A Novel Point Focusing Funnel-Shaped Concentrator: design and Experimental investigation

A novel imaging optical funnel solar concentrator is described in this paper, and its structure and working principle are introduced. Ray tracing analysis is conducted to find the effect of incidence angle on the solar concentration performance of the optical funnel. Results show that the size and shape of the focal spot and the distribution of solar intensity on it are affected by incidence angle. Construction of optical funnels and experiments of a solar thermal system using a single funnel and multiple funnels are also presented. The experimental results show that the solar receiver temperature with no thermal load reached 335°C and the collection efficiency was more than 40% in winter. When the multiple funnel system was used, the water temperature reached 150°C.