Experimental and parametric study of a solar paraboloid designed to receive a Stirling engine

¹ Faculty of Engineering Sciences, University of Blida, Algeria
² Valenciennes Institute of Sciences and Techniques, University of Valenciennes, France
³ Centre of Renewable Energies Development, Algiers, Algeria

^⋆ Corresponding author: azzouzidjelloul@yahoo.fr

Received: 13 October 2014
Accepted: 22 October 2014

Abstract

An investigation for the parametric characterization of a solar paraboloid intended to receive a Stirling engine was studied in this work. This one comprises two principal parts; the first one consists of the design of a solar parabolic concentrator having an aperture area of 1.67 m² with a focal distance of 52.65 cm. Its primary surface was covered by 152 aluminium facets distributed uniformly on eight equal petals. The optical parameters revealed a peak concentration ratio of 40 488, while average concentration ratio is 4920. The real focal distance and the dimension of the sunspot focused at the focal zone are given in experiments after a series of tests. The second part was devoted to the development of an analytical model based on the resolution of the heat equation using the variables separation method. This model adopted is able to predict the distribution of temperature and heat flux at the focal zone. By the application of Soltrace code, it is noted that the predicted results by the analytical model are in good agreement with those obtained by experiments.