• Yarlagadda, Prasad Kdv
• Stoynov, Lubomir

Abstract

Almost all life on Earth has been using solar energy inmany ways, but when high temperatures are desired,concentration of the incident solar radiation (insolation)becomes necessary. The present work is an attempt to improveand experimentally compare alternative beam delivering andfocusing energy systems of a small solar concentrator. Theresearched solar energy concentrator (SEC) facility consists ofmodified two mirror Cassegrainian solar concentrator, twospeedsun-tracking manual and automatic control, concentratedinsolation transmitting and continuous beam focusing systems.A number of system modifications during the development ofthe two stage, point focusing type solar concentratorarrangement for solar thermal power utilization have also beenexplored and are reported in this paper. Some of theexperimental testing results obtained using single polymer fiber14 mm in diameter, a truncated conical concentrator, andauxiliary lens system alternatives, have been compared. Inaddition, some details about various improvements of the suntrackingsensor and automatics, beam transmission andcontinuous focusing capabilities of the SEC facility have beendescribed.

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• polymer
• size-exclusion chromatography