https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-025-01549-4
Regular Article
CFD simulation and optimization of the efficiency of a spiral tube under concentrated radiation by a parabolic concentrator
1
Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences, M’Sila University, PO Box 166, Ichebilia, 28000, M’Sila, Algeria
2
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, M’Sila University, PO Box 166 , Ichebilia, 28000, M’Sila, Algeria
3
Energy Physics Laboratory, Constantine 1 University, PO Box 325, Route de Ain El Bey, 25017, Constantine, Algeria
4
Department of Mathematics, College of Sciences, Qassim University, 51452, Buraydah, Saudi Arabia
5
Institute of Energy Infrastructure (IEI), Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN), Putrajaya Campus, Jalan IKRAM-UNITEN, 43000, Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia
6
Mathematics Research Center, Near East University, Mersin 10, 99138, Nicosia, Turkey
Received:
4
June
2024
Accepted:
7
February
2025
Published online:
10
March
2025
This work aims to study and improve thermal efficiency of a parabolic dish collector (PDC) having a spiral tube heat receiver to produce hot water for several daily purposes. This study consists of two main steps. The first part contains the visual analysis of the parabolic center using the free SolTrace software. In the second part, we used the commercial Gambit software to create the geometry of a spiral tube with 0.01 m diameter and about 5 m length to study spiral tube. SolTrace software allows us to determine the appropriate focal area location for placing the spiral tube; by estimating the value of the concentrated radiation, the concentrated beam is represented as a Gaussian function whose distribution varies with the dimensions of the parabola, as well as with the intensity of the radiation coming from the sun. We employed solar radiation and concentrated beams as boundary conditions for the thermal model developed using Fluent software. Additionally, we wrote a user-defined function (UDF) in C++ to enable Fluent to compute the spatial distribution of the concentrated beam, which simulates a concentrated light energy source on the spiral tube. The key results obtained include the spatial distribution of the concentrated beam, the temperature field along the tube, and the mass flow velocity within the spiral tube in the turbulent regime. Multiple simulations were performed by varying the tube’s thickness while keeping the inner diameter constant in the first case. In the second case, we varied the inner diameter while maintaining a constant tube thickness and mass flow rate of the fluid. The results from both cases were compared and showed strong agreement with those reported in the literature, validating the model. It was found that an additional increase in the outer thickness of 4 mm for the same tube leads to a 5.88% increase in the average temperature of the outlet fluid and an 11.42% increase in the thermal efficiency. These simulations show that the PDC can operate efficiently under a variety of conditions and provide future insight for CSP design engineers.
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Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
