The geometrical optical performance characteristics of a composite parabolic trough (CPT) with a fin receiver have been studied. The variation of geometrical concentration ratio with mirror element size and the rim angle of the parent parabola has been studied and the results are presented...

The effects of receiver misplacement and the trough pointing towards the sun on the concentration characteristics of a composite parabolic trough are discussed. Results from some numerical calculations are presented graphically and discussed.

The geometrical concentration characteristics of a two-stage system employing a composite parabolic trough as a primary--and a compound parabolic concentrator as a secondary--concentrator are discussed. The relative merits of such a two-stage system over a single-stage CPT are brought out from...

The variation of the geometrical concentration ratio for cylindrical and flat plate receivers with the strip width of a composite cylindrical parabola concentrator has been examined numerically in cases when the edges of the constituent strips lie on the parent parabola.

This paper presents a transient behaviour model for a single-glazed hot box type solar cooker which enables the temperatures of various elements of the cooker to be predicted. The experimental results conform well with the theoretically predicted values. In an attempt to establish a simple...

Natural convection losses between an absorber plate and the cover glazing for different gap sizes and at different plate temperatures have been predicted theoretically by various empirical correlations developed by McAdams,4 Mikheyev,3 Tabor,5 Buchberg et al.6 and Hollands et al.7 The free...

Indoor test methods for solar collectors are widely accepted and recommended by ASHRAE. The development of a solar simulator for indoor testing and the certification procedure for photo-thermal solar devices is discussed in this paper. The system consists of 14 quartz halogen lamps and provides...

The results of a comparative study of the steady-state approach and the periodic analysis as applied to the air heater are presented. For the periodic analysis, the meteorological data are represented by a Fourier series. The periodic analysis is carried out by taking half-hourly and hourly...

In this paper an expression for the accurate computation of the overall heat loss coefficient, UL--including front, edge and rear losses--from a solar flat-plate collector has been derived. This expression is used and values of overall heat loss coefficients and overall collector efficiencies...