Analysis of compound parabolic collector with different cavity structures

In concentrated solar systems, Compound Parabolic Collector (CPC) is a kind of solar receivers which can be used in concentrate and reflect radiation from solar energy source. The absorber in CPC called cavity with its function is absorb radiation and transfer the heat from solar to working fluids. The Discrete Ordinates (DO) thermal radiation model in ANSYS Fluent can be used to model the solar radiation in CPC. In this paper, the heat transfer and fluid dynamics phenomena in CPC are investigated by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), the results shows the fluids temperature increased when flowing in the cavity and reach to the top temperature on outlet, and temperature distribution in CPC is higher on the top and the bottom is lower relatively. Different optimization structures of cavity as round pipe, triangle, Semicircle, three-round pipes were also simulated, the triangle type got the highest outlet temperature as shown in results. The conclusion that cavity structures have influence in convection between the cavity and the air surrounding them was drawn.