Dome-shaped Fresnel lens concentrator with high efficiency and angular performance

Area of Science:

• Optics
• Renewable Energy Engineering
• Materials Science

Background:

• Refractive solar concentrator systems require enhanced optical efficiency and angular performance.
• Dome-shaped Fresnel lenses offer potential for improved solar energy capture.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and analyze a dome-shaped Fresnel concentrator.
• To optimize the Fresnel surface segmentation for improved optical and angular characteristics.

Main Methods:

• Design and simulation of a dome-shaped Fresnel concentrator.
• Evaluation of three segmentation strategies: equal angle, equal vertical coordinate, and equal horizontal coordinate division.
• Analysis of optical efficiency, acceptance angle, and manufacturability.

Main Results:

• Equal vertical coordinate division provided the widest acceptance angle.
• Equal horizontal coordinate division achieved the highest optical efficiency (78.4%) and good manufacturability.
• The optimal design demonstrated an acceptance angle of 1.52°, tracking error of 6°, and working F-number of 0.72.

Conclusions:

• The equal horizontal coordinate division is the optimal strategy for the dome-shaped Fresnel concentrator.
• The optimized concentrator shows high concentration capability, wide angular performance, and structural reliability.
• This design is promising for future solar thermal and photovoltaic applications.