Thermal performance of a parabolic trough collector with a longitudinal externally finned absorber

A new absorber configuration has been proposed for parabolic trough solar collector. It consists of a tube through which the working fluid flows. The tube is attached externally to two longitudinal fins which are directed normally to the collector aperture. The absorber aggregate, tube and fins, is encased by a transparent envelope. The heat balance equations for such absorber have been derived and solved. Based on these analyses a study has been carried out on an absorber located in Alexandria (31 degree N latitude) in Egypt to show the effect of its geometrical parameters on the thermal performance. The results of the study show that a wide range of concentration ratios, higher than the smallest ideal ones, can be chosen. For each concentration ratio, there is a corresponding fin height to absorber tube diameter ratio which maximizes the collector efficiency. The greatest collector efficiency is achieved when the concentration ratio is 1.7 of the smallest ideal one and the ratio of fin height to tube diameter in 0.7. In this case the collector efficiency increases in average ca. 3% over that when using a conventional absorber.