Optical Performance of Double Receiver Compound Parabolic Concentrator

Conventional solar compound parabolic concentrators are fitted with one tubular receiver situated along the axis of the two parabolas. This work investigates the potential of using two tubular receivers in one compound parabolic concentrator. Using advanced ray tracing technique, the optical efficiency of a compound parabolic concentrator with two tubular receivers aligned horizontally and vertically was predicted. Results show that the horizontal configuration outperforms both the single and the vertical configurations by up to 15%. Horizontally aligned elliptical single tube was also investigated and results showed an increase in the average daily optical efficiency compared to the single tube configuration by 17%. This work highlights the potential of using either two tubular receivers or single elliptical one aligned horizontally in one concentrator to improve the optical efficiency. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd.