Journal of Solar Energy Research

Attribute Based Characterization, Ranking and Optimum Selection of a Parabolic Trough Concentrator Using MADM-TOPSIS Approach

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Mechanical Engineering Department, Maharishi Markandeshwar (Deemed To Be) University, Mullana, India

2 Vedantu Innovations Pvt. Ltd, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

3 Mechanical Engineering Department, Maharishi Markandeshwar (Deemed To Be) University Mullana Ambala India

4 Department of Agriculture, Maharishi Markandeshwar (Deemed To Be) University Mullana Ambala India

10.22059/jser.2025.393205.1554

Abstract

The selection of solar collector for a particular application is always been a matter of thought to the end users. Due to increasing complexity in design and features of different solar collectors the selection becomes tedious. The objective of this research is to generate and maintain a reliable and exhaustive database of parabolic trough concentrator (PTC) based on its different pertinent attributes. This database can be used to standardize the PTC selection procedure when the manufacturing company decides to use the PTC for a particular application. This saves time of the user as it provides a tool for selecting the most suited PTC according to the requirements. The PTC selection procedure helps in shortlisting the potentially suitable design using elimination search based on a few critical attributes. Subsequently, ranking of all the alternative designs is done by employing different attributes based specification methods. In this study, the ranking and selection are done using MADM-TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) and explained with the help of an illustration. A SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat) analysis is also done for the use of PTC technology.

Keywords

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Journal of Solar Energy Research
Volume 10, Issue 2
April 2025
Pages 2406-2414