Numerical study of natural convection in flat receiver with and without secondary reflector for solar parabolic dish system

The sustainability of our eco system is under threat due to frequent use of the fossil fuels. Due to the rapid depletion of the conventional energy sources and oil crisis, there is a great shift towards renewable energy sources. In the realm of renewable sources of energy, solar energy plays an impeccable role because of its abundance and dominance over the other sources. Therefore, efforts are being made to replace our existing conventional fuels with renewable energy sources. In this context, flow simulation and heat transfer are performed for the flat receiver with and without secondary reflector of solar parabolic dish collector is presented. A two-dimensional (2-D) model is used to investigate the approximate estimation of the natural convection heat loss from the actual geometry of the receiver for solar dish concentrator system. The Nusselt number correlations are proposed separately and compared for both receiver with secondary reflector (WSR) and without secondary reflector (WOSR) using power law and asymptotic computational fluid dynamics technique. (paper)