An optical-mechanical integrated modeling method of solar dish concentrator system for optical performance analysis under service load

Abstract

Solar dish concentrator system (SDC system) is an optical device that provides a high-temperature heat source for Stirling engine. However, due to its heavy structural and large windward area, it is easy to be deformed by self-weight or wind load during service, which leads to changes the mirror shape and receiver position of SDC system, thus deteriorating its optical performance. In order to predict and evaluate the optical performance and flux distribution of SDC system under service load, this paper proposes an optical-mechanical integrated modeling method considering the deformation of SDC system by combining the finite element method and ray-tracing method. It discretizes mirror surface into a large number of plane element, and directly establishes the optical model by its deformation information, which is suitable for any concentrator using mirrors. The modeling process is derived, including the optical model of concentrator under non-deformation and deformation, spatial position model and flux distribution model of the receiver, mirror shape error model. Finally, the modeling method is verified by examples and literature results, the flux distribution and mirror shape error calculated by this method are in good agreement with comparison results, and relative error ranges from 0.6% to 5.6%.