A medium temperature parabolic trough solar collector used to drive a cooling installation located at the Center of Researches and Energy Technologies was studied.
Optical evaluations of the collectors using photogrammetric
techniques were performed. The procedures of images capturing
and 3D processing are presented. The analysis and readjustments
of the optical results were conducted using a Matlab code
leading to the identification of the slope errors and the height
deviations from the ideal shapes of the parabolic trough collector.
Moreover, thermal performance testing of the parabolic
trough collector was presented leading to the thermal efficiency
and heat losses evaluations. The main results and relevance are