To Analyze the Performance of Solar Parabolic Trough Concentrator with Two Different Reflector Materials

In the present work, an attempt has been made to design, fabricate, evaluate and compare the performance of two different PTCs, to produce hot water, by using two different reflector materials. In PTC-1, reflector material is made by acrylic mirror sheet, and in PTC-2 reflector material is made of by stainless steel sheet. For both the PTCs the rest of the materials used are same. The supporting stand is made up of cast iron, the receiver material for both the PTC is G.I. pipes, and rim angle for both the concentrator is 900. The aperture area of both the concentrators is 2.131 m2. And concentration ratio of both the concentrators are 10.91. The maximum instantaneous thermal efficiency obtained by the concentrator having acrylic mirror sheet is 13.67 %, and concentrator having stainless steel material is 15.85 %.