An experimental study on a two-axis sun-track parabolic trough collector

A two-axis sun-track PTC (parabolic trough collector) with a concentration ratio of 24 was set up, which integrated a two-axis sun-track PTC with domestic parabolic trough receiver. Thermal performance of this PTC was experimentally tested at different heat transfer fluid flow rates. In advance, the Normalized efficiency and energy efficiency were analyzed. The results show that, thermal efficiency of this two-axis tracking collector is 40%~80%; and the thermal efficiency decreases slightly with the increase of flow rate. In addition, the linear of normalized efficiency is favorable, the linear correlation coefficient is 0.973, and the heat loss coefficient is 1.693 W/(m²·K); the optimum temperature value of the collector is 180 ℃, the energy efficiency is 0.15.