Wind effects on heat loss from a receiver with longitudinal tilt angle of small-scale linear Fresnel reflectors for urban applications

Abstract This paper presents an analysis of the wind effects, wind velocity and wind direction, on heat losses from a receiver with the longitudinal tilt angle of small-scale linear Fresnel reflectors for urban applications. In urban applications, the area required to install a solar collector is a critical parameter, therefore the parameter given by the energy-to-area ratio must reach its maximum value. Different combinations of longitudinal tilt angles are analyzed and compared with the typical configuration of a large scale linear Fresnel reflector (C1 configuration). The analysis is performed by SolidWorks Flow Simulation for different wind velocities and wind directions. Heat losses from the receiver have been estimated using a 3-D computational fluid dynamics model. Based on the numerical simulation of the receiver, the heat loss analysis has been calculated for several wind velocities, wind directions, and maximum energy-to-area ratio configurations. The effect of wind direction on heat losses is almost negligible. Although, heat losses are slightly higher in the North wind direction in most simulations. It will be demonstrated that the heat losses dramatically increase with a maximum energy-to-area ratio configuration, with the increase in longitudinal angle and, obviously, with the wind velocity. On the other hand, heat losses are higher at those locations with greater maximum energy-to-area ratio configuration. The heat losses, for wind velocity of 10 ( m / s ) and North direction, are, approximately, 120 % of C 1 , 131 % of C 1 , 143 % of C 1 , 165 % of C 1 and 174 % of C 1 , in Almeria, Rome, Budapest, Berlin and Helsinki, respectively. The longitudinal inclination of the receiver has positive effects on the performance of small scale linear Fresnel reflectors for urban applications.