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Influence of the size of facets on point focus solar concentrators

David Riveros-Rosas, Marcelino Sánchez-González, Camilo A. Arancibia-Bulnes and Claudio A. Estrada

Renewable Energy, 2011, vol. 36, issue 3, 966-970

Abstract: It is a common practice in the development of point focus solar concentrators to use multiple identical reflecting facets, as a practical and economic alternative for the design and construction of large systems. This kind of systems behaves in a different manner than continuous paraboloidal concentrators. A theoretical study is carried out to understand the effect of the size of facets and of their optical errors in multiple facet point focus solar concentrating systems. For this purpose, a ray tracing program was developed based on the convolution technique, in which the brightness distribution of the sun and the optical errors of the reflecting surfaces are considered. The study shows that both the peak of concentration and the optimal focal distance of the system strongly depend on the size of the facets, and on their optical errors. These results are useful to help concentrator developers to have a better understanding of the relationship between manufacturing design restrictions and final optical behavior.

Keywords: Solar concentrator; Faceted concentrator; Optical design; Ray tracing; Radiative flux distribution; Optical error (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:36:y:2011:i:3:p:966-970

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2010.08.038

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