Desenvolvimento de um coletor solar cilíndrico parabólico para baixas e médias temperaturas.

Abstract

Given the current energy crisis, in which Brazil has been going trough, it becomes prominent inserting new energy sources to the national energy matrix. Due to its location and climate conditions, northeastern Brazil has a vocation for use of solar energy, especially for thermal applications. However currently available equipment to harness this energy, are imported and most of them have working temperatures below 50 ° C. This work aims the development of a cylindrical parabolic solar collector 100% national and that can reach temperatures of 100ºC. The design methodology consisted in the study of several solar collectors in order to propose an entirely nation Parabolic Trough. A solar tracking system has been developed, as well as an instrumentation one, which allows the assessment of the thermal performance of the equipment. For performance evaluation, the equipment went through a field test and numerical simulation of the collector was performed. The field test was carried out from 9h30am to 12:30am, where temperature in various points of the collector were monitored. The numerical simulation was based in the solution of the main phenomenological equations involved in a solar heating process, from collector features and radiation data during the tests. The main results obtained was the global efficiency of 27,7% as well as a good agreement between the experimental curve and the one obtained by the software.