Parabolic Trough Solar Receiver Analyzer — Interactive Web Portal
An interactive simulation portal for the thermal, hydraulic, and exergy analysis of parabolic trough collector (PTC) receiver tubes. The tool is based on a direct numerical implementation of the Gnielinski heat transfer correlation, Petukhov friction factor, Stefan–Boltzmann radiation model, and Petela exergy formulation. The working fluid is Syltherm-800 with temperature-dependent thermophysical properties interpolated from a validated lookup table.
Key features:
Nine input parameters covering receiver geometry, glass envelope dimensions, and operating conditions
Twelve primary simulation outputs including Nusselt number, convective HTC, pressure drop, receiver temperature, thermal efficiency, and exergy efficiency
Thirteen derived engineering metrics including Peclet number, Stanton number, concentration ratio, heat flux, and pump power
Six detailed analysis charts including Nu–Re log-log correlation map, energy flow breakdown, heat loss vs temperature, and pressure drop vs flow rate
Full parametric sweep studies across mass flow rate, solar irradiance, inlet temperature, wind speed, and receiver length
Syltherm-800 thermophysical property curves from 300 K to 650 K
Picard iteration solver with convergence tolerance of 10⁻⁶
Downloadable CSV results for post-processing
The portal is built using Python and Flask on the backend and runs entirely in the browser with no installation required.
🔗 Access the tool here: https://ptc-analyzer.onrender.com
Call Toll Free - 