Theoretical and experimental analysis on efficiency factors and heat removal factors of Fresnel lens solar collector using different cavity receivers

The efficiency and heat removal factors are useful parameters for evaluating the thermal performance of concentrating solar collectors. In this work, the efficiency factors and heat removal factors of Fresnel lens solar collectors using different kinds of point-focus cavity receivers were obtained both theoretically and experimentally. An experimental unit was built, whereby eight kinds of cavity receivers, namely: conical, spherical, cylindrical, hemispherical, positive cone frustum, reverse cone frustum, heteroconical and domical, were tested and analyzed. It is found that the theoretical results agree well with the test results. For the point-focus Fresnel lens solar collector, the conical cavity receiver showed the best thermal performance, with a highest theoretical heat removal factor of 0.868. Effect of conical cavity parameters on the efficiency and heat removal factors were studied. Results showed that under given operation conditions, the optimum aperture diameter of the cavity, the optimum inside diameter of the receiver tube and the optimum vertex angle of the cross section through the symmetric axis of the receiver are 80 mm, 15 mm and 60 , respectively. For better thermal performance, the geometrical concentration ratio of the studied Fresnel lens solar collector should be more than 500. 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.