Elliptical-Shaped Fresnel Lens Design through Gaussian Source Distribution

Dário Garcia, Dawei Liang, Joana Almeida, Bruno D. Tibúrcio, Hugo Costa, Miguel Catela and Cláudia R. Vistas
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Dário Garcia: CEFITEC, Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Dawei Liang: CEFITEC, Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Joana Almeida: CEFITEC, Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Bruno D. Tibúrcio: CEFITEC, Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Hugo Costa: CEFITEC, Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Miguel Catela: CEFITEC, Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Cláudia R. Vistas: CEFITEC, Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 2, 1-21

Abstract: A novel three-dimensional elliptical-shaped Fresnel lens (ESFL) analytical model is presented to evaluate and maximize the solar energy concentration of Fresnel-lens-based solar concentrators. AutoCAD, Zemax and Ansys software were used for the ESFL design, performance evaluation and temperature calculation, respectively. Contrary to the previous modeling processes, based on the edge-ray principle with an acceptance half-angle of ±0.27° as the key defining parameter, the present model uses, instead, a Gaussian distribution to define the solar source in Zemax. The results were validated through the numerical analysis of published experimental data from a flat Fresnel lens. An in-depth study of the influence of several ESFL factors, such as focal length, arch height and aspect ratio, on its output performance is carried out. Moreover, the evaluation of the ESFL output performance as a function of the number/size of the grooves is also analyzed. Compared to the typical 1–16 grooves per millimeter reported in the previous literature, this mathematical parametric modeling allowed a substantial reduction in grooves/mm to 0.3–0.4, which may enable an easy mass production of ESFL. The concentrated solar distribution of the optimal ESFL configuration was then compared to that of the best flat Fresnel lens configuration, under the same focusing conditions. Due to the elliptical shape of the lens, the chromatic aberration effect was largely reduced, resulting in higher concentrated solar flux and temperature. Over 2360 K and 1360 K maximum temperatures were found for ESFL and flat Fresnel lenses, respectively, demonstrating the great potential of the three-dimensional curved-shaped Fresnel lens on renewable solar energy applications that require high concentrations of solar fluxes and temperatures.

Keywords: Fresnel lens; Gaussian source; groove number; solar flux; optical efficiency; full width at half maximum (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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