Analysis of heat transfer performance of the absorber tube with convergent-divergent structure for parabolic trough collector

In order to effectually improve the performance of parabolic trough solar collector system and homogenize temperature distribution on absorber tube, an innovative convergent-divergent tube was designed as PTR. The finite volume method (FVM) Monte Carlo ray tracing (MCRT) are combined simulate heat transfer process in collector. average relative error between numerical results experimental conducted Spanish DISS test facility is 1.103%, which confirms reliability simulation this paper. characteristics flow PTR compared inlet velocity range 0.05-0.75m/s, effect number zoom sections(N) for CD-PTR also studied. show that with has significantly enhanced capability. Nu increases sections increases, always higher than When Re=86400 N=25, increased by 66%.