Optical modelling of the CYI Fresnel collector designed for the built environment
Alaric Montenon1, Cyril Caliot2
1The Cyprus institute, Nicosia, Cyprus
2PROMES, CNRS, Odeillo, France
July 2018
The work was done during a secondment period at PROMES-CNRS (Odeillo, France) of Alaric Montenon. The secondment is related to the WP4 of the Nester EU projet.
Abstract: The linear Fresnel collector installed on the roof of a nearly zero energy building of the Cyprus Institute was modelled using the Solstice software. The solar radiation collected by the mirrors and concentrated towards a receiver was solved considering the complex shape of the structural elements and the receiver. The optical modelling includes the spectral and directional reflectivity of the mirrors. A map of the mirror waviness was defined to investigate more realistic solar flux distributions on the receiver. An identified future work would be to model the waviness of the Fresnel mirrors to assess the impact of the actual curvature after manufacturing on the optical efficiency.
The files required to produce the input YAML files to run the Solstice software are available here. They produce the results depicted in Figs. 1 and 2. Additional information on the use of the Solstice Software (free, open-cource) may be found following the links:
https://www.labex-solstice.fr/solstice-software/
https://www.meso-star.com/projects/solstice/solstice.html
Figure 1: View of the geometry involving 18 rows of mirrors with measured focal length and the receiver with the secondary concentrator
Figure 2: View of the irradiated receiver made of a selective tubular receiver and a glass envelop.