Experimental investigation of new designed solar parabolic trough collectors

Many studies have shown that dust accumulation can adversely affect the performance of solar collectors and parabolic through collectors, with no exceptions. This problem is of particular interest in the Gulf Region, due the high frequency of dusty days and sand storms. To ensure consistent performance of solar collectors, frequent cleaning therefore is needed. Autonomous cleaning of parabolic trough collectors has not been a feasible option due to the trough shape and the existence of the receiver tube. In this paper, it is intended to make cleaning much easier by closing the trough cavity using borosilicate sheets. An experimental investigation of the new design showed that it has about 23% as thermal efficiency compared to 18% for the conventional trough collector. This new design showed an important improvement of the trough collector (27%) in terms of thermal efficiency and solved the problem of dust accumulation by an easy cleaning procedure. Relevance to Industry: The newly designed parabolic trough collector introduced in this paper can increase significantly the thermal efficiency of a power plant, based on renewable energy and decrease the cost of cleaning and maintenance of parabolic troughs.