Optical Study of a 3-D Elliptical Hyperboloid Concentrator
Abstract
The optical performance of a solar concentrator is mostly depends on the geometry of the concentrator profile. In the present paper, work focuses on the optical efficiency of 3-D Elliptical Hyperboloid Concentrator (3-D EHC) using Optis TM Ray-trace software. An extensive theoretical prediction, using a 3-D ray tracing technique has been adopted in the current investigation to calculate the optical efficiency of a novel 3-D EHC. The effect of source angle (from +90° to -90°) on the optical efficiency of a 3-D EHC is reported. Due to the wide acceptance angle of the Elliptical Hyperboloid solar Concentrator, the optical efficiency was found to be 87% for a concentration ratio of 18×. Due to the three-dimensional nature of the Elliptical hyperboloid solar concentrator, the optical efficiency and the concentration ratio are also a function geometric parameters such as the ratio of the concentrator height to each of the receiver’s major and minor axes; a parametric study of these variables has also been conducted The aperture length was fixed for all simulations. Results presented also show the distribution of the concentrated radiant energy over the receiver/absorber. For the range of parameters investigated, an optimum design is presented.