Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 24172426

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Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Numerical and experimental analysis of a point focus solar collector

using high concentration imaging PMMA Fresnel lens
W.T. Xie a, Y.J. Dai b,, R.Z. Wang b
a
Research Center of Solar Power and Refrigeration, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, PR China
b
Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, PR China

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

Article history: A high concentration imaging Fresnel solar collector provided with different cavity receivers was devel-
Available online 21 February 2011 oped and its behavior was investigated. Round copper pipes winded into different spring shapes were
used as receiver by placing in the cylindrical cavity to absorb concentrated solar energy and transfer it
Keywords: to a heat transfer uid (HTF). The collector efciency factor and collector heat removal factor were
Solar energy derived for the cavity receivers to nd out heat transfer mechanism and to propose an effective way
Fresnel solar collector for evaluating the performance of Fresnel solar collector and determining the optimal cavity structure.
Cavity receiver
The problem of Fresnel solar collector with synthetic heat transfer oil ow was simulated and analyzed
Numerical simulation
to investigate heat loss from different cavity receivers. Solar irradiation as well as convection and heat
transfer in the circulating uid and between the internal surfaces of the cavity and the environment
are considered in the model. The temperature distribution over its area as well as the collector thermal
efciency at nominal ow rate was used in order to validate the simulation results. It was found that the
simulated temperature distribution during operation and the average collector efciency are in good
agreement with the experimental data. Finally, the optimal shape of solar cavity receiver, as well as its
thermal performance, are deeply analyzed and discussed.
Crown Copyright 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction (PMMA) became available in the 1950s. PMMA is resistant to sun-

It is well known that solar thermal conversion is one of the most
widely used modes of solar energy exploitation including solar
cooling, solar heating, solar desalination, solar power generation,
etc. Among all these applications, middle and high temperature
utilization of solar energy (P250 C) is considered as one of the
most promising technologies for large scale use of solar energy in
the future. The major kinds of middle and high temperature solar
thermal conversion applications are parabolic trough collectors
system (PTC), central receiver system (CRS) or solar tower system
(STS) and dish stirling system (DSS). In addition, linear Fresnel
reector system (LFR) [13] and modular Fresnel refraction system
(MFR) [46] are initially investigated and demonstrated during the
recent two decades.
Because of the advantages such as small volume, light weight,
mass production with low cost and effectively increasing the en-
ergy density. Fresnel lenses have been becoming one of the best
choices for solar thermal conversion applications. The rst at-
tempts to use Fresnel lenses for collection of solar energy occurred
at the time when suitable plastics such as Polymethylmethacrylate
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 21 34204358; fax: +86 21 34206814.
E-mail address: yjdai@sjtu.edu.cn (Y.J. Dai).
light, remains thermally stable up to at least 80 C, its special trans-
missivity matches the solar spectrum, and its index of refraction is
1.49, which is very close to that of glass [7]. Consequently, most
Fresnel lens designers of concentrated solar energy applications
choose PMMA for their lenses because of its high optical quality
combined with less costly manufacturing technologies. However,
in a middle and high temperature solar thermal conversion system,
solar receiver is a key component as it is a heat exchanger where
the concentrated solar energy is intercepted and transformed into
thermal energy. Solar receiver has three main types: evacuated
tube solar receivers, heat pipe solar receivers and cavity receivers.
Because of the high operating temperatures, radiation losses
strongly penalize the efciency of the receiver; therefore, a cavity
design is an optimum solution for solar thermal power systems.
In a cavity receiver, the radiation reected or refracted from optical
solar concentrators passes through an aperture into a box-like
structure before impinging on the heat transfer surface. Then, the
heat transfer surface absorbs the concentrated solar energy and
transfers it into a heat transfer uid (HTF). The general idea of a
cavity receiver is to uniformly distribute the high ux incident
on its aperture over the large internal surface area of the cavity
in order to reduce the peak ux absorbed at any one point. So cav-
ity receivers have gained more and more attention for its simple
structure, cost-effective, good thermal and optical characteristics

0196-8904/$ - see front matter Crown Copyright 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2010.12.048
2418 W.T. Xie et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 24172426
Nomenclature
A area of the Fresnel lens (m2)
Ar area of the receiver (m2)
C geometrical concentration ratio
Cp specic heat capacity (J/kg C)
D out diameter of the tube (m)
Di inner diameter of the tube (m)
I, Ib direct solar radiation (W/m2)
L the length of the receiver tube (m)
QL overall heat loss of the cavity receiver (W)
Q 0u useful energy output (W)
S solar energy absorbed by a collector per unit area of the
receiver (W/m2)
T temperature (C)
To outlet temperature (C)
Ti inlet temperature (C)
hcv1 convection heat transfer coefcient (W/m2 C)
hr1 radiation heat transfer coefcient (W/m2 C)
h convective heat transfer coefcient inside the tube
(W/m2 C)
UL overall heat loss coefcient (W/m2 C)
l effective length of the receiver (m)
u velocity (m/s)
P pressure (Pa)
m _ mass ow rate (kg/s)
compared with evacuated tube solar receivers and heat pipe solar
receivers [813].
Ideally, in a well insulated cavity, the cavity temperature is rea-
sonably uniform and heat loss occurs primarily by convection and
radiation from the cavity aperture [14,15]. As heat loss mechanism
can signicantly reduce the efciency and consequently the cost
effectiveness of the system, heat loss in cavity receivers has been
studied by many researchers, e.g. Lovegrove et al. [16], Ma [17],
McDonald [18], Prakash et al. [19], Reddy and Kumar [20] and oth-
ers. Typical cavity receivers are made of round copper pipes wind-
ing into different spring shapes and placing in the cylindrical cavity
to absorb concentrated solar energy and transfer it to a heat transfer
uid (HTF). Shuai et al. [21] have investigated the radiation perfor-
mance of six different cavity geometries without considering other
kinds of heat loss. Actually, there exists the optimum cavity cong-
uration for solar thermal conversion with high efciency and low
heat loss. In addition, operation parameters affecting the perfor-
mance of the receiver in a solar collector are the mass ow rate of
the heat transfer uid (HTF), the amount of incident solar radiation,
the inlet and ambient temperatures and sky conditions, to name a
few [22]. Thus, concentrating solar collector consists of Fresnel lens
and cavity receiver is a better choice for solar energy utilization.
In this paper a point focus solar collector using high concentra-
tion imaging PMMA Fresnel lens prototype is proposed and tested.
The Fresnel lens is a special designed at lens which can only con-
centrate direct solar radiation or beam radiation. Its thermal per-
formance is simulated numerically. The objective is to nd the
optimum cavity type based on the simulation results and experi-
mental data. The temperature distributions over the receiver area
as well as the collector thermal efciency at nominal ow rate
were obtained and analyzed.
2. Experimental setup
Fig. 1 shows the schematic diagram of the high concentration
point focus imaging Fresnel solar collector prototype testing sys-
tem which consists of a high concentration point focus Fresnel lens
solar concentrator with a geometric concentration ratio about
W diameter of the cavity aperture (m)
X body force per unit volume
Greek symbols
e emissivity
g collector thermal efciency
go optical efciency
d average space between the glass cover and the cavity
inner surface (m)
h vertex angle of cross section ()
k thermal conductivity (W/m C)
q density (kg/m3)
/ inclination of receiver ()
Subscript
a ambient
av average
b cavity inner surface
f uid
g glass cover
P insulation surface
r cavity receiver
W wall
atm atmospheric pressure
1148, a point-focus cavity receiver and a two-axis tracking mech-
anism, a thermostat oil bath, etc. In order to compare the thermal
performance of Fresnel Solar collector using different point-focus
cavity receivers conveniently, the aperture diameter of all the cav-
ities is set as 50 mm, the vertex angle of cross section through the
symmetric axis of the receiver of the conical cavity and spherical
cavity is set as 60 and the depth of the cylindrical cavity is set
as 50 mm.
The performance of the collector was measured based on the
ASHRAE 93-86 criterion. The solar radiation was measures by a
two-axis tracking pyranometer. Particularly, beam radiation is
measured by the pyranometer designed specically to measure
the direct beam solar irradiance with a eld of view limited to
5, and it is highly accurate and relative error is no more than
1%. Temperature of oil was measured with PT-100 sensors of which
the measurement precision is 0.1 C at inlet and outlet of receiver
pipe. Tests were conducted on bright sunny days. The quantity of
oil ow through the absorber pipe, ambient temperature, wind
speed, etc. were also measured during the experiments.
From each set of measurements (i.e. for each inlet temperature
level), the average collector thermal efciency (g) was computed
by the following equation:
g m  C p T o  T i =I  A 1
where m is the mass ow rate of the heat removal uid, Cp is the
specic heat of the uid, To is the outlet temperature of the receiver,
Ti is the inlet temperature the receiver, I is the direct solar radiation,
A is the area of the high concentration point focus imaging Fresnel
lens.
Synthetic heat transfer oil was used as heat transfer uid. The
synthetic heat transfer oil was heated in a thermostats oil bath
and circulated through the receiver at a regulated ow rate
(0.025 kg/s).
3. Optical simulation and analysis
As cavity receivers have different structure (conical, cubical,
spherical, cylindrical, domical, etc.) with different optical perfor-
 W.T. Xie et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 24172426
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the high concentration point focus imaging Fresnel lens solar collector prototype testing system and photograph.
mance. Therefore, optical simulation is adopted to nd out the
optimum shape for solar thermal conversion. A ray tracing pro-
gram based on Monte Carlo method for optical analysis of solid
models named TracePro is then used to simulate the scattering
and diffraction of light, and to sample of the distributions of ray
emanating from certain light sources. In Monte Carlo ray tracing,
scattering and diffraction are treated as random processes. Instead
of propagating a distribution of light, discrete samples of the distri-
bution, or rays, are propagated. The samples are randomly chosen,
using the scattering distribution as a probability density. This al-
lows the well-developed techniques of ray tracing to be used to
model scattering [23]. During the simulation, ignoring the impact
of sun angle, assuming that the solar radiation entering the system
is composed of a large number of parallel beams and the aperture
diameter of each cavity is the same, the carried energy and laugh
direction of each beam is determined by the incident parameter
of solar light. The launch point is generated randomly in a certain
emitting surface. The results of a certain beam reaction with the
surface of the physical model in the system by reection, refraction
or scattering is determined by the characteristics of the surface
material. In addition, the behavior of each beam is tracked and re-
corded automatically until it is absorbed or escape the system, and
then follow the next bunch of light. After tracking a large number
of beams, the average results can determine the absorbed solar
rays entering the cavity and the rate of escape from the cavity
aperture to deriving the optical efciency of the cavity receiver.
As the ray tracing software TracePro is based on a specic solid
modeling engine called ACIS, which allows rays laugh into a model
without making any assumptions as to the order in which objects
and surfaces will be intersected. At each intersection, individual
rays can be subject to absorption, reection, refraction, diffraction
and scatter [23]. Consequently, all the cavity receivers with the
same aperture diameter, the vertex angle of cross section through
the symmetric axis of the receiver of the conical cavity and spher-
ical cavity set as 60 and the depth of the cylindrical cavity set as
the same of aperture diameter are adopted.
The cross section of the Fresnel solar collector with three repre-
sentative receivers and ray tracing results are shown in Fig. 2. As
seen, conical cavity receiver has the best optical performance be-
2419
cause the incident rays (red1) are left in the cavity without loss
of reection and re-reection rays (blue) and the energy distribu-
tion inside the cavity inner face is more uniform than the others.
In order to better evaluate these receivers, optical efciency (the
radiative energy emitting from the second aperture divided by
the radiative energy passing through the rst aperture) and optical
concentration ratio {the density ratio of the radiative energy be-
tween the entry and exit apertures} are introduced. Table 1 gives
the simulation results of optical efciency and optical concentra-
tion ratio of three representative cavity receivers. It is shown con-
ical cavity receiver is the optimum type with the highest optical
efciency and optical concentration ratio.
4. Thermal conversion analysis
In a solar thermal conversion system, heat loss mechanisms can
signicantly reduce the efciency and consequently the cost effec-
tiveness of the system. With cavity receivers, conduction and radi-
ation losses can readily be determined analytically, however the
complexity of the cavity geometry, temperature and velocity elds,
in and around the cavity makes it considerably harder to deter-
mine the convection loss. In order to investigate the performance
of high concentration point focus imaging Fresnel solar collector,
especially heat loss of the cavity receivers, numerical simulation
can be used so as to obtain a detailed inside look at the tempera-
ture distribution in the cavity. Such efforts are presented in the
literature through the works of Taumoefolau [24], Leibfried and
Ortjohann [25], Pye and coworkers [26], Kumar and Reddy
[27,28] and Paitoonsurikarn and Lovegrove [29]. However, less
attention had been paid to different cavity shapes which could
inuence heat loss of the solar collector signicantly. Conse-
quently, the objective of numerical simulation in this paper is to
nd out the optimal cavity receiver with less heat loss.
In the present work, the simulations are limited to thermal per-
formance analysis by 3D models of cavity receivers. The heat trans-
1
For interpretation of color in Figs. 14, 6, and 7, the reader is referred to the web
version of this article.
2420 W.T. Xie et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 24172426

Fig. 2. Ray tracing and energy distribution in three representative cavity receivers.

Table 1
cal coils as shown in Fig. 3 represent the cavity receiver with aper-
Optical efciency and optical concentration ratio of three representative cavity
receivers. ture diameter 0.05 m and depth 0.05 m. The copper tube has a
diameter of 0.008 m; the spacing between the coil turns is of the
Cavity shape Conical Spherical Cylindrical
order of 0.0010.002 m. A layer of mineral wool (0.05 m thick) is
Optical efciency 0.9049 0.8730 0.8563 provided on the outer side of the tube coils in the cylindrical cavity.
Optical concentration ratio 295.00 283.62 279.16
For the receiver model, the region outside the cavity is surrounded
by a cylindrical enclosure having diameter and length about 20
times the receiver aperture diameter. This is to ensure that the
fer uid inlet temperature and the uid mass ow rate are the only air ow within the cavity is unaffected. The uid inlet and the out-
inputs for the simulation. In reality, the receiver is surrounded by let tubes of the receiver are assumed to be adiabatic so that they do
an innite atmosphere with a limiting temperature equal to ambi- not affect the temperature and ow prole in the region external to
ent air temperature. To model this condition in the numerical anal- the cavity. Grid dependency was investigated and the nal grids
ysis, the ow domain is established such that the receiver is (including the tubes and the region between the receiver tubes
centrally placed in a sufciently large enclosure with walls at and the receiver walls.) used for three representative cavity model
ambient temperature as schematically shown in Fig. 3. Three heli- consist of approximately 2  106 mesh elements. The cells are very
 W.T. Xie et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 24172426 2421

Fig. 3. Three representative cavity model and grid used for numerical simulation.

small in the region inside the cavity and nearby the receiver but in- ru 0 2
crease in size gradually toward the cylindrical enclosure wall.
rP
In this simulation, the indoor thermal performance of all the uru X  v r2 u 3
cavity receivers is adopted. So solar radiation absorbed by the in-
q
ner wall of the cavity receivers is ignored. Moreover, the cavity DE DP
receivers are made by copper which has good conductivity. Conse- rK rT q  4
Dt Dt
quently, the cavity inner surface could consider as the isothermal
To obtain the ow and heat transfer solutions, the solver under-
plane.
takes iteration until the convergence criterion is satised (104 for
The solutions are obtained by solving the continuity equation,
continuity and velocity and 107 for energy), which employs scaled
the momentum equation and the energy equation simultaneously.
residuals of the modied variables in the governing equations as
The basic equations used are:
the measure.
2422 W.T. Xie et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 24172426

4.1. Boundary conditions
The isothermal boundary condition is applied to inner cavity
wall (T = TW), whereas the outer walls of the receivers covered with
insulation materials to reduce heat loss are assumed to be adia-
batic (oTW// = 0) and the enclosure walls are maintained at ambi-
insulation surface and the temperature of the glass cover respec-
tively, r1 and r2 are the radius of the cavity and the insulation
respectively, as the volume of air sandwich between the glass cover
and the cavity inner surface is small, the recommended correlations
in Ref. [30] are adopted
1

ent temperature. Hence, pressure inlet boundary condition was 0:212kGrd Pr 4

hcv 1 8
applied to the outer domain (P = Patm). In addition, the heat transfer d
uid inlet temperature (at the receiver inlet) and the uid velocity  
are specied. r T 2av T 2g T av T g
hr1 9
1
eav AAagv eg
1
1
4.2. Heat loss calculations
where d is the average space between the glass cover and the cavity
The heat loss from each cavity receiver with high concentration inner surface, eav and eg are the emissivity of the cavity inner surface
point focus imaging Fresnel lens solar concentrator has been inves- and the glass cover respectively, Aav and Ag are the area of the cavity
tigated under various operating parameters such as temperature, inner surface and the glass cover, based on the equation:
emissivity, concentrator size and geometry. Fig. 4 illustrates the
schematic diagram of heat transfer network and resistance net- Q L Aav U L T av  T a 10
work of the high concentration imaging Fresnel solar collector. In where Ta is the ambient temperature. Then, the overall heat loss
the steady state, the heat loss equation of the cavity receiver with coefcient of the cavity receiver is given as:
ultra-white glass cover is:
1
kT av T p rT 2av T 2g T av T g
0:212kGd Pr 4
_ p T i  T o Q cd1 Q cv 1 Q r1 Q r2 Q cv 2
Q L mC 5 r 1 lnr 2 =r 1 d
T av  T g 1 Aav 1 T av  T g
eav Ag eg 1
UL
_ is the mass
where QL is the overall heat loss of the cavity receiver, m T av  T a
ow rate of the heat transfer uid, Cp is the specic heat capacity of 11
the heat transfer uid, Ti and To are the cavity inlet temperature and
outlet temperature respectively, Qcd1 is the heat conduction be-
4.3. Heat transfer analysis
tween the cavity inner surface and the glass cover, Qcv1 is the heat
convection between the cavity inner surface and the glass cover, Qr1
Because the collector efciency factor and collector heat re-
is the net heat radiation between the cavity inner surface and the
moval factor are the main indicators of solar collector thermal per-
glass cover, Qr2 is the net heat radiation between the cover and
formance, heat transfer analysis of the high concentration imaging
the environment, Qcv2 is the heat convection between the cover
Fresnel solar collector is focused on these factors. The collector ef-
and the environment
ciency factor F0 represents the ratio of the actual useful energy gain
plkT av  T p to the useful gain that would results if the collector absorbing sur-
Q cd1 6
lnr 2 =r 1 face had been at the local uid temperature. While the collector
heat removal factor FR relates the actual useful energy gain of a col-
Q cv 1 Q r1 pr 1 lhcv 1 hr1 T av  T g 7 lector to the useful gain if the whole collector surface were at the
uid inlet temperature [31].
where l is the effective length of the cavity receiver, k is the thermal
conductivity of the insulation material, Tav, Tp and Tg are the average
4.3.1. Conical cavity receiver
temperature of the cavity inner surface, the temperature of the
The useful energy output of the collector is

Q 0u Ar S  U 0L T b  T a  12
h
S go Ib C sin 13
2
where Ar is the area of the receiver, S is the solar energy absorbed by
a collector per unit area of the receiver, go is the optical efciency of
the solar collector, U 0L is the overall heat loss coefcient of the solar
collector, Tb is the average surface temperature of the receiver, Ta is
the ambient temperature, Ib is the direct solar radiation, C is the
geometrical concentration ratio of the Fresnel solar collector, h is
the vertex angle of cross section through the symmetric axis of
the receiver.
Meanwhile, the useful gain from Eq. (12) must be transferred to
the uid, which can be expressed in terms of the two resistances as
LT b  T f
Q 0u 1
14
pDi hfi 2p1 k ln DD
i

Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of heat transfer network and resistance network of the
high concentration imaging Fresnel solar collector.
pWD W
L 15
4D sinh=2
where Di is the inner diameter of the copper tube, D is the outer
diameter of the copper tube, W is the diameter of the cavity aper-
ture, h is the convective heat transfer coefcient inside the tube,
 W.T. Xie et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 24172426 2423

( " #)
k is the thermal conductivity of copper, L is the total length of the _ p
16lmC pW 2 lUL F 0
copper tube. FR 1  exp  29
pW 3 U L C _ p
DmC
Solving Eq. (14) for Tb, substituting it into Eq. (12) and solving
the results for the useful energy gain
CW
U 0L U L 30
S  U 0L T f  T a 4l
Q 0u  
4D sinh=2
4
pW 2
pWDW pD1h 2p1 k ln DD U 0L then the actual useful energy gain is
i fi i

0
WF go Ib  U L T f  T a  16 CW
Q 0u Ar F R g Ib  U L T i  T a  31
4l o
then the collector efciency factor F0 is expressed as
1=W
F0   17 5. Results and discussion
4 4D sinh=2 1
C pW 2 sinh=2
pWDW pDi hfi 21pk ln DD U L
i
For all numerical computations the temperature eld as well
the collector heat removal factor FR is dened as as the velocity and pressure distribution presented the same
( " #)
qualitative behavior and no noticeable variations were observed
_ p
4mC pW 2 D WU L F 0
FR 1  exp  18 in relation to the uid inlet temperature. As a result, and for
pW 2 U L C sinh=2 _ p
4D sinh=2mC
space economy reasons, the numerical simulation plots corre-
sponding to cavity wall temperature are presented. Fig. 5 shows
h the corresponding proles of cavity temperature distribution in
U 0L U L C sin 19
2 the aperture plane (upwards) with and without ultra-white glass
then the actual useful energy gain is cover. For the representation of the results, the cavity receiver
central cross section is selected. The average air ow rate along
Q 0u Ar F R C sinh=2go Ib  U L T i  T a  20
the aperture of the absorber (near the glass cover) was about
2 m/s during the study and the initial average temperature of
4.3.2. Spherical cavity receiver the inside cavity wall is 150 C. It clearly shows that the presence
For this kind of cavity, the results for the useful energy gain of the glass cover has a very good inhibition of convection heat
loss in the cavity aperture. The temperature distribution in the
S  U 0L T f  T a
Q 0u   WF 0 go Ib  U L T f  T a  21 conical cavity is more uniform than the other two which is agree
4
pW
1
2 L pD
1
i h
2p
1
k
ln D
D i
U 0L with the aforementioned optical simulation results. However, it
fi
seams that some isothermal lines intersect the inner cavity wall
which is because that only the temperature prole of the cross
pW sinh=22pD  hD  hW 2p2 W 2
L 2
22 section through the symmetric axis of the receiver is shown
8D sin h=2 and the heat transfer uid inlet temperature (at the receiver in-
then the collector efciency factor F0 is expressed as let) and the uid velocity are specied as one of the boundary
conditions.
1=W To validate the results of the numerical computations during
F0   23
81cosh=2 1 1
C pW 2 sin2 h=2
L pDi hfi 2p1 k ln DD U L the experimental investigation of the collector, overall heat loss
i
coefcient per unit receiver area is used. The overall heat loss coef-
the collector heat removal factor FR is dened as cient (UL) of the cavity receiver was determined using outdoor
   experimental setup to test the practical dynamic variation of the
_ p
81 cosh=2mC WLU L F 0
FR 1  exp  24 parameter. Synthetic heat transfer oil was used as heat transfer
pW 2 U L C sin2 h=2 _ p
mC
uid. The synthetic heat transfer oil was heated in a thermostats
2
oil bath and circulated through the receiver at a regulated ow
C sin h=2 rate. Overall heat loss coefcient (UL) of the receiver was studied
U 0L U L 25
21 cosh=2 at different oil temperatures by maintaining oil ow rates of
0.025 kg/s. After stabilizing the oil temperature at inlet and outlet
then the actual useful energy gain is
of the receiver pipe, temperatures were recorded with PT-100 tem-
2
C sin h=2 perature sensors. Several observations were taken at different uid
Q 0u Ar F R g Ib  U L T i  T a  26
21 cosh=2 o temperatures in steady state conditions. The average air ow rate
along the aperture of the absorber (near the glass cover) was about
2 m/s during the study. The overall heat loss coefcient was calcu-
4.3.3. Cylindrical cavity receiver lated with help of the following equation:
For this kind of cavity, the results for the useful energy gain
U L go  I  A  m
_  C p T o  T i =Ar T r  T a  32
S  U 0L T f  T a
Q 0u   WF 0 go Ib  U L T f  T a  27 where Ar is the reception area of the receiver, Tr is the average tem-
4
pW
D
2 pWl
1
pDi h 1
2pk
ln D
Di
U 0L
fi perature of the receiver, Tr = Tf = (Ti + To)/2, Ta is the ambient
then the collector efciency factor F0 is expressed as temperature.
Variation in overall heat loss coefcient per unit receiver area
1=W with collector temperature for three representative cavity receiv-
F0   28
16l
pDWl pD1h 21pk ln DD U L ers is presented in Fig. 6. As expected, the value of the overall heat
C pW 3 i fi i
loss coefcient increases as the receiver temperature increases.
where l is the depth of the cavity, the collector heat removal factor However, the heat loss coefcient is an order of magnitude larger
FR is dened as than the traditional solar thermal system such as linear Fresnel
reecting system using trapezoid cavity absorbers [3]. This may
be attributed to the upwards cavity aperture. Therefore, the con-
2424 W.T. Xie et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 24172426

301
310305
0.05 0.05

301
0
34

39

3 60
400 3
Length (m)

Length (m)
0
400
39

9
0 0 0

0
37 370 380 60
35 0 0
3
0

301
33 34 350
0 340
330
320 -0.05 320
-0.05
301
301

-0.05 0 0.05 -0.05 0 0.05

Width (m) Width (m)
(a) Conical cavity receiver

305

1
1

30
30

320
0.05 0.05
360
40
Length (m)

Length (m)
0
410

380
301

0 0
3 70
0
3 400 39
3 90
34 70 34
0 3 30 0 350
-0.05 -0.05

301 301
-0.05 0 0.05 -0.05 0 0.05
Width (m) Width (m)
(b) Spherical cavity receiver

301 301
305
0.05 0.05
31 320

39
0
0

34 330
Length (m)

Length (m)

0
301

3 5 0 60
380

0 30 400 3
1 0 39
400 0 400
380 380 3 70
35

360
350 360 350
0

0
32 340 34
0 0
330 32 3 30
-0.05 -0.05
301 301

-0.05 0 0.05 -0.05 0 0.05

Width (m) Width (m)
(c) Cylindrical cavity receiver
Fig. 5. Temperature distribution in three representative cavity model with (left) and without (right) ultra-white glass cover.

vective heat loss increased considerably causing bigger overall heat
loss coefcient. As seen, in the same temperature level the overall
heat loss of spherical cavity is the highest then is cylindrical cavity.
Conical cavity has the lowest overall heat loss compared with the
other two. However, the overall heat loss from experimental re-
sults is higher than simulation results which may due to the
non-steady state of the methodology parameters. It should be
point out that the numerical results of overall heat loss coefcient
per unit receiver area of the three representative cavity receivers
are based on the Eq. (11), while the experimental results of overall
heat loss coefcient per unit receiver area of the conical cavity re-
ceiver are based on Eq. (32).
In order to draw a conclusion regarding the behavior of the high
concentration imaging Fresnel solar collector (using a conical cav-
ity receiver), a comparison between the experimental and com-
puted collector efciency for the conical cavity receiver had to be
performed. As shown in Fig. 7 the efciency curves are similar in
behavior and close to each other. It has to be reminded at this point
that the collector tested was made outdoor in order to test the
practical dynamic variation of the parameter; therefore the simu-
lation results of thermal efciency are a bit higher than experimen-
tal results with a deviation less than 5%.
Table 2 gives the theoretical and experimental results of the
efciency factor and heat removal factor of high concentration
imaging Fresnel solar collector using three representative point-fo-
cus cavity receivers. As seen, conical cavity receiver has better
thermal performance than the others under two working condi-
tions (90 C and 150 C temperature level) because of its higher
efciency factor and heat removal factor which could enhance
the heat transfer in the receiver tube.
 W.T. Xie et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 24172426 2425

was found to be similar to that of the commercially available col-

Fig. 6. Overall heat loss coefcient of the high concentration point focus imaging
Fresnel lens solar collector.
lectors. Furthermore, the collector was modeled using numerical
techniques, in order to obtain a more detailed temperature distri-
bution in the cavity receivers. The experimental and numerical re-
sults comparison showed that there was a reasonably good
agreement regarding the collector thermal efciency while, at
the same time, signicantly temperature distributions were ob-
served. Thus, it can be concluded that the computational model
is capable of providing reliable results both qualitatively and quan-
titatively. Both the experimental results and the numerical compu-
tations revealed that there was the optimum receiver shape
(conical cavity receiver) with higher thermal efciency and lower
heat loss than others. This is based on the same aperture diameter
of all the cavities, the vertex angle of cross section through the
symmetric axis of the receiver of the conical cavity and spherical
cavity is set as 60 and the depth of the cylindrical cavity is the
same as the aperture diameter of all the cavities. Moreover, By the-
oretical and experimental analysis of the efciency factor and heat
removal factor of high concentration imaging Fresnel solar collec-
tor using three representative point-focus cavity receivers, it was
found that the conical cavity receiver has better heat transfer capa-
bility for its higher heat removal factor than others. There reason-
able results inosculate with the optical simulation results and
numerical calculation results. Although there are some small dis-
crepancies due to some experimental imperfectness matters, the
numerical simulation program can be used in the future for more
complex solar collector problem. Consequently, the numerical sim-
ulation model is a useful tool for further investigations and optimi-
zation of this kind of solar collector.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Founda-

tion Program under the contact No. 50876063.

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