Page 172 - Design of Solar Thermal Power Plants

3.3 THERMAL PERFORMANCE OF PARABOLIC TROUGH COLLECTOR 157

FIGURE 3.23 Testing loop of SEGS parabolic trough collector.

field, heat-transfer analysis and modeling of parabolic trough evacuated
tube, heat loss analysis on evacuated tube type parabolic trough evacu-
ated tube and indoor heat loss test method, research on parabolic trough
evacuated tube based on site conditions, performance model of parabolic
trough solar power plant, simulation model of parabolic trough solar
power plant, testing of parabolic trough collector reflective surface, solar
advisory model established for parabolic trough solar power plant,
technology and performance evaluation of parabolic trough solar power
plant, and wind tunnel test method of parabolic trough collector [27]).
Deutsches Zentrum fu ¨r Luft-und Raumfahrt (DLR) has also carried out
field testing research on parabolic trough collectors or the collector field.
In order to satisfy field installation requirements, testing based on field
conditions requires a set of movable equipment and instruments, which
mainly include the clamp-on sensor that is able to measure temperature,
flow rate and inclination angle, mobile meteorological station, and data
collection system. Such testing is able to accomplish the following tasks:
Collector field performance evaluation (depending on field and power
plant running conditions), efficiency of collector/array/loop, incidence
angle influencing factor, heat loss, annual performance prediction, etc.
Besides, in 2009, by referring to the biaxial test platform of SNLA, DLR
started to design the Kontas parabolic trough collector rotation test plat-
form (refer to Fig. 3.24A). This research center also carried out studies on
technologies related to parabolic trough collectors, which mainly
included influences of measuring equipment on the uncertainty of para-
bolic trough collector performance testing, parabolic trough collector
testing in the REACT project, solar flux density testing in parabolic trough