Solar Energy 135 (2016) 780–785

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Solar Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

Optical analysis of solar collector with new V-shaped CPC

Jun Wang a,⇑, Lei Yu b, Chuan Jiang a, Song Yang a, Tingting Liu a
a
Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Solar Energy Science and Technology, School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
b
Nanjing SolarU Energy Saving Technology Co., Ltd., Nangjing 210096, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Compound parabolic concentrators (CPC) with tubular absorbers are widely used in solar thermal sys-
Received 16 March 2016 tems because they can achieve the highest concentration without tracking system. Reducing the gap loss
Received in revised form 6 June 2016 is important for utilization of the concentrators. This paper proposes a model with new V-shaped profile
Accepted 7 June 2016
at the bottom of the reflector according edge ray principle and established the model, discusses this
Available online 30 June 2016
model about relative concentrating ratio and gap efficiency. A detailed model of the optical efficiency
for the solar collector with inner CPC is built, analyzes the parameters of the model, such as geometrical
Keywords:
optics efficiency, transmittance, reflectance and absorption ratio, with methods of ray tracing and geo-
CPC
Optical efficiency
metrical optics. For Accurate analysis, the optical efficiency is divided into the beam and diffuse optical
Solar collector efficiency, and incidence angle radial is divided into incidence angle and axial incidence angle, then ana-
Ray tracing lyzes optical efficiency of the designed CPC based on the model, concludes how to select the model in
Edge ray principle accordance with the size of the gap, and proves CPC with the new V-shaped profile has a good prospect.
V-shaped Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction 1984). Ortabasi proposed to form the gap of CPC by changing invo-
lute starting point (Ortabasi and Buehl, 1980b).
Compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) is a non-imaging con- This paper proposed a new V-shaped CPC model will optimize
centrator based on the edge optical principle. Many scholars have the optical performance of CPC, and designed a solar collector with
done research on it for it can concentrate solar energy without new V-shaped inner CPC and heat pipe (Fig. 2), researched on the
tracking (Winston, 1974; Winston and Hinterberger, 1975; Rabl, model of the solar collector with CPC, considered the various fac-
1976a,b; Ortabasi and Buehl, 1980b,a; Peters and Bales; Duffie tors affecting the optical efficiency, formed a reasonable model
and Beckman, 1991; Hongchuan and Zinian, 1996; Collares- for optical analysis of CPC, and made analysis about the designed
Pereira et al., 1978; Welford and Winston, 1978; Mcintire, 1979; solar collector by this model.
Kothdiwala et al., 1995; Khnkar and Sayigh, 1995; Fraidenraich
and Lima, 1999; Durrani and Tariq, 2007; Yong et al., 2008; 2. New V-shaped CPC
Buttinger et al., 2010). CPC with tubular absorber was widely used,
but it is inevitable that there is a gap between the absorber and the The profile curve of CPC with tubular absorber contains involute
reflector and cause energy loss. Research about the form and effi- section and curve section (Ortabasi and Buehl, 1980b).
ciency of CPC gap shows the gap loss of solar energy is about 5–
20% (Rabl, 1979; Hsieh, 1980; Mcintire, 1980, 1984; Oommen x ¼ r sin t  IðtÞ cos t ð1Þ
and Jayaraman, 2001). Rabl proposed three forms of CPC gap, (a) y ¼ r cos t  IðtÞ sin t ð2Þ
reducing the size of tubular absorber, (b) truncating the corners,
(c) changing the shape of absorber (Rabl, 1979) (Fig. 1), besides, involute section.
moving up the absorber is common in actual design (Fig. 1d). These IðtÞ ¼ rt ð0 6 t 6 p=2 þ ha Þ ð3Þ
methods result in many of energy loss and optical efficiency fluctu-
ations. Mcintire proposed the form of CPC gap, V-shaped or W- curve section.
shaped instead of the involute corners, which avoids the gap loss, rðp=2 þ t þ ha  cosðt  ha ÞÞ
IðtÞ ¼ ðp=2 þ ha 6 t 6 3p=2  ha Þ
but to lose about 15% of the concentration ratio (Mcintire, 1980, 1 þ sinðt  ha Þ
ð4Þ
⇑ Corresponding author. where ha is acceptance half angle, r is radius of absorber, t is angle
E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Wang). variable parameter.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2016.06.019
0038-092X/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 J. Wang et al. / Solar Energy 135 (2016) 780–785 781

Fig. 1. Four forms of CPC gap.

Fig. 3. Schematic of new V-shaped CPC.

y ¼ kðx  r sin t 1 þ t1 r cos t1 Þ  r cos t1  t1 r sin t1


r
ð0 6 x 6 r sin t1  t1 r cos t 1 Þ 1= tan h1 þ 2 arcsin
rþg


h1
P k P tan ð7Þ
Fig. 2. Designed solar collector with inner CPC. 1. Evaporation section of heat pipe,
2
2. CPC reflector, 3. Vacuum, 4. Glass tube, 5. Condensation section of heat pipe, 6. IðtÞ ¼ rt ðt1 6 t 6 p=2 þ hÞ ð8Þ
Pipe end cap.
For the case of g/r > 0.51, according to the same principle, we
can design CPC of ‘‘V”s (Fig. 3b), which minimize the gap loss.
New V-shaped CPC is based on the curve equation substituting
V-shaped line for involute corners.
This design is based on the edge ray principle, the light into the 3. Comparative analysis for CPCs
V-shaped area can be completely reflected onto the absorber, as
long as meet the following two conditions (Fig. 3a). 3.1. Relative concentration ratio

(1) Horizontal rays reflected on the V shaped reflector can reach Winston proved the maximum concentration ratio of CPC is 1/
the tubular absorber. sin h (Rabl, 1976a). In order to facilitate the analysis, this paper
(2) Tangent to the circle of rays reflected on the V shaped reflec- define quasi concentration ratio as the area ratio of the CPC open-
 
tor can reach the tubular absorber. ing to the absorber 2Dpr , it might be greater than 1/sin h because of
at a certain incidence angle it could result in optical loss, define rel-
Meet the condition of 1. ative concentration ratio as the ratio of quasi concentration ratio to



 1/sin h.
h1 cos t1 þ t 1 sin t1
k P tan h1 ¼ p  arctan
2 sin t1  t1 cos t1 (1) For CPC’s of Fig. 1 and new V-shaped CPC, the relative con-


r centration ratio is 1.
 arcsin ð5Þ
rþg (2) For W-shaped CPC (Mcintire, 1980, 1984),

Meet the condition of 2.

p  to


 c¼ ð9Þ
r p
k 6 1 tan h1 þ 2 arcsin ð6Þ
rþg (3) For changing involute starting point (Ortabasi and Buehl,
1980b),
where k is the slope of V, g is the distance between the absorber and 0sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 1,
the reflector.

2
1 1
There is a solution of k can satisfy the above two conditions c ¼1þ@ 2 1 þ  1  to A p ð10Þ
cos t o cos t o
when g/r < 0.51, according to Eqs. (5) and (6).
So the curve section of new V-shaped CPC is calculated with Eq.
(4), the involute section of new V-shaped CPC is as follows. where c is relative concentration ratio, to is involute starting angle.
782 J. Wang et al. / Solar Energy 135 (2016) 780–785

3.2. Gap loss rate

Rabl defined gap loss rate (Rabl, 1976a).

Light through gap

gap loss rate ¼
Light reach the absorber and through gap
(1) For Fig. 1a.
L ¼ g=r ð11Þ
(2) For Fig. 1b.
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1
L¼ 2g=r þ ðg=rÞ2  arccos½r=ðg þ rÞ ð12Þ
p
(3) For Fig. 1d.
L < g=2r ð13Þ
gg ¼ 1  L ð14Þ

where L is gap loss rate, gg is gap efficiency.

Fig. 5. Curves for gap efficiency of CPCs.
(4) For W-shaped CPC (Mcintire, 1980, 1984), the gap loss rate
is 0.
(5) For changing involute starting point (Ortabasi and Buehl, 3.3.2. Gap efficiency of new V-shaped CPC
1980b), the gap loss rate is calculated by formula (12). Fig. 5 shows gap efficiency of new V-shaped CPC, with different
acceptance half angles and incidence angles, the abscissa is gap
In following optical simulation, the gap loss rate is defined as efficiency, the ordinate is the ratio of incidence angle and accep-
the rate of rays escape from CPC to rays into CPC. tance half angle.
According to the simulation data, the average gap efficiency of
3.3. Ray tracing simulation new V-shaped CPC is mainly related to the gap size, little to do
with the acceptance half angle. The formula of average gap effi-
3.3.1. Simulation and comparative analysis for CPCs ciency for new V-shaped CPC was integrated as follow. For new
In order to accurately analyze the loss of light energy caused by V-shaped CPC, g is the minimum distance between CPC reflector
the gap and its variation with angle, the simulation analysis of the and absorber as shown in Fig. 3c.
CPCs is done with optical software TracePro.
g
CPCs with various forms of gap was simulated by ray tracing gg ¼ 1  0:09 ð15Þ
r
method, including truncating the corners, moving up the absorber,
W-shaped CPC, changing involute starting point, new V-shaped
CPC (Setting h to 30°, g/r to 0.5, the number of tracing rays to 1000).
4. Optical efficiency analysis of CPC
Simulation data is shown in Fig. 4, the abscissa is overall effi-
ciency, the ordinate is incidence angle. Where overall efficiency
4.1. Optical efficiency of CPC
is the product of gap efficiency and relative concentration ratio,
incidence angle is the angle between the center axis of CPC and
Optical efficiency of solar collector is defined as the ratio of the
the incident ray.
solar energy absorbed by absorber and the solar energy into the
From Fig. 4 it can be seen that, moving up the absorber can
collecting surface of solar collector.
increase scope of receiving angle, but the average optical efficiency
is low and volatile, W-shaped CPC has a stable optical efficiency,
(1) The collecting surface for designed CPC is defined as the rect-
but relative concentrating ratio is low, the optical efficiency of
angular plane width of the glass tube diameter, length of col-
changing involute starting point and new V-shaped CPC is rela-
lector length (Fig. 6).
tively high, the efficiency of new V-shaped CPC is more stable.
(2) Incidence angle h of CPC is decomposed into radial incidence
angle hr and axial incidence angle ha (Fig. 6).
(3) The reflection radiation from the ground and the building is
included in the diffuse radiation.

Fig. 4. Curves for overall efficiencies of CPCs. Fig. 6. Schematic of the incidence angle of CPC.
 J. Wang et al. / Solar Energy 135 (2016) 780–785 783

The optical efficiency was derived according to the structure of

this collector.
Ib  gopt;b þ Id  gopt;d
gopt ¼  ra ð16Þ
Ib þ Id
gopt;b¼ sb  qb  ab  fb ð17Þ
gopt;d ¼ sd  qd  ad  fd ð18Þ

where gopt is optical efficiency, gopt,b and gopt,d are the beam and dif-
fuse optical efficiency, Ib and Id are the beam and diffuse solar radi-
ation intensity (W/m2), sb and sd are the beam and diffuse
transmittance, qb and qd are the beam and diffuse reflectance, ab
and ad are the beam and diffuse absorption ratio, fb and fd are the
beam and diffuse geometrical optical efficiency, ra is the area ratio
of CPC open surface and the collecting surface.
The optical efficiency of the CPC could be calculated if the struc-
Fig. 8. Relationship between fb1 and hr.
ture size of CPC, material properties, beam radiation intensity, dif-
fuse radiation intensity and incidence angle were given.
The size parameters of designed CPC are as follows, geometric
concentration ratio is 1.2255, acceptance half angle is 45°, trun-
cated ratio is 0.414 (Mcintire, 1979), the inner diameter of glass
tube is 110 mm, the diameter of absorber is 28 mm, the width of
CPC open surface is 107.8 mm, the length of CPC reflector is 1.5 m.

4.2. Geometric optical efficiency of CPC

The geometrical optical efficiency of CPC is the efficiency only

considering the loss caused by the escape and occlusion, without
considering the attenuation of rays. It’s a simple and accurate
method to analyze the optical efficiency of CPC by optical software
with ‘‘ray tracing” function. Fig. 7 is a schematic of the ray tracing
(the number of tracing rays is 30).
Geometric optical efficiency fb of CPC is decomposed into the
geometric optical efficiency fb1 affected by radial incidence angle
and the geometric optical efficiency fb2 affected by axial incidence
angle. The relationship between geometric optical efficiency of
designed CPC and radial incidence angle is as Fig. 8. There is a cer-
tain optical loss when radial incidence angle within 30°. There is
still a part of the light that reaches the absorber when radial inci-
dence angle is greater than the acceptance half angle, for the curve
is truncated.
The influence of axial incidence angle to optical efficiency is in
Fig. 9. Schematic of the end loss.
the end of collector, as shown in Fig. 9a, part of rays were obscured
by pipe end cap and escaped from the end of CPC. The loss area is
equal to the projected area of the shaded area of Fig. 9b in the col-
The diffuse geometrical optical efficiency of CPC was calculate
lecting surface, according to the geometric relationship of designed
with the simplified model (Duffie and Beckman, 1991).
CPC.
1
As  tanðha Þ fd ¼ ð21Þ
fb2 ¼ 1  ð19Þ Cg
ACPC
fb ¼ fb1  fb2 ð20Þ where Cg is the geometric concentration ratio.

where As is the area of the shaded area (Fig. 9b) (m2), ACPC is the area
4.3. Transmittance of evacuated tube for CPC
of CPC open surface (m2).

According to Fresnel equation, the directional reflection rate of

unpolarized radiation on the interface of two media is as follows
(Duffie and Beckman, 1991).
" #
2
1 sin ðb1  b2 Þ tan2 ðb1  b2 Þ
q¼ þ ð22Þ
2 sin2 ðb1 þ b2 Þ tan2 ðb1 þ b2 Þ
n1 sin b1
¼ ð23Þ
n2 sin b2
According to Bouguer law, the full transmission ratio of semi-
transparent medium for full wavelength radiation is as follows
Fig. 7. Schematic of ray tracing. (Duffie and Beckman, 1991).
784 J. Wang et al. / Solar Energy 135 (2016) 780–785

s ¼ expðKLÞ ð24Þ
The ratio of the thickness and diameter for the glass tube is
0.027, so the effective transmission ratio can be calculated in
accordance the semi-transparent plate (Duffie and Beckman,
1991).

ð1  qÞ2 s
s ¼ ð25Þ
1  q2 s2
where b is the refraction angle (°), n is the refractive index of med-
ium, K is the extinction coefficient of semi-transparent medium
(cm1), L is the thickness of semi-transparent medium (cm), s⁄ is
the effective transmittance of semi-transparent medium.
The extinction coefficient of selected glass is 0.081 cm1, the
thickness is 0.3 cm, and the refractive index is 1.47.
According to the geometrical relationship of CPC in Fig. 10, the
direct transmittance is obtained according to the energy distribu-
tion of the glass tube.
Fig. 11. Relationship among sb, hr and ha.


qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
R p=2hr
0
cosðuÞ  s 
acot cot2 u þ cot2 ha du
sb ¼ R p=2hr ð26Þ
0
cosðuÞdu
The relationship between the direct transmittance and inci-
dence angle for designed CPC is as Fig. 11.
The diffuse transmittance is calculated by the average value of
transmission ratio of each angle.
R p=2
s ðuÞdu
sd ¼ 0
R p=2 ð27Þ
0
du

4.4. Reflectance of CPC

The beam reflectance is calculated as follows (Rabl, 1976b).

qb ¼ qnb ð28Þ
where nb is the average number of reflection. Fig. 12. Relationship between nb and hr.
The relationship between the average number of reflection for
designed CPC was obtained by ray tracing simulation as Fig. 12.
The diffuse reflectance is calculated by the average value of 4.5. Absorption ratio of CPC
reflectance ratio of each angle.
R p=2 According to experimental study of selective absorbing coating
qnb ðuÞ du by magnetron sputtering, the fitting equation about the relation-
qd ¼ 0
R p=2 ð29Þ
0
du ship between the absorption ratio and the angle between ray and
the surface of the absorbing coating for designed CPC is as follows
(Hongchuan and Zinian, 1996).

a ¼ 8:43  107 h3o þ 4:56  105 h2o þ 2:22  105 ho þ 0:9185

ð30Þ

where ho is the angle between ray and the surface of the absorbing
coating.
According to formula (30) and the relationship between the h
and ho obtained by ray tracing simulation, the relationship
between beam absorption ratio and incidence angle was deduced
as follows (ha < 45°).
(
0:96an ðhr < 0:9ha Þ
ab ¼
 ð31Þ
2:85  2:1h
bCPC
r
an ð0:9ha < hr < ha Þ

where an is the normal absorption ratio of the absorbing coating.

The diffuse absorption ratio is calculated by the average value of
transmission ratio of each angle.
R p=2
aðuÞdu
ad ¼ 0
R p=2 ð32Þ
0
du
Fig. 10. Schematic of rays through glass tube.
 J. Wang et al. / Solar Energy 135 (2016) 780–785 785

(2) If 0.51 < g/r < 1, ‘‘V”s CPC can minimize the gap loss.
(3) If g/r < 0.2, there is little difference in all kinds of ways, trun-
cating the corners is a simple way.
(4) If g/r > 0.6, changing involute starting point can be chosen
for increasing concentration ratio.
2. The optical efficiency of new V-shaped CPC can be calculated by
formula (15).
3. With proportion of diffuse radiation increasing, the optical effi-
ciency will decrease (within 30%), the optical efficiency of CPC is
relatively stable with the proportion of diffuse radiation.
4. For beam radiation, the average value of the absorption ratio is
about 0.91, the average value of the reflectance is about 0.88,
and the average transmittance is about 0.89. Improving these
material properties can effectively improve the efficiency of
the CPC.

Conflict of interest

The authors declared that there is no conflict of interest.

Fig. 13. Relationship among gopt,b, hr and ha. References

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