Design and optical performance of CPC based compound plane concentrators

Feng Tang, Guihua Li and Runsheng Tang

Renewable Energy, 2016, vol. 95, issue C, 140-151

Abstract: To simplify the fabrication of compound parabolic concentrators (CPC) with a one-sided flat absorber and make solar radiation on the absorber more uniform, an attempt is made here to use multiple plane mirrors in place of parabolic reflectors to construct a compound plane concentrator (CPC-A, in short). The design procedure of such concentrator as an alternative to CPCs is presented based on the edge-ray principle, and its optical performance and design optimization are theoretically investigated. Analysis shows that the effective acceptance half-angle (θea) of CPC-A, dependent on plane mirror's number (N) and geometry of CPC based on which CPC-A is designed, is always less than the acceptance half-angle (θa) of CPC but gradually close to θa with the increase of N, and the optical efficiency of both CPC-A and CPC is almost identical for solar radiation withinθea. Results revealed that the annual collectible radiation of CPC-A oriented in the east-west direction is almost identical to that of CPC only if the sun is kept withinθea for at least 7 h in all day of a year by periodically adjusting its tilt-angle. A further analysis indicates that CPC-A designed based on the edge-ray principle is not an optimal design but can be regarded as optimal geometry for maximizing its annual radiation collection.

Keywords: Compound parabolic concentrator; Compound plane concentrator (CPC-A); Design of CPC-A; Optical performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:95:y:2016:i:c:p:140-151

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2016.04.004

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