An optical analysis of a static 3-D solar concentrator

Abstract Concentrating technology is long established in the field of solar thermal applications. However, there is still scope for improvement due to innovation in design, materials and manufacturing methods. The optical efficiency of a solar concentrator depends largely on the geometry of the concentrator profile. This paper evaluates the optical performance of a static 3-D Elliptical Hyperboloid Concentrator (EHC) using ray tracing software. Ray tracing has been used extensively to calculate the optical efficiency of the static 3-D EHC. Performance parameters such as effective concentration ratio, optical efficiency and geometric concentration ratio are also evaluated for different aspect ratios of the elliptical profile. Optimization of the concentrator profile and geometry is also carried out to improve the overall performance; this parametric study includes the concentrator height, solar incidence angle and aspect ratio of the ellipse. The overall performance of the concentrator was assessed based on the acceptance angle, effective concentration ratio and optical efficiency. Finally, the flux distribution on the receiver area for different concentrator heights is also presented.

[1]  P. Yianoulis,et al.  CPC solar collectors with multichannel absorber , 1996 .

[2]  Tapas K. Mallick,et al.  Optical performance evaluation of a 2-D and 3-D hyperboloid solar concentrator , 2010 .

[3]  U. Ortabasi,et al.  An internal cusp reflector for an evacuated tubular heat pipe solar thermal collector , 1977 .

[4]  Björn Karlsson,et al.  Measurement of radiation distribution on the absorber in an asymmetric CPC collector , 2004 .

[5]  Daniel Vázquez,et al.  Ideal 3D asymmetric concentrator , 2009 .

[6]  Ramon Pujol Nadal,et al.  Optical Analysis of the Fixed Mirror Solar Concentrator by Forward Ray-Tracing Procedure , 2012 .

[7]  Mervyn Smyth,et al.  The experimental validation of a comprehensive unified model for optics and heat transfer in line-axis solar energy systems , 2001 .

[8]  Spiros Papaefthimiou,et al.  CPC solar collectors with flat bifacial absorbers , 2000 .

[9]  J M Gordon,et al.  Complementary construction of ideal nonimaging concentrators and its applications. , 1996, Applied optics.

[10]  Tapas K. Mallick,et al.  Optical characterisation of 3-D static solar concentrator , 2012 .

[11]  Juan C. Miñano,et al.  Application of Lorentz geometry to nonimaging optics: new three-dimensional ideal concentrators , 1996 .

[12]  W. Welford,et al.  Geometrical vector flux and some new nonimaging concentrators , 1979 .

[13]  P. Bendt,et al.  Optical Analysis and Optimization of Line Focus Solar Collectors , 1979 .

[14]  Tapas K. Mallick,et al.  The design and experimental characterisation of an asymmetric compound parabolic photovoltaic concentrator for building façade integration in the UK , 2004 .

[15]  W. Beckman,et al.  Solar Engineering of Thermal Processes , 1985 .