To better guide the design and efficient operation and maintennce of solar trough collector system

the influence of the reflector's parabolic deformation on the allowed tracking error of the collector is investigated. Three dimensionless parameters

such as width focus ratio

focus deviation ratio and focus position deviation rate

are defined. The ideal allowed tracking error of the parabolic trough collector in different sizes is calculated

and the allowed tracking error variation with parabolic deformation of the reflector are given. Moreover

the effect of wide focus ratio

focal deviation ratio and concentration ratio on the allowed tracking error is calculated

and the result is drawn

then the variation of the allowed tracking error and the maximum deformation size are given based on different geometric sizes. The calculation results show that

the theoretical allowed tracking error reaches the maximum when the width focus ratio is 4

the coupling effects of the above three dimensionless parameters determine the value of the allowed tracking error

and the"expansion"deformation is unfavorable for the collector optical concentration. On the basis of the chart given in this paper

the concentrating loss of the collector can be predicted and the suitable tracking system can be designed to promote the application of the parabolic trough solar thermal utilization system.