PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATION OF SOLAR PTC USING TAGUCHI METHOD

In this study an attempt has been made to optimize the various operating parameters for enhancing the performance and heat transfer characteristics of solar collector (PTC) using Taguchi method. An experimental investigation was carried out on solar parabolic trough collector while using water as working fluid. The operating and design parameters considered are mass flow rate, Diameter of the receiver tube and the material of the receiver tube. As these variables have major impact on the performance and heat transfer characteristics of solar parabolic trough collector, the test is conducted to study their influence and interactions on the performance and heat transfer characteristics. The experimental runs have been setup using Taguchi L27 Orthogonal array based Design of Experiments (DoE)and the results of outlet temperature of the fluid, and useful heat gain for each run have been optimized in Design of Experiments (DoE) Taguchi method using MINITAB 17 software. The optimum combinations of parameter for each response have been predicted with respect to Signal to Noise Ratios (S/N). The Results have shown that the parameters chosen in this study have significant influence on the responses chosen and the validation results have shown significant improvement on the performance characteristics of the solar flat plate collector