Experimental Investigation of Solar Parabolic Dish for No-Load and Load Testing

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present a thermal study of a parabolic dish concentrator using both no-load and load tests. The parabolic dish concentrator is composed of twelve curvilinear trapezoidal reflective petals and measures 1.828 m in diameter and 0.748 m in focal length. An anodized aluminum sheet having a reflectivity of 80% is used as a reflector material. A water quantity of 6 liters has been used as a load in a cylindrical receiver. In the no-load test maximum temperature achieved was 398°C at 1:00 pm. The thermal efficiency in the case of the bare receiver and the insulated receiver has been calculated as 15.40% and 17.44% respectively. The receiver surface and water temperature are greatly affected by the solar intensity and wind speed.