure 4. Thermal stratification
is observed in the cavity, confirming the
small convection losses.
U
0.15
Power (U)
0.1
0.05
0
0
50
100
150
200
250
(Ttubes-Ta) [K]
Figure 5: Simulated heat loss coefficient on
Fresnel receiver, as a function of
temperature difference; tinsulation=35 mm and
D=45 mm.
Figure 4: Contours of stream function
inside the cavity for a receiver depth of 60
mm; tube temperature of 230ºC, external air
temperature of 20ºC and external heat
transfer coefficient of 5 W/(m2K).
The correlation obtained for the Fresnel
receiver cavity in analysis was compared
with available literature correlations, for this
type of collectors. The new cavity presents a
simulated heat transfer coefficient which is
smaller than for the non-evacuated receiver
used by Feuermann et al. [7], but larger than
the others available in the literature – see
figure 6. Two possible causes for this
difference are: the cavity under analysis is
non-evacuated compared with others that
SET2009 - 8th International Conference on Sustainable Energy Technologies. Aachen, Germany
31st August to 3rd September 2009
Page 6 of 6
are evacuated (Feuermann [7] and PSE [2])
and the total primary mirror area taken for
the new system. The heat transfer
coefficient varies inversely with total
primary mirror area. Here, an aperture width
of 4 m was considered, equal to the aperture
of Feuermann et al. [7]. The prototype of
PSE [2] had 5.5 m while Solarmundo [8]
had 24 m.
0.35
0.3
U [W/m2 K ]
0.25
Feu ermann [1 0]
0.2
CFD
Feu ermann eva cuate d [10]
0.15
good compromise between insulation and
shading.
Correlating the simulated heat transfer
coefficient (based on primary mirror area)
with the temperature difference between
tubes and ambient air, a power-law fit was
obtained. The simulated heat loss coefficient
for the new cavity showed larger values,
when compared to values presented in the
existing literature for linear Fresnel
collectors. Two possible causes for this
difference are that the new cavity is not
evacuated and the larger aperture width of
the system when compared to available
prototypes.
PS E [2]
So larmu ndo [1 1]
0.1
0.05
0
0
50
10 0
150
200
250
(Ttube s-Ta) [K]
Figure 6: Simulated (CFD) heat transfer
coefficient compared with literature values.
4. CONCLUSIONS
A trapezoidal cavity receiver for a linear
Fresnel solar collector concentrator was
designed and numerically simulated.
Fixing the geometry of the collector and
regarding only the cavity, simplified raytrace simulations concluded that the cavity
with 6 absorber tubes of 1/2” internal
diameter (5/8” outside diameter) collects all
the concentrated beam radiation. The 50º
inclination of the lateral cavity walls was
also found to be optically acceptable.
To evaluate the overall heat transfer
coefficient of the Fresnel collector, CFD
were
applied.
Natural
simulations
convection inside the cavity, thermal
radiation between surfaces and conduction
through the walls were modelled. Two
geometrical parameters were analysed:
receiver depth and insulation thickness. It
was concluded that the cavity with a 45 mm
depth presents the lowest global heat
transfer coefficient. Regarding insulation
thickness, 35 mm of rock wool presented a
REFERENCES
[1] Damien Buie, Christopher Dey and
David Mills, Optical considerations in
line focus Fresnel concentrators, 11th
International Solar Paces Conference,
Zurich, Switzerland, 2002.
[2] A. Häberle et al., Linear Concentrating
Fresnel Collector for Process Heat
Applications, Proc. 13th Int. Symp. on
Concentrated Solar Power and Chemical
Energy Technologies, Spain, 2006.
[3] Ari Rabl, Active Solar Collectors and
Their Applications, Oxford University
Press, New York, 1985.
[4] Fluent, Fluent 6.3 User’s Guide, 2006.
[5] Yunus A. Cengel, and John M. Cimbala,
Fluid Mechanics: Fundamentals and
Applications, McGraw-Hill, 2004.
[6] John D Pye, System Modelling of the
Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector, PhD
thesis, Univ. New South Wales, Sydney,
Australia, 2008.
[7] D. Feurmann and J. M. Gordon, Analysis
of a Two-stage Linear Fresnel Reflector
Solar Concentrator, J. Solar Energy Eng.,
ASME Trans., vol. 113, p.272, 1991.
[8] A. Häberle et al., The Solarmundo line
focussing Fresnel collector. Optical and
thermal
performance
and
cost
calculations, Proc. Int. Symp. on
Concentrated Solar Power and Chemical
Energy Technologies, Zurich, 2002.