Energies 2012, 5(9), 3627-3639; doi:10.3390/en5093627
Article

Preliminary Ray Tracing and Experimental Study on the Effect of Mirror Coating on the Optical Efficiency of a Solid Dielectric Compound Parabolic Concentrator

Gang Pei 1,2,* email, Guiqiang Li 1,2 email, Yuehong Su 2,* email, Jie Ji 1 email, Saffa Riffat 2 email and Hongfei Zheng 3 email
1 Department of Thermal Science and Energy Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, 96 Jinzhai Road, Hefei 230026, China 2 Institute of Sustainable Energy Technology, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK 3 School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
* Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 4 May 2012; in revised form: 21 June 2012 / Accepted: 8 September 2012 / Published: 18 September 2012
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Abstract: This study aims to determine the necessity of applying a mirror coating on the side of a truncated solid dielectric CPC (compound parabolic concentrator) since ray tracing analysis has revealed that part of the incoming rays do not undergo total internal reflection, even within the half acceptance angle of the CPC. An experiment was designed and conducted indoors and outdoors to study the effect of mirror coating on the optical performance of a solid dielectric CPC. Ray tracing was also employed for the detailed analysis and its results are compared with the measurements. Based on these, a concept of partial coating is proposed and verified through simulation. The results show that a partly coated solid dielectric CPC may have a better optical efficiency than a solid CPC without coating for a certain range of incidence angles.
Keywords: solid CPC; total internal reflection; partial coating; ray tracing

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Cite This Article

MDPI and ACS Style

Pei, G.; Li, G.; Su, Y.; Ji, J.; Riffat, S.; Zheng, H. Preliminary Ray Tracing and Experimental Study on the Effect of Mirror Coating on the Optical Efficiency of a Solid Dielectric Compound Parabolic Concentrator. Energies 2012, 5, 3627-3639.

AMA Style

Pei G, Li G, Su Y, Ji J, Riffat S, Zheng H. Preliminary Ray Tracing and Experimental Study on the Effect of Mirror Coating on the Optical Efficiency of a Solid Dielectric Compound Parabolic Concentrator. Energies. 2012; 5(9):3627-3639.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Pei, Gang; Li, Guiqiang; Su, Yuehong; Ji, Jie; Riffat, Saffa; Zheng, Hongfei. 2012. "Preliminary Ray Tracing and Experimental Study on the Effect of Mirror Coating on the Optical Efficiency of a Solid Dielectric Compound Parabolic Concentrator." Energies 5, no. 9: 3627-3639.

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