Abstract
Solar thermal energy is a promising renewable energy resource that provides sustainable energy. Due to their effectiveness as solar thermal collectors, parabolic dish collectors are commonly used in various thermal energy system applications. Hybrid designs of parabolic dish cavity receivers are an approach for enhancing their thermal efficiency. Moreover, the thermal losses of the cavity receivers from their bottom surface are one of their noticeable challenges. In this research, an experimental examination of the conical-conical cavity receiver with a novel secondary reflector has been conducted to achieve an efficient cavity receiver. Based on the results, the application of a secondary reflector enhanced the thermal performance by 5.47 % for the conical-conical cavity receiver. Moreover, 46.95 % and 38.51 % were the maximum and average thermal efficiency for the conical-conical cavity receiver with secondary reflector. Also, the maximum and average values for exergy efficiency were determined by 10.98 % and 8.70 %, respectively for the case with secondary reflector with enhancement percentage of 2.29 % with respect to without secondary reflector scenario. Furthermore, 21.5 % of carbon dioxide reduction enhancement was achieved with the application of the reflector. The utilization of the secondary reflector can be an effective way to enhance the thermal efficiency of the solar dish collector and overcome the weaknesses of the blank bottom surface of the cavity receivers.
Meraj Rahbari, Pouya Esfanjani, Ali Mahmoudi, Mohammad Sadegh Valipour, Performance enhancement of a parabolic dish collector with a novel receiver assisted with a secondary reflector, 2025 Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells,
Volume 283, 2025,113464,ISSN 0927-0248, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2025.113464.
