University of Tehran Journal of Solar Energy Research 2588-3097 10 SI: Emerging Trends in Photothermal Conversion for Solar Energy Harvesting 2025 03 01 A Comparative Analysis of Standard and Flat Reflector Integrated Parabolic Trough Solar Collectors for Hot Water Generation 1 11 101037 10.22059/jser.2025.379565.1440 EN Gunjan Kumar Department of Mechanical Engineering, UPL University of Sustainable Technology, Ankleshwar, Gujarat, India 0000-0003-4662-5754 Amit Galphade Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Sigma University, Bakrol, Vadodara, India Ankit Solanki Department of Mechanical Engineering, UPL University of Sustainable Technology, Ankleshwar, India Sandhya BN Department of Mechanical Engineering, UPL University of Sustainable Technology, Ankleshwar, India Karan Vasava Department of Mechanical Engineering, UPL University of Sustainable Technology, Ankleshwar, India Journal Article 2024 07 25 The vital elements of solar thermal technology are solar collectors, which collect solar radiation and produce heat energy. They can be broadly divided into two categories: focused and non-focused. Parabolic trough collectors belong to the type of focused systems that accommodates reflected radiation into a centrally located receiver. Parabolic collectors are commonly employed to fulfill process heat requirements. This paper presents an experimental analysis of a parabolic solar concentrator using both flat and parabolic reflectors. This study investigates the practical performance of a standard and novel flat reflector integrated parabolic trough solar collector while maintaining identical operational conditions. The novel collector's maximum thermal efficiency is recorded as 55%, which is competitive with the standard parabolic trough collector's performance. The average temperature difference of working fluid is 6.85°C, indicating a 1.14°C increase compared to the standard parabolic trough collector that was examined. The findings of this work provides vital information to researchers and scientists working in this field. https://jser.ut.ac.ir/article_101037_17e07daefe8b6ee31f109cbeeaa4d85a.pdf