Experimental performance investigation of compound parabolic cavity receiver having single absorber tube

The current study presents experimental research on a parabolic trough collector with tube and cavity receivers. The primary concentrating parabolic reflector is designed for an aperture area of 2x2 m2 with mirror-polished stainless steel sheet reflectors. The cavity receiver consists of a compound parabolic secondary reflector and a copper tube. Both the conventional tube receiver and the cavity receiver tube are coated with black powder. The experiments are carried out to compare the efficiency of the cavity receiver with the tube receiver for fluid temperature rise, thermal efficiency, and overall losses. The experiments showed significantly higher fluid temperature rise and overall efficiency and lower thermal losses for the cavity receiver compared to the tube receiver within the parameters explored in this study.