Preliminary investigation on optical performance of linear fresnel lens coupled compound parabolic concentrator

CPC (Compound Parabolic Concentrator, CPC) has the preponderance of static operation of the system, adjustable operation time and capable to collect beam and diffuse radiation. In this paper, LFL-CPC (linear Fresnel lens coupling CPC, LFL-CPC) is studied. The surface structure of LFL-CPC is optimized based on the linear Fresnel lens principle and the MCRT (Monte Carlo ray tracing, MCRT) method. The results of laser verification experiment demonstrate that the performance of gathering lights of LFL-CPC is consistent with the theoretical design. Compared with S-CPC (Standard CPC, S-CPC), LFL-CPC can expand its receiving angle and effectively concentrate solar rays within the range of all incidence angles, which makes it have stronger weather adaptability. LFL-CPC can effectively collect beam radiation, and the duration of beam radiation collection is higher than S-CPC throughout the year, with a maximum average daily effective increase of 36.1% in June. In addition, the energy flux distribution of LFL-CPC on the absorber is more uniform than that of S-CPC, and the peak value of energy on the absorber surface is lower than that of S-CPC, which is more beneficial to the long-term stable operation of the non-imaging concentrator integrated system.