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Design and analysis of a compact solar concentrator tracking via the refraction of the rotating prism

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  • Zhou, Ran
  • Wang, Ruilin
  • Xing, Chenjian
  • Sun, Jian
  • Guo, Yafei
  • Li, Weiling
  • Qu, Wanjun
  • Hong, Hui
  • Zhao, Chuanwen

Abstract

The area for the solar energy utilization in the building is limited. With this in mind, a compact solar collector which integrated the prism and semi-parabolic trough mirror is proposed for the efficiently solar energy collecting in limited space. The prism is rotated to track the sun and keep the emitted sunlight perpendicular to the aperture of semi-parabolic trough mirror. The sunlight from the prism is then reflected and concentrated by semi-parabolic trough mirror and finally absorbed by the receiver tube. Based on the rigorous theoretical model, the tracking strategy is proposed and verified, which indicate that the sun could be tracked exactly and the tracking strategy is effective in the condition of non-parallel and multi-spectrum solar radiation. The geometric concentrating ratio, geometric parameters and the row arrangement of the proposed solar collector are all optimized. The results show that the annual solar-to-thermal efficiency evaluated by land area of the proposed solar collector is up to 41.1%, which is 6.7 and 17.6 percent points higher than those of parabolic trough and flat plate collectors, respectively. With the performance advantage in the solar collecting within limited space, the proposed solar collector could provide a promising approach for the solar energy utilization in the building.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhou, Ran & Wang, Ruilin & Xing, Chenjian & Sun, Jian & Guo, Yafei & Li, Weiling & Qu, Wanjun & Hong, Hui & Zhao, Chuanwen, 2022. "Design and analysis of a compact solar concentrator tracking via the refraction of the rotating prism," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:251:y:2022:i:c:s0360544222007034
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2022.123800
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