Thermohydraulic Behavior of the Liquid–Vapor Flow in the Receiver Tube of a Solar Parabolic Trough Collector

Liquid–vapor flows are present in many industrial applications. In particular, in the solar field, these flows are encountered in the new generations of solar parabolic trough collectors with direct steam generation (PTCs-DSG). In this technical brief, we compare the two-phase convective transfer and the pressure drop models in the PTC-DSG. The results show that the heat exchange coefficients estimated by Chen–Cooper, Shah, Gungor–Winterton, and Kandlikar models have same trend with difference between them. However, the models of Liu–Winterton and Steiner–Taborek seem inappropriate due to the decrease in the exchange coefficient for moderate and high steam qualities. In addition, a comparison of the models describing pressure drops with experimental data of literature was carried out. The results show that the pressure decreases as the steam quality increases and the differences between these models remain small. Friedel's model is the closest to the experiment for high inlet pressures and flow rates, while Chisholm's model gives the best prediction of the pressure drop for low inlet conditions. Effect analysis of inlet conditions shows that the increase in inlet water mass flow and decrease in pressure favor convective heat transfer. The variation of heat flux on tube wall does not affect the convective boiling heat coefficient evaluated by the Chen–Copper model, whereas it influences the calculating coefficient by Gungor–Winterton model for high heat flux and particularly for low steam qualities. Pressure drops are higher at high flow rates and low pressures.