“DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF SOLAR PARABOLIC TROUGH & ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENT TYPE OF MATERIAL USING FOR STEAM GENERATION”

Abstract

The growth of the modern society has been fueled by cheap, abundant energy resources. Solar energy is a form of renewable energy which is available abundantly and collected unreservedly. In this thesis the application of solar energy using parabolic trough is analyzed. Parabolic trough technology is currently the most extended solar system for electricity production or steam generation for industrial processes. It is basically composed of a collector field which converts solar irradiation into thermal energy and a conventional thermal to electric conversion Rankine Cycle. The prototype of the parabolic trough concentrating solar is collector manufactured using the available materials and equipment in the workshop of Mechanical Engineering Department. The prototype is designed using Pro-Engineering software. The thesis work elaborates in detail the steps undertaken in the fabrication of the parabolic trough and other accessory parts used in the experimental setup. An experimental setup has been developed to investigate the performance of the parabolic trough. Measurements of total direct radiation on the plane of the collector, ambient temperature, wind speed, water flow rate, and inlet and outlet temperatures of the water inside the absorber tube are collected and employed in studying the performance of the parabolic trough. The material used is stainless steel sheet as a reflector and plywood material as a sub frame; The Different type of  pipe use for water circulation that is stainless steel pipe, Aluminum pip