A numerical study to investigate the flow pattern around parabolic dish receiver system.

The efficiency of the parabolic dish system is significantly impacted by the thermal energy lost from the receiver. Well-established correlations can be used to determine the energy's conduction and radiation modes. However, due to the complex flow behavior near the cavity receiver, estimating the loss of convective heat is difficult. Surprisingly, the majority of studies has solely examined forced convection from the cavity and has not considered the impact of the dish structure. The presence of the dish structure may alter the local wind patterns near the cavity, which may also affect heat loss. Given the importance of an improved thermal model, the behavior of the wind flow must thus be investigated by adding the dish structure. The numerical results obtained in this work confirm that the dish has a significant impact on the flow in the cavity region. Under normal operating conditions, the cavity receiver is protected from the free stream flow by the dish architecture. Because the local flow velocity is relatively low near the receiver, there is a noticeable reduction in heat loss from the device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]