Research Article
Fatigun A. T
Abstract
This research work presents experimental investigation of the effect of geometric curvature on the performance of a stationary line focus solar collector. A three segments prototype line focus concentrating structures was constructed with each segment having geometric curvatures namely; Hyperbola, Sub-cylindrical and Parabola. The experimental investigation was carried out in South western part of Nigria (Ado-Ekiti) between 10th and 16. th of July 2012 during which the weather condition was characterized with frequent cloud cover, rain and drizzling. Based on the daily average value, The maximum value of absorber output temperature recorded during the 7 days of experimental setup was 1160C .However, the sub-cylindrical geometric curvature segment was found to be the most efficient compared to the hyperbolic and parabolic geometric curvatures -with a difference of up to 100C on a clear day. The Concentration ratio of the prototype system was estimated to be 2.86, daily average value of the useful heat gain rate was estimated to be 9.6W while the heat loss coefficient is approximately 4.637W/m2-K. The highest Instantaneous performance efficiency (based on beam radiation (Ib) alone) observed for a clear day was approximately 45%. These observations showed that the effect of geometric curvature is significant on the performance efficiency.