Design and Thermal Performance Assessment of the Novel Solar
System Using Fresnel Concentrated Solar Power System
HOUDA TASSOULT, AHMED MEZIDI HICHEM BENDJEBBAS
Unité de développement des équipements solaires, UDES
Centre de développement des énergies renouvelable, CDER, 42004
Tipasa, ALGERIA
Abstract: - This work is concerned with assessing the thermal performances of solar CSP system using linear
Fresnel reflector (LFR). The main objective of this paper is validation the preliminary experimental work
carried out in august 2023 on the concentrator in the climatic conditions of Algerian city “Bou Ismail”. Growth
energy demand, coupled with increasing energy security and climate change, is posing a challenging scenario
for the future energy supply. Fossil fuels is the dominant energy source in the industrial sector, and their uses
continues to grow, exerts negative influence on the environment. Hence, it is inevitable looking out for an
alternative source that representing a powerful, clean, endless, and reliable source of energy meeting the
requirements of the worldwide energy structure transformation. Renewable energy technologies, are
increasingly gaining, among which solar energy will certainly play an important role in the future.
Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) system is one of the promising kind of solar energy since it is clean sources of
energy and contributes minor impacts toward the environment. The main objective of this study is validation
the experimental work carried out in the summer of 2023 on the linear Fresnel reflector (LFR) in the climatic
conditions of Algerian city “Bou Ismail” by a numerical simulation. The main contribution of this paper is the
design and feasibility analysis of a novel LFR system made out of equispaced mirror elements of equal width
with an innovative receiver and their energy applications for better management of energy needs in different
areas and in both residential and commercial buildings. Indeed, the first prototype LFR CSP established at
Solar Equipment Development Unit UDES produces heat reaching 250°C. Apart from the power applications,
the device dramatically reduces the global warming by limiting the gases emissions compared to conventional
process.
.
Key-Words: - Renewable energy, Solar energy, Concentrated solar, Environmental impacts, Power supply,
Greenhouse gas
Received: April 15, 2024. Revised: October 11, 2024. Accepted: November 24, 2024. Published: December 31, 2024.
1 Introduction
The excessive combustion of fossil fuel have
become a global problem threatens the
environmental [1-4]. Cov pandemic caused a severe
decline in gross available energy worldwide in
recent years which leads to dropping in the share of
fossil fuels, while renewable energies grew [1].
Renewable energies produce energy from
theoretically unlimited resources, or reconstitutable
more quickly than they are consumed [5]. In recent
years, renewable energy represented by solar energy
has developed rapidly. Solar energy is an endless
cleaning energy source that can mitigate the
environmental issues brought by fossil fuel
consumptions [6]. CSP present the most possibilities
for exploitation due to their profitability in terms of
performance, and the high yields, which can be,
exploit it for consumptive and productive purposes
[7]. Of the many feasible designs of CSP, the ones
based on the Fresnel reflector configuration appear
to possess good prospects. Otherwise, this approach
has the advantage of ease of fabrication, is cheap
and can usually withstand the normally encountered
wind loadings. Notably the use of LFC technology
for electricity production is an attractive alternative
for the conventional one [8-9]. Regardless of the
effectiveness of this technology, it requires costs
lower investments compared to other solar
concentrator technologies. Specifically, this study
deals with LFC systems, in which a practical design
of linear Fresnel concentrator made out of long
narrow segments of flat mirrors arranged in planar
configuration [10]. Such LFC configuration, as
employed in this approach, is design out of
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equispaced of equal width mirrors tilted at an angle
so as all incident solar rays falling on them formed
an overlapping image of the sun on the absorber
tube [10]. Moreover, a tracking system has added
guaranteeing the reflection of solar beam to a
receiver. In the case of ideal tracking, it is
recommended that the linear Fresnel concentrator be
constituted of a large number of flat mirror
elements, each of which has a finite width and
length equal to the length of the linear receiver. The
collected heat will mainly exploited for consumptive
and productive purposes such as to produce a steam
to generate a turbine. With the intention of pre-
venting the unwanted threats to the planet, this
process limits the gases emissions and decreases the
environmental impacts compared to conventional
process.
2 LFC description and methodology
The LFC prototype manufactured at UDES for the
experimental process was designed with the aim of
generating electricity, warming water up and
generating vapor. In Fresnel linear concentrator
technology, the incident rays are reflected by the
mirror field and focused on the linear receiver. Each
flat plat mirrors follows the path of the sun
throughout the day in an individual way. Mirror
movement must be high precision to minimize
optical loss [10-12]
2.1 System description
An overall description of the LFC is made followed
by the explanation of the instrumentation used to
obtain the experimental data. There are several
systems of this type in the world, but each device
stands out from the other by something new or
original.
Fig. 1 presents a prototype of a linear Fresnel
concentration solar system with an innovative
receiver. The main components of the LFR CSP
system are the reflectors field or mirrors, receiver
tubes and tracking system. Specifically, this paper
deals with LFC reflector-concentrator, designed and
fabricated for the present investigations, which is
made from 12, 3-m long, narrow mirror strips
arranged in a rectangular planar configuration flat
frame and oriented so as to form a linear image of
the sun on the receiver. The 12 strips are 0.5 m
wide. The reflecting strips used for the present
investigations are the commercially available back-
coated mirrors (of reflectivity p = 0-6). The back-
coated mirrors, despite their inferior reflectance,
were preferred to avoid deterioration due to dust,
environmental pollution, heavy monsoon rain,
fouling by birds, etc.
Fig. 1 LFC prototype for experimentation realized at
UDES [10–12]
These geometrical parameters assume no shading of
the mirror or blocking of the reflected light by the
neighboring mirror elements. Each mirror element is
pivoted at its two ends on easily steerable mounts
such that it can be rotated freely about an axis along
its length. The tilt of each constituent mirror
element is chosen to form an overlapping image of
the sun on the absorber tube guaranteeing that the
maximum of the sun's rays laid out on the collector
are reflected towards the receiver. These mirrors are
tracked with Arduino microcontroller that tracks the
Sun-rays so that receives the maximum energy
given out by the Sun. The concentrator has been
designed such that the parallelepiped receiver can be
held vertically above the mirror parallel with the
length of the mirrors in order to receive the
concentrated flux.
2.2 Solar field sizing
The solar reflector adopted in this study has been
designed and installed at UDES with a full surface
of reflecting mirrors equal to 18m2.
Table 1 represents the dimensions of each mirror
and the receiver according to the geometric
parameters of our prototype.
Table 1 Dimensional of LFC prototype components’
Elements
Value
Mirror width
50 cm
Mirror length
3 m
No. of mirror row
12
Center focal length
3 m
Receive width
50 cm
Receive length
3 m
Receive height
20 cm
Copper absorber tube diameter
16 mm
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2.3 Receiver Description
The receiver composed of 06 copper tubular of
0.016 m in diameter covered with an adapted a
selective coating and 2 collectors at the inlet and
outlet with a double- shelled absorber in aluminum
which specially designed to increase the heat
exchange surface for better performance [12]. For
the experimental investigations, the vertical height
of the receiver from the concentrator frame is kept
constant 3 meters. It is a parallelepiped shape of 3m
in length, 50cm in width and 20cm in height. The
receiver is insulating on all sides except the lower
face (a 5mm thick double-glazed glass window) to
protect the selective coating that decreases the
emission losses and to make a greenhouse effect that
benefits receiver performance. It also minimizes
convection losses, due to the vacuum existing inside
it (see Fig.2). This receiver uses a double-envelope
absorber fixed by original methods. Its temperature
can reach 250°C measured via thermocouples
placed in different locations, namely: 2
thermocouples one at the inlet and the other at the
outlet of the absorber and 3 others distributed on
different points of its surface
Fig. 2 Longitudinal section of the receiver realized
at UDES [10–12]
2.4 Methodology and theoretical analysis
The concentrator consists of N mirror elements,
with N/2 mirrors present on either side, which is
located symmetrically. Each mirror of the field is
defined by four key parameters: namely, mirror
width, the position in the field of the primary mirror,
the focal length, and the tracking angle. These four
parameters are discussed in detail in this paragraph:
1. Mirror width: a more practical design of a
LFC, which is easy and hence inexpensive to
fabricate, can be made out of a finite and
equal mirror width, each of which has a same
length to the length of the linear receiver.
2. Position of the mirror: the mirror field
consists of an even number of mirrors
arranged symmetrically around an axis. The
value xi defines the position of the ith mirror
in the field of the primary mirror. It is defined
by:
Where
e: the distance between two successive mirrors [m]
L: the mirror width [m]
3. The focal length: this parameter is a function
of the position of the mirror in the field of the
primary mirror and the height of the receiver.
It is defined by Eq.2:
Where
f: the focal length [m]
href : receiver height above the primary mirror field
[m]
4. The tracking angle: each mirror admits its
own tilted angle. The tilt of inclination i
between the horizontal plane and the plane
containing the reflecting mirror is defined by
Rabl [13]: It is defined by Eq.X.3:
: the angle between the optical axis and the line
that joins the mirror and the receiver [°]
: the angle of incidence [°]
During the process, losses can be observed at
several levels namely the Concentrator, Receiver,
Transport and Storage [14].
Determining the optical efficiency of LFC systems
must be carried out with accuracy and precision
depending of various factors, among which the
following significantly stand out: the incidence
angle, the radiation reflector, the losses due to
shading, ratio and the geometric engineering
dimensions of the real prototype components.
This thermal energy obtained is either directly used
in a thermodynamic cycle to produce electricity, or
for cogeneration. This energy is generally stored for
later use.
The performance equation or instantaneous
efficiency characteristic of this type of technology is
as follows [15-16]
Where
: Fresnel system efficiency
Double aluminium casing
Fluid inlet
Side absorbers
Two copper
collectors
A flat secondary reflector
06-tube flat
receiver
Fluid outlet
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Houda Tassoult, Ahmed Mezidi, Hichem Bendjebbas
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: Mirror field efficiency
: Receiver efficiency
: Power block efficiency
Where
: Flux generated by the mirror field
: Receive tube area
: Primary reflector field area
: Direct normal radiation
Where
: Fluid mass flow rate (Kg/s)
: Specific heat of fluid (KJ/Kg/°C)
: Reflector field area (m2)
: Outlet and inlet fluid temperature
respectively (°C)
: Solar beam radiation (kW/m2)
(8)
: Angle in the transversal plane
: Slope angle of an nth mirror element.
: Latitude angle
: Hour angle
3 Research approach: numerical modeling and
simulation
3.1 Modeling system and simulation
The temperature modelling is based on the energy
balances, which are characterized by differential
equations of the absorber temperature (TAb) and
fluid temperatures (TF). The thermal power emitted
by the sun and received by absorber tubes (see
Fig.3) is given by the following equations [17]:
Where
: Absorption coefficient of the absorber tubes
: Reflectance factor of the mirror
: Interception factor
Se: Selective surface of mirror aperture
: Declination angle
: Sun altitude
Fig.3 Heat exchanges in the absorber tube
To evaluate the optical performance of the linear
Fresnel concentrator, analyzing the distribution of
the thermal flux intensity of the solar radiation
reflected by the mirrors and concentrated by the
absorber tubes, a specific optical evaluation and
simulation process is carried out in this section
applying free simulation tool (see Fig.4).
Fig.4 3D modeling of kinematics solar tracking [11]
The solar reflector adopted in this study is a linear
Fresnel concentrator. Based on the data presented in
Table 1, the simulation model of the LFR system is
shown in Fig. 5. In this section, optical evaluation
and simulation process is carried out applying free
simulation tool to evaluate the optical performance
of the linear Fresnel concentrator, analyzing the
distribution of the thermal flux intensity of the solar
radiation reflected by the mirrors and concentrated
by the absorber tubes. The absorber tubes are made
of copper covered with an adapted a selective
coating; they are placed along the focal line of the
linear Fresnel concentrator. Generally, the heat ex-
change existing in the system takes place between
the heat transfer fluid and the absorber tubes, but in
our preliminary study, we did not introduce the
transfer fluid.
Q absorbed
Q ext
Q gain
Q outlet
(x+x.t)
Q inlet
Tamb
Patm
Ab int
Ab
ext
X
X+x
TF
TAb
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
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Preliminary tests were carried out in UDES with the
following coordinates 7.0629152, -73.1380194. The
mirrors were positioned at the angularity calculated
at 8:00 am, in order to carry out the pertinent tests,
knowing that the path of the sun begins in the east to
the west, the module must be positioned in the
operating coordi-nates and thus determine the
degree of accuracy provided by the system
mechanism.
The results obtained from the conditions of the
system, the distribution of the mir-rors and its
automation; allow us to show more clearly, through
simulations, the ef-fects of incidence on the surface
of the reflecting mirrors and the concentration at the
point focus throughout the day, as shown below.
Fig.5 Extract from SunEarth Tools for the UDES
website and Ray simulation by Tonatiuh
4 Result and discussion
The experimental data, for the two days of the
manipulation (June 19th and June 27th, 2023),
obtained from the LFC was acquired during certain
conditions operation of the prototype. In particular,
the optimization work of the LFR CSP allowed solar
tracking with accuracy less than 0.1°. The study led
to the establishment of an autonomous control
system, freeing itself from the occasional drops of
sunshine.
During the experiments, some clouds were
observed, specifically between 11:00 and 14:00 for
the June 19th. In general, the direct solar radiation
increases from sunrise to reach the maximum in the
middle of the day and then it is back down in the
evening.
Primary tests were carried out without introducing
the Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF).
The experimental tests measured and recorded
during the test days made it possible to plot the
evolution of the different temperatures as a function
of time, which is represented in the form of curves.
Fig. 6 and Fig.7.
The temperature evolution as a function of time are
shown in Fig. 6 without glass cover the receiver,
and Fig. 7 relates to the temperature evolution with
glass cover of the receiver.
From this figure, the recorded outlet temperature
reaching 140 °C. The receiver temperature increase
gradually until it achieving its maximum of 176 °C
around 11:30 a.m., and then back down influenced
by the lack of the quantity of direct solar radiation.
Fig.6 Temperature evolution: Receiver without glass
cover
Fig.7 Temperature evolution: Receiver with glass
cover
8:00
9:00
10:00
12:00
13:00
14:00
17:00
16:00
15:00
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According to the Figs, the evolution is noticeable
around solar noon 12.00 p.m.–14.00 a.m. In fact, the
temperature reaching the receiver after the glazing is
higher than that before the glazing shifting around
50°C. Undoubtedly, this shift due to the glass cover
which allows very high temperatures to be reached
by creating the greenhouse effect. From these Figs,
the temperature depends mainly on the solar power
received by absorber tubes, on the glass cover of the
absorber, and on the tilt angle of the mirror
Fig.8 illustrates the temperature distribution in the
receiver via the infrared thermal camera to enrich
and highlight the results obtained. The results
demonstrate good distribution except in the
neighboring part of the structure where the
temperature is significantly lower due to end losses.
The same behaviors are detected and match
perfectly with the experimental measurement that
recorded. So, by these results we can validate and
confirm the reliability of the results of the
acquisition system.
(a) Without glass cover (b) With glass cover
Fig.8 Temperatures evolution recorded using the
thermal camera : (a) without glazing and (b) with
glazing.
5 Conclusion
The linear Fresnel reflector relies on solar energy,
which is available throughout the year. The use of
this device will solve many problems in many
industrial and domestic areas preserving the
environment by avoiding releasing the CO2.
This Preliminary study was carry out to validate the
experimental and simulation results for the LFC
solar prototype manufactured at UDES. The results
of the above study have clearly shown that the LFC
design offers a better performance in terms of
concentration on both cases of the absorber (with or
without glass cover of receiver). It is clear to see
that the temperature variation has a direct
relationship with the incident direct solar radiation.
The temperature reaching the receiver has reached
up to 176°C before cover the receiver and 225°C
after cover the receiver increasing by around 50 °C.
In fact, the direct solar radiation, the geometric and
optical characteristics of solar collector components
and the climatic conditions of the site studied the
performance of the solar reflector. Moreover, some
quantity of the incidental solar energy absorbed by
the receiver is not completely transmitted to the heat
transfer fluid. They dissipated as heat loss between
the absorber tubes and the ambient air.
Undoubtedly, there is a relationship between the
heat loss and the performance of the device.
As result, the linear Fresnel solar reflecting
concentrator was found suitable for the objectives
cited such as electrification, water-heating
application, etc… The use of the linear Fresnel
reflector as a solar electrification, heating system is
an economical, efficient and sustainable towards
environmental.
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Contribution of Individual Authors to the
Creation of a Scientific Article (Ghostwriting
Policy)
The authors equally contributed in the present
research, at all stages from the formulation of the
problem to the final findings and solution.
Sources of Funding for Research Presented in a
Scientific Article or Scientific Article Itself
No funding was received for conducting this study.
Conflict of Interest
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare
that are relevant to the content of this article.
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