GENERALIZED OPTIMIZATION OF AN ARBITRARY REFLECTING TROUGH

摘要

Low solar concentration from non-tracking systems, for example from a reflecting trough, may improve the economics of solar thermal and photovoltaic panels. However, effective system design is latitude specific, and identifying the ideal geometrical parameters for such a non-imaging system at a particular location is a challenge. Simple, non-tracking v-troughs have potential to improve the performance of solar thermal systems, especially when system cost and manufacturing simplicity are of primary concern. Work is also being done to use v-troughs for other solar applications such as photocatalytic water treatment. An efficient modeling process will be described that will be used to determine optimized concentrator parameters, including axis orientation (E/W or N/S), trough tilt, two half-trough angles (allowing an asymmetrical trough), and absorber size and position. Incident ray angles will be calculated using Michalsky's sunpos code. Simulation results will be presented as ray-tracing, animations, and absorber illumination distributions. Results will be extrapolated to an arbitrary location.