Optimum Radius of Cylinderical Envelope of Solar Energy Receiver.

Document Type : Research Studies

Author

Professor of Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt.

Abstract

This paper presents an analytical procedure for estimation of the optimum radius of the cylindrical envelope of solar energy receiver. The cylindrical solar absorber and the envelope of the solar receiver are located horizontally and their axes are coincided.
The study is based on the fact of the variation of the convective heat loss from the solar receiver to the surrounding air by varying the envelope radius for a given absorber radius and given boundary conditions. For the case of an unevacuated air layer in the cylindrical space in between the solar absorber and the envelope it is found that the optimum radius of the envelope equals to 1.348 times the absorber radius.

Main Subjects