Optical and thermal analysis of trough-like concentrators

This paper presents an investigation of the optical and thermal properties of trough-like concentrators. The radiative and convective heat transfers through a trough concentrator have been evaluated. A simple analytical technique for calculating the average number of reflections and optical losses has been developed. Effective emissivity [var epsilon]eff and the collector efficiency [eta] increase with an increase in the concentration factor. Further, the efficiency decreases with an increase in the temperature of the absorber.