Pak. J. Agri. Sci.

27 (4) 317, 1990

CYLINDRICAL PARABOLIC SOLAR CONCENTRATOR

Muhammad Anwar Chaudhri & Zafar Ahmad Hasni Department of Physics, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad

A cylindrical parabolic solar concentrator has' been designed using mirror strips of high reflecting coefficient. The simplicity of the design ensures its easy manufacturing even in remote villages with very little workshop facilities. Its thermal performance is comparable with other designs requiring special manufacturing skills: .
making the device a unit involving The energy crisis in the world, . simple design and easy fabrication through ordinary know-how availonce again, seems to be at its peak able with the local rural manpower. because of conflict in the Gulf area; it has become imperative that MATERIALS AND METHODS search for other renewable energy The cylindrical parabolic solar resources be seriously undertaken. reflector under study was fabricated Under the prevailing circumstanusing indigenous material (mirror ces solar energy seems to be the strips and metal fittings). It consistonly such resource, being available ed of the following major parts: in abundance at almost all places, 1. Primary reflector --------a cylinespecially in Pakistan that may drical parabolic surface made by help tide over the crisis. arranging mirror strips along The Department of Physics, the cylindrical concave metal University of Agriculture, Faisalframe having 50 em focal length abad has been making efforts since and 1.0 m2 aperture area (Figure 1980 for developing cheap and effi1). cient devices, within the reach of lo2. Secondary reflector -------a staincal know-how, for harnessing this freely available source of energy, less steel device to block the radiwhich is pollution free and as such ation flux flowing to pass the is most appreciable. Like many othfluid-carrying-tube without er national and international ortrapping (Figure 2). ganizations, the department has de3. Collector assembly -------designed veloped and tested various solar by using two co-axial alumindevices, such as solar collectors, ium pipes enclosed in two codifferent types of reflectors and conaxial colourless, transparent, centrators for capturing solar enercircular glass tubes (Figure 2). gy. The two co-axial aluminium The research work reported in pipes have been used in order to this paper aimed at fabrication and increase the water surface area studying the performance of a cylinin contact with the hot heat exdrical parabolic solar reflector. The changing surface. The air importance of this work lied in
INTRODUCTION

trapped in between the two outer glass tubes acts as an insulator and minimizes the heat dissipation from the hot water. 4. Reflector mountings -....- a frame
FIGURE NO. 1
Length of each strip = Thickness of each strip = Width varied from 6.00 to 6.65 em. Total No. of Strips = 100 em. 0.3 em.

work helping the azimuthal type of adjustments by the rotation of a vertical central axle and tilting of the reflectors around a horizontal axis.
.~ ~ SUNRAY SUNRAY
!

17

W".

""

.~. __ ._.
~ ~ ~ .' ".

_~',
01

.\
ll).U)

\ .. _-_"!~ ~I ""':

a_ ,a

'. "'..!!'\"'__
Strip-2

-_.---\--.;

III1IDt
u

RI

Strip-l Central Strip Strip-l

Strip-2

FOR PRIMARY REFLECTOR

FIGURE NO.2
, 1X:' 2

(
SUN RAYS

-:

"

. E.:. .

.'

.'

FOR SECONDARY REFLECTOR

318

....

8
....
00

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

b
01

8
l\:)

.... .... .... .... ....

~

:::r:
'"i

~
e-e-

....

s ro

;3
0'" CD

...
~ ~
CD

0 ~ ~

.... .... .... ....

:"l -3

::l.
ro

0
CJ1

Cij

C:..:l

00
CJ1

00

0 C:..:l

C:..:l

~ l\:)

C:..:l

0 ro ~

'&

~ e-e-

<:+

::l

.... 0
::l

<

01 CJ1

t en

Cij

~ ~ l\:) Cij
00

to ~

~ ~ l\:) ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ I.'.:) l\:) Cij CJ1 00 ~

d ro ~

::?
0
<:+

a~ ~

~
ro

(J'Q

>-4
<:+

::l

<

~.
~

::l

85 ....
Cij

~ l\:)

Cij

-3
Cij

~ ~

i:3 ....
~

~
><

t"'"

ro
>-4

'0

::l
rn

'<
Cij Cij

<:+

....

I
~

c.v ... co

"
oo
~
01

en
00

.... .... .... ~ ....

Cij Cij

Cij

CD

~
Cij

en
Cij

CD
CJ1

CD

"
Cij

00 C:..:l

0 0

~ 0ro
::l
<:+

....
>-4

~. g:.

8
~
ro
"d PI-

00

~
01

en

CD
CJ1

Cij

Cij

~ to ~ ~
01
Cij

....
01
Cij

Cij

"
~ ~ ~
l\:)

~
01

!=' ....
01

0 0

...

::l

ro <:+

-S
0 ~ <:+ ~ e-e~ '"i
ro ro <:+

I
=a

r;

~ ....

....

01 l\:)

00

~ to ~ ~ ~

C:..:l

00

C:..:l

....

"
0

0 0

~ n

'"

,-...
n

0 ~
(')

rn

a ~ sa
=a
~ ~ c:J1 ~

~ ~

~ ~ l\:) Cij

to

CJ1

~ ~

~ ~

~ ~ Cij l\:) ~

"

en

en

~ .... ~

to

0 0

'"I
... .......
~
'"i

....
;;;
ro
::l

.... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... 0 .... .... .... .... .... l\:) .... .... ~ l\:) 00 ~ ~ -3 .... l\:) ~ -3
Cij

(')

CJ1

CJ1

"""""""

CJ1

~ ~ ~

e
.......

,-...

ro ~~ ~ -ro <:+ ro

o ...., g. o
(')

.... 0 ....,
~
<:+

I
~
.1

(') 0

'"i

=='0 ro ro
Oc
'"i

::l ro
'"i

::r

::l

<:+

....

The complete assembly was placed in the open sun, being supplied with cold water through the water flow controlling unit by means of flexible plastic pipes. Flow of water was adjusted to maintain an appropriate temperature gradient. Temperatures at the inlet and outlet points of the collector assembly were recorded at regular intervals. Thermal performance of the unit was accounted for by an equation advocated by Brown and Howell (1976): <tsol = Me Cp (Tc2 - TCl) where, <tsol = Rate of collection of heat energy (i.e, useful solar energy), Mc = Flow rate of the fluid, Cp = Specific heat of the fluid, TCl = Collector inlet (fluid) temperature, and Tc2 = Collector outlet (fluid) temperature.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

maximum heat collected was 117.5, 117.5, 115.0, 125.0 and 135.0 Kcallhrl m2. These figures were comparable with the results of Parabolic Step Reflector type Solar Cookers fabricated and tested by Garge et al. (1976), reportedly bringing 1.0 litre of water to boiling point within 30 minutes; estimated heat energy absorption as being 140 Kcal/hr/rn''. Moreover, these results were also comparable (with added merit of simplicity of design) with the result achieved by Shaukat (1985), who reported that the absorbed heat energy was 158 Kcal/hr/rn-. by testing his Parabolic Step Reflector at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. With the above reported results it seems that this design can be used as water heater or can supply heat to devices working on low temperatures such as solar refrigerators.
REFERENCES

Data regarding average of water inlet and outlet temperatures and quantity of heat absorbed by water (flowing at the rate of five litres per hour) have been given in Table 1. Thermal performance of the unit was found as giving maximum average rate of heat absorbed as 122.0 Kcal/hr/rn? during the month of November while the rate of daily

Brown, P.R. and J.R. Howell. 1976. Solar Thermal and Ocean Thermal. The American Secti on of the International Solar Energy Society, Florida. 5: 62-71. Garge, H.P., H.S. Mann and K.P. Thanvi. 1976. Design and performance studies on five different types of solar cookers under Indian arid zone conditions. Proceed. Conf. on Physics of Solar Energy, Benghazi. Shaukat, N. 1985. Design and fabrication of parabolic step reflector type solar cooker. M.Sc. Thesis, Univ. of Agri., F'aisalabad.