Experimentation of surface areal irradiance method for solar flux measurement in compound parabolic collector

Abstract

Flux measurement is one of the major considerations in the optical analysis of solar collector to improve its performance. An uneven distribution of concentrated solar rays at the receiver creates the need of finding a region of high concentration flux and its measurement. This paper describes the experimentation of the author’s recent study of surface areal irradiance (SAI) method performed on compound parabolic collector (CPC) with low acceptance angle. This method uses a 2D graphical ray tracing techniques to determine the region of high concentration of solar flux and its intensity in that region. Also the present study refines the concept of SAI method with geometric cosine factors for incident and reflected rays. The result of flux curves by SAI method and experimentation show the identical characteristics and it is plotted along with solar direct irradiation and variable collector area. SAI method uses the reflector area instead of aperture area to determine concentrated flux which is helpful in designing solar collectors as per the requirements.