Evaluation of Flow Parameters around Tracking Solar Collectors with Different Collector Geometry and Different Operation Conditions

Abstract

In the current study, the flow parameters around the tracking solar collectors were evaluated. Different site conditions with different tracking solar collector's geometry are combined and investigated. Site conditions included different wind loading due to different angles of attack and wind velocity. Collector's geometry included dish collector, parabolic trough collector and Heliostat collector. The flow parameters are estimated numerically by using a suitable computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package (ANSYS FLUENT 14) to solve the governing equations and boundary conditions. The verification of numerical results was done by comparing the numerical results with experimental results of the case of parabolic trough solar collector. The results of wind loading on all types of collectors and flow characteristics at different operation conditions are obtained and compared.

Keywords

• pressure
• velocity
• angle of attack
• finite element
• and solar collector