Optical simulation of a solar parabolic collector using ray-tracing software TracePro

Abstract

The Parabolic solar concentrator has a diameter of 5 m. It consists of thin shell, composed of 24 segments placed of two rings. It consists of inner and outer petals. These segments are glass-fiber reinforced resin sandwich with mirror applied to its surface. The optical system is organized in stages in a global coordinates system: stages are sections of the optical geometry that are successively hit by rays in their pathway from the sun to the final receiver. Several methods can be used to model a parabolic concentrator in TracePro. This paper presents optical simulations of the Parabolic solar collector unit using the ray-tracing software TracePro. Segments of parabolic collectors are made of Polymethyl methacrylate PMMA. The software is capable of incorporating userdefined sun shape and optical error and can calculate the amount of power incident upon the receiver. © 2014 WIT Press.