Guofeng Yuan

Performance and durability testing of parabolic trough receivers

The paper describes the key performance and durability testing facilities of the parabolic trough receiver developed by Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The indoor heat loss test can be applied at 4-7 different temperature levels within 200-550 on receivers. The optical efficiency test bench consists of 12 metal halide lamps as the solar simulator and a 5u2005m length half-elliptical cylinder reflector with flat end reflectors. 3 ultra-precision temperature sensors are used in receiver each end to get the temperature difference. The residual gas analysis test bench is applied to analyze and predict the vacuum lifetime of the receiver. It can test the variations of composition and partial pressure of residual gases with temperature and time in the receiver annulus space by a high sensitivity quadrupole mass spectrometer gas analyzer. A coating accelerated ageing test bench, which is also used to test the thermal cycle, has been developed. This test bench uses the absorber tube ...