Question

Explain the difference between parabolic dish and trough by drawing both the schematics, Discuss which one is better and why?

Neat and clean schematic diagram of both.

Answer 1

Answer

parabolic dish collector

A parabolic dish reflector (PDR) is a point-focus system with a paraboloid geometry given by the revolution of one half of a parabola around its normal axis.

Sunlight entering the collector aperture with a normal incidence is concentrated onto a heat receiver located at the focal point of the dish.

parabolic trough dish collector

Parabolic trough systems uses curved, parabola-shaped reflectors that use mirror coating to concentrate sunlight on a tube filled with liquid.

This tube, frequently called a Dewar tube, is usually filled with oil and carries the heated fluid to an engine similar to a traditional power plant.

which is better parabolic or parobolic trough

The most efficient shape for a solar collector is the parabolic shape since it can focus the suns energy on a small heat exchanger, 10” x 10”.

By concentrating the sun's energy onto a focal point, less collection surface area is required and that lowers costs.