Application of field theory on the non-uniform thermal boundary condition analysis on a parabolic trough collectors

Basing on field theory, the heat flux of solar trough collectors has been simulated in this paper. Basing on Illuminated Surface Theory, the ray transmission process from sun to concentrator surface has been simplified. It has greatly saved computing resources. The simulation results also have been compared with the result of the Monte Carlo ray tracing method and the data in reference at the same time. The result figured out that the simulation result basing on field theory is more accurate than the result basing on Monte Carlo ray tracing method and the result of field theory is closer to the data in reference. After that, the heat flux of LS-3 solar trough collectors has been simulated with different rim angle. The result showed that the heat flux distribution became more uniform and the max value became smaller when rim angle increased.