Development of a ray tracing model to design an optical Asymmetric Compound Parabolic Concentrator (ACPC) for solar air heating collector using Matlab

Abstract

This paper presents a ray tracing model to design an optical Asymmetric Compound Parabolic Concentrator (ACPC) concentrator using Matlab. The concentratorwas integrated with a Transpired Air Heating (TAH) system to develop Concentrating Transpired Air Heating (CTAH) collector. An asymmetric compound parabolic concentrator was applied to increase the intensity of solar radiation incident on the perforated absorber. This research simulates the optical performance of the concentrator using ray tracing technique and validates the model using laser test method. Matlab Software was used as the simulation tool. The maximum optical efficiency of the CTAH was 79.5% for 50 mm tertiary height, 88% transmittance of the glazing and 95% reflectance of the concentrator reflector for beam radiation. The acceptance angle of the CTAH varied between 100% at 27^o incident angle and 92.7% at incident angle 89^o which provides effective annual concentration for 7-8 hours. The optical efficiency within 27^o to 89^oincident angles varies between 79.5% and 72%.The sensitivity test was carried out for different properties of the concentrator and geometry of the reflector surface. The effect of the reflector material property and geometry was investigated in this research.