A Taguchi approach for determination of parametric dependence in absorber tube of parabolic trough solar collector with roughened surfaces

Abstract

The Taguchi experimental design approach is used in this study to offer the ideal design parameters for the absorber tube with roughened surfaces. In order to determine parametric dependence, passive heat transfer augmentation strategies have been used in the parabolic trough receiver in this article by applying the Taguchi approach. So, for better understanding, two case studies are analyzed using two augmentation technique i.e., wire coil and twisted tape inserts. The performance of parabolic trough collector depends upon various parameters like Reynolds number, absorber tube length to inside diameter ratio, solar insolation and type of inserts. So the effect of these parameters on Nusselt number are investigated by applying Taguchi method. Here, the nusselt number is taken into account as a performance parameter, and the orthogonal array L9 (34) is selected as the experimental strategy. Four parameter each having three level require 3⁴=81 runs in full factorial method, but Taguchi method has reduced these number of experiments to 9 runs thus saving time and energy. The present research yields solar insolation as most prominent parameter which effect the most on collector efficiency having high signal to noise ratio followed by insert used in receiver tube. This paper has analyzed the impact of geometrical modification of insert on collector efficiency using Taguchi method of optimization and found that twisted tape inserts yield better performance as compare to wire coil insert keeping all parameters same