Inthispaper,wepresentathreedimensionalnumericalinvestigationofheattransferinaparabolictroughcollectorreceiverwithlongitudinalfinsusingdifferentkindsofnanofluid,withanoperationaltemperatureof573Kandnanoparticleconcentrationof1%involume.Theoutersurfaceoftheabsorberreceivesanon-uniformheatflux,whichisobtainedbyusingtheMonteCarloraytracingtechnique.Thenumericalresultsarecontrastedwithempiricalresultsavailableintheopenliterature.AsignificantimprovementofheattransferisderivedwhentheReynoldsnumbervariesintherange2.57×104≤Re≤2.57×105,thetube-sideNusseltnumberincreasesfrom1.3to1.8times,alsothemetallicnanoparticlesimproveheattransfergreatlythanothernanoparticles,combiningbothmechanismsprovidesbetterheattransferandhigherthermo-hydraulicperformance.
