Design, Fabrication And Experimental Evaluation Of Parabolic Trough Solar Concentrator At Bangi, Malaysia

Solar thermal energy is one of' the potential sources of energy that compliments the fossil fuels
for electricity and water heating system. Solar thermal collectors (STC) are among the costeffective
systems of, this technology. The parabolic trough solar collector (PTC) is among the
most promising technology of' solar thermal collector design. However, implementation of solar
thermal system in tropical regions like Malaysia face challenges due to the characteristic nature
of' the country that characterized by heavy rainfall, fönnation of clouds, occasional winds,
varying temperatures and high humidity. Therefore, this study investigates the maximum thermal
efficiency of' water heating system achieved from a simple solar thermal collector design under
climatic conditions of Ban-i, Malaysia. The design used is parabolic trough solar collector of
aperture area of 0.96 in embedded with automatic tracking system with aluminum toil reflecting
material. Receiver of' the system was tested using copper and aluminum tube with difi'erent
diameter, size and conditions (covered and uncovered). Experimental evaluation of water heating
system was carried out under the static and flowing water conditions. Experimental results
indicate that the automatic tracking PTC together with 2 cm aluminum and copper tube
receivers performed adequately with an average thermal efficiencies of' 36 °o and 30 °o
respectively. Results also indicate that the solar thermal system with automatic tracking together
with smaller 1 cm diameter tube receiver enclosed inside a cover box achieves efficiency of 27
`%,. Most importantly, inexpensive parabolic trough reflector with low-cost design successfully
used as water heating system up to temperature 100° C adequately under tropical climatic
condition of Bangi, Malaysia.