Thermal performance of parabolic trough solar collectors

The thermodynamics of a Parabolic Trough Solar Collector (PTC) play an important role in solar energy and the efficiency of the collectors. This report presents an up-to-date review on the thermal performance of PTC collectors. Various types of mathematical models, simulation and numerical methods, and experimental set-ups of the Parabolic Trough Solar Collectors are reviewed. These have been studied in terms of heat loss, environmental conditions, temperature and heat flux. Furthermore, the report cost analysis and economic strategy used for PTC collectors. The primary goal is to demonstrate the principal thermal aspects that need to be considered in future developments. The principal challenges that engineers face are (a) combining the thermal models that have been reported in the literature, (b) introducing numerical methods and simulations with less computational requirements, (c) proposing new methodologies that efficiently measure the thermal performance of a Parabolic Trough Solar Collector and (d) reducing the costs of these collectors.