EKALAVYA SHIKSHAN SANSTHA’S POLITECHNIC PUNE

PUNE -411038,
A
PROJECT REPORT
ON

Parabolic Trough Collector

SUBMITTED BY

SHREYA RATATE 2000830077

Under The Guidance of

Mr. A. A. Bangale

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGGINEERING

 EKALAVYA SHIKSHAN SANSTHA’S POLITECHNIC PUNE

CERTIFICATE
CERTIFIED THAT THIS REPORT SUBMITTED BY,

SHREYA RATATE

THE STUDENT OF SEMESTER VI OF THE COURSE DIPLOMA IN MECHANICAL

TECHNOLOGY,HAVE SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED MAJOR PROJECT TITLE PARABOLIC
TROUGH COLLECTOR OF P ARB OLI CURRICULUM AS PRESCRIBED BY
MAHARASHTRA STATE BOARD OF TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION, MUMBAI FOR THE
SUBJECT CAPSTONE PROJECT EXECUTION & REPORT WRITING.
WE HAVE GIDED THEM FOR SIDE WORK, ASSESSED THE SAME, & WE HAVE SATICEFIED
THAT IT IS UP TO THE STANDARD ENVISAGED FOR THE LEVEL OF THE COURCE, THE
SAID WORK MAY PRESEND FOR THE PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF DIPLOMA IN
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING THECHNOLOGY AS PRESCRIBED BY MSBTE.

PLACE: ESSP, PUNE

DATE:

MR. A. A. BANGALE MR. J.R.GAIKWAD MR. A.L. PISAL

(PROJECT GUIDE) (H.O.D MECHANICAL DIPARTMENT) (PRINCIPAL)

 MAHARASHTRA STATE BOARD OF TECHNOLOGY
EDUCATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I Wish To Express My Heartfelt Gratitude To The All The People Who

Have Played A Crucial Role In The Research For This Project, Without Their
Active Cooperation The Preparation Of This Project Could Not Have Been
Completed Within The Specified Time Limit.

I Am Thankful To Our Respected HOD, MR. J.R.GAIKWAD, For Motivating Me

To Complete This Project With Complete Focus And Attention.

I Am Also Thankful To My Project Guide MR. A. A. BANGALE Who Supported

Me Throughout This Project With Utmost Cooperation And Patience And For
Helping Us In Doing This Project.
ABSTRACT

In order to heat small amounts of water quickly using solar energy, we have
designed and implemented a solar heating device. The design concept is to
capture and concentrate income solar radiation by using a parabolic mirror and
place the water at its focal point. This solar heating device is designed to fit in
a 0.5 m3 box, and able to heat up 100 ml water by harvesting solar radiation.
Based on our analysis and prototype testing, the design should be able to
heat water up to a boiling point in about half an hour. Testing of the actual
device showed that it is able to heat 100 ml of water approximately 30°C above
the ambient temperature. To prevent the heat loss to the environment during the
heating process, a well thermal insulated but transparent container will be
used to hold the heating fluid. Once implemented, such proposed produce
will be able to provide hot water with no negative environmental effects and
minimal maintenance requirement. This proposed design will be able to serve
a wide range of hot water consumers.
 INDEX

Sr. Topic Page No.

No.
1. Introduction 6
2. Importance 7
3. Literature review 8
4. System Description 12
5. Fabrication 12
6. Methodology 13
7. Exiting Things 14
8. What we Do 15
9. Scope and De 15
Limitation of work
10. Application 16
11. Limitations 16
12. References 17
INTRODUCTION
A portable solar water heater has many potential markets in the camping, outdoors living,
and humanitarian sectors . People interested in any of these activities often need to heat a
small amount of water quickly, for drinking or to sanitizing equipment. In such situations,
making a fire or using a stove would be cumbersome and impractical, so a simpler, more
compact solution is sought. Here, a solar heater presents itself as a strong solution, as
solar energy has several advantages applicable to camping and outdoors activities.
Firstly, no special equipment is needed to generate solar energy – no wood or gas.
Secondly, insulation is very energy-dense, providing 1 KW per square meter on a clear
day. Finally, solar energy is available on-demand for an average of 12 hours per day:
even on overcast days, 150 W of energy per square meter still hits the Earth‟s surface at
mid-latitudes. All of this makes solar energy a consistent, powerful source of heat.
This solar water heater has two essential requirements: portability and rate of heating.
In order to be portable, the heater must fit in a 0.5 m cube. Beyond portability, it must heat
100 ml of water, enough for a small cup of coffee, as quickly as possible. Thus, in
designing such a heater, the main challenge is to concentrate solar energy from the 0.25
square meter surface of the heater to a much smaller water container. There are several
ways to concentrate solar energy, including solar panels, lenses, and reflectors. For a
portable, robust heater, reflectors appear to be the best option.

In the past two decade there has been a significant increase in the use of domestic solar
water heaters around the world, with solar water heater production now a major industry
in China, Australia, Greece, Israel and the USA {Morrison et al, 1999} Solar water
heaters are simple solar thermal applications that convert solar radiation into heat that is
used to warm water for bathing, washing, cleaning, and cooking (Hankins, 1995). Solar
water heating is now recognised as a reliable practice that saves substantial amounts of
electricity or other conventional fuels, leads to peak load reduction and prevents emission
of carbon dioxide. A domestic solar water heating system can provide close to 60% of the
energy required annually for water heating in a household (Dintchev, 2006). Solar water
heaters generally fall into two broad categories: concentrating type and non-concentrating
type. Flat plate collectors and evacuated tube collectors are the two most widely used non
concentrating type of solar water heaters. The concentrating type of heaters usually
employs parabolic/concave mirrors/reflectors to concentrate the total solar energy
incident on the collector surface. So the collector surface is usually very wide and the
temperature achieved is very high. Some of the collectors in this category are parabolic
trough, compound parabolic concentrator, parabolic dish, and cylindrical parabolic
concentrator. Parabolic dish has the highest efficiency in terms of the utilization of the
reflector area because in a fully steerable dish system there are no losses due to aperture
projection effects. Also radiation losses are small because of the small area of the
absorber at the focus (Rai, 2005).
Back home in Nigeria, several researches on heating water using solar energy have been
carried out, mainly by using flatplate collectors (DRERDAN, 1999). Other solar thermal
collectors have been used as well, though on a smaller scale,. Mohammed (2001)
constructed and used a parabolic trough collector for sensible heat water heating. Daudu
(2002) designed and developed a solar conical concentrator which was tested by heating
water up to 99o C. Manukaji and Akinbode (2002) constructed a parabolic-dish solar
concentrator which was then tested for various applications which included water-heating
and cooking food items. Pelemo et al (2003) designed and constructed a parabolic solar
concentrator which was then used and tested for water distillation. A more recent effort
was undertaken by Folaranmi (2009) who designed, constructed, and tested a parabolic
solar concentrator for steam generation.

Importance
Solar water that must be heated by a facility's conventional water-heating system; it
thereby directly substitutes renewable energy for electricity or fossil-fuel energy and cuts
utility bills. Each unit of energy delivered to heat water with a solar heating system yields
an even greater reduction in use of fossil fuels. For example, industrial-size water heating
that uses natural gas, propane, or fuel oil is typically only about 60% efficient and 75% to
80% efficient at best. Electric water heating is typically about 90% efficient and can be
98% efficient. However, producing that electricity from fossil fuels is generally only 30%
to 40% efficient. Furthermore, reducing fossil-fuel use for water heating not only saves
fossil fuel stock, but eliminates the air pollution and climate-changing gas emissions
associated with burning those fuels.
Literature review

This project required a general research, to discover and utilize the past findings of
others, this revealed articles discuss solar technologies and their construction. This served
as a great starting point for understanding some of the components of designing any type
of solar system; this included reviews on the design elements and materials needed for
the reflector and absorber for optimal performance. The research also revealed in-depth
consideration on several variation of solar heating systems and clear explanations on
some underlying principles of how these systems work. A bibliography of the research
resources used for this project is located at the end of this report.

The principle of parabolic reflectors has been known since classical antiquity, when the
mathematician Diocles described them in his book „On Burning Mirrors‟ and proved that
they focus a parallel beam to a point. Archimedes in the third century BC studied
paraboloids as part of his study of hydrostatic equilibrium, and it has been claimed that he
used reflectors to set the Roman fleet alight during the Siege of Syracuse. This seems
unlikely to be true, however, as the claim does not appear in sources before the 2nd
century AD, and Diocles does not mention it in his book. Parabolic mirrors were also
studied by the physicist IbnSahl in the 10th century. James Gregory, in his 1663 book
OpticaPromota (1663)-pointed out that a reflecting telescope with a mirror that was
parabolic would correct spherical aberration as well as the chromatic aberration seen in
refracting telescopes. The design he came up with bears his name: the "Gregorian
telescope"; but according to his own confession, Gregory had no practical skill and he
could find no optician capable of actually constructing one. Isaac Newton knew about the
properties of parabolic mirrors but chose a spherical shape for his Newtonian telescope
mirror to simplify construction. Lighthouses also commonly used parabolic mirrors to
collimate a point of light from a lantern into a beam, before being replaced by more
efficient Fresnel lenses in the 19th century (Wikipedia, 2010). Back in the 1800s a
Frenchman named AugustinMouchot was actively experimenting with solardishes to
concentrate the sun‟s energy. Mouchot was concerned that coal was all going to be used
up and that “Peak coal” was approaching. He said at that time “Eventually industry will
no longer find in Europe the resources to satisfy its prodigious expansion, Coal will
undoubtedly be used up.” A little later in 1882, Abel Pifre, Mouchot‟s assistant,
demonstrated a printing press in the TuilleriesGarden, Paris, powered by the sun, using a
3.5m diameter concave concentrating dish. At the focus of this concentrating furnace,
was a steam boiler which provided steam for the printing press (Gavin, 2007). Parabolic
mirror surfaces are used to focus energy efficiently and accurately; the most common
modern applications of the parabolic reflector are in satellite dishes, car headlights,
astronomical telescopes, spotlights, parabolic solar heater, reflecting telescopes, radio
telescopes, parabolic microphones, and many lighting devices such as spotlights, car
headlights and LED housings. The Olympic Flame has been lit using a parabolic reflector
concentrating sunlight. (Wikipedia, 2010)

Xiao Gang [2007] a closed parabolic trough solar collector is calculated in which a
hermetic box with a transparent cover and the parabolic reflector form the back parabolic
trough concerted solar collector. And the track of the sun is done by turning the box
about the receiver tube which is set with respect to the argument. The absorber is
make by two concentrating tube such that outer glass tube and an evacuated annular
gap between the working fluid and outer glass tube, for the reason of thermal
inclusion with an aluminum inner tube conducting the and an external tube for air
tightness. The centre of the boxes can be filled to a minor overpressure with air
or gas supplied by central apparatus due to prevent the dust from the atmosphere
and succeeding harm to the optic surfaces. Active carbon can be used to take
away mainly of the gaseous pollutants. Accept an optical loss of a few percentages owing
to reflection by the cover, this set up offer some reward over the present open
model, in particular a possible of significant cost reduction

Joshua Folaranmi [2009] designed, constructed and testing of a parabolic solar steam
maker mechanism on solar energy and prepared concentrating collector, heat from
the sun was concerted on a black absorber placed at the focal point of the
reflector in which water is heated to a extremely high temperature to form steam.
It also describes the sun tracking system element by manual oriented of the lever
at the base of the parabolic dish to imprison solar energy. The full arrangement is
mounting on a hinged frame support with a slot lever for tilting the parabolic dish
reflector to different angles so that the sun is all the time directed to the collector
at different period of the day. On the usual sunny and cloud free days, the test
results give high temperature more than 200°C.
Valentina A. Salomoni [2010] New Trends in design Parabolic trough Solar
Concentrators and Heat Storage Concrete arrangement in Solar Power Plants This design
give a common vision related to the last experience R&D in the field of new
technologies for solar energy use within the Italian context.

Rukenzlan [2001] has done their investigation on the topic optimization of the
geometry and material of solar water heaters. It was observed that thickness of the
absorber plate, spacing between pipes, diameters of pipes are the determining
factors for the efficiency of the collectors
Types of Solar Collector :

• Solar Collector is a device for collecting solar radiation.

• It also transfers the energy to a fluid passing in contact with it.

Solar Collector

Non Concentrating
Concentrating (Focusing)

• Solar Collector with associated absorber is essential component of any solar

energy conversion system
• Solar energy is converted into usable form ( heat or electricity )

Parameter Non Concentrating

Concentrating Collectors
Collectors
Absorber Area Same as Much smaller
Collector Area than Collector
Area
Obtained Less High
Temperature
Steam Pressure Low Medium
Efficiency Good Better
SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

The parabolic trough solar collector uses aluminum foil sheet in the shape of a
parabolic cylinder to reflect and concentrate sun radiations towards an absorber tube
located at the focus line of the parabolic cylinder. The receiver absorbs the incoming
radiations and transforms them into thermal energy, the latter being transported and
collected by a fluid medium circulating within the absorber tube. The absorber tube is
made of stainless steel tube. A schematic sketch of the test setup of the constructed
parabolic trough concentrator for domestic hot water application. The test setup it
consists of a solar collector, absorber tube.

FABRICATION OF THE PARABOLIC TROUGH

The material for the manufacture of the device was measured strength, suitability and
general availability. For building of the parabolic trough GI sheet is use. Aluminum
sheet has been chosen as material for collector. Initial, the structure was prepared of
a GI. Sheet material. On top of this parabolic form reflector-surface Aluminum
sheet was set with sticky materials. The absorber tube was prepared of stainless
steel tube is surrounded by a concentric glass cover. The sun tracking agreement
was providing to the system which is yourself operate.
METHODOLOGY

The objective is to use a mould pattern to cast the dish form. This has to have an
accurate shape and no imperfections upon the surface. A steel former with a top and
bottom axle is used to "form" the concrete mould to the shape of your parabola. Concrete
is readily workable to a smooth surface and it's relatively cheap, and any imperfections
can be repaired with filler afterwards, (It is easier to fill than grind off.) The various
materials to design components were locally sourced and manufactured by molding and
fabrication as the need demanded.

Once the mould is finished the dish can be cast from it with whatever you wish to use, -
i.e. more concrete, fiberglass, reinforced fiber polymer, clay, paper mach etc. If you wish
to use the dish as a microwave antenna then construction should be made with fiberglass
and "bird" wire netting or "aluminum foil" should be incorporated within the layers of
fiber-glassing; or perhaps coat the parabolic surface with a heavy copper based paint
(many coats ) This will provide the necessary reflective surface for the microwave
energy. If using fiber glassing, a "chrome" paint, or highly silvered paint could be applied
before applying the finish top clear gel coat, this may provide as at Is factory mirrored
surface. Shinny aluminum foil could also be "laid and rolled" before the top gel coat and
might provide a good reflector. Thin polished stainless steel sections cut to fit in together
could be laid onto the surface and held into position from the rim and centre, and would
provide a good mirrored surface for any use. Silicon sealant applied sparingly might
"hold" any stubborn pieces down.
EXITING THINGS

A parabolic reflector (or dish or mirror) is a type of concentrating reflective device

that uses the shape of a circular paraboloid (i.e. surface generated by a parabola revolving
around its axis) to collect or project energy such as light, sound, or radio waves. The
parabolic reflector transforms an incoming plane wave traveling along the axis into a
spherical wave converging toward the focus. Conversely, a spherical wave generated by a
point source placed in the focus is transformed into a plane wave propagating as a
collimated beam along the axis. [Wikipedia, 2010] Satellite dishes are used to
concentrating waves emitted from satellites far above the earth surface into a focal point
to strengthen the signal. Radio and television telescopes perched up high on hillsides also
take signals from a wide area, focusing it down to a small point. These technologies are
taking weak signals from outer space to a fine point where they can be processed. Solar
concentrators using parabolic dishes are exactly the same with these technologies, the
difference being the medium used to coat the dishes. Rather than being reflective to radio
waves, the coatings used to coat a parabolic solar reflector
are mirrors.
WHAT WE DO
1. For air working temp. of 250° C is comfortably achieved. Max. temp.
attained for air is about 400° C. Thermic fluid can be comfortably used
with second stage heat exchanger for steam generation.
2. 100% aperture area available round the year.
3. Because of Parabolic plate manual or motor rotation of plate collector is
avoided.
4. Heated water very fast than flat plate collector.
5. More Efficient in low wavelength of sunlight than any other heater.

SCOPE AND DE-LIMITATION OF WORK

This project would only cover the design and construction of a parabolic solar dish that
would serve as a collector and concentrator of the sun‟s energy, choice of materials for
better performance, calculations as relating to the designed system such as the amount of
heat energy that can be generated by this system, and the amount of time it would take to
achieve the amount of heat energy needed. The obtained temperatures can be applied as
follow:
 For less than 100oC: water heating for domestic use and swimming pools, heating
of buildings, and evaporative systems such as distillation and dryers
 For less than 150oC: air conditioning, and heating of water, oil, or air for industrial
use.

The importance of this project is harnessing the sun‟s thermal energy for heating of water
and other fluids for domestic and industrial purposes.
APLICATIONS
 Hospitals
 Other large health care facilities suchas large clinics
 Military
 Food preparation
 Laundries

LIMITATIONS
 Concentration systems collect little diffuse radiation depending on the
concentration ratio.
 Some form of tracking system is required so as to enable the collector To follow
the sun.
 Non uniform flux on the absorber whereas flux in flat plate collector Uniform.
 High initial cost.
REFERENCES
[1] Garg H.P. and Prakash J. (2000) “Solar Energy.” Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi.
[2] Klein S.A. (1977) “Calculation of Monthly Average Insolation on Tilted
Surfaces”. Solar Energy, 19, 325.
[3] Morrison, G.L. and Wood, B.D. (1999), Packaged solar water heating
technology twenty years of progress, Solar Energy,.
[4] Rai G.D. (2005) “Solar Energy Utilisation”, 5th edn. Khanna Publishers Delhi,
India..
[5] Stine W.B. and Harrigan R.W. (1985) “Solar Energy Fundamentals and Design”.
John Wiley and Sons Inc., New York.

THANK YOU