Designing and modeling a novel dual parabolic concentrator with three degree of freedom (DOF) robotic arm

The newest model of Concentrator Solar Power is presented as a dual parabolic concentrator model using a movable primary parabolic, secondary parabolic, and compound parabolic concentrator. This system had a similar concept and design with the beam-down solar concentrator, whereas the heat receiving object was placed at a fixed focal point above the ground. The computational process of ray tracing and the movement optimization of three Degree of Freedom DOF robotic arm has been done by a genetic algorithm. The solution to prevent CSP-caused ray error and to increase the heat flux's concentration was added the compound parabolic concentrator on the receiver. Geogebra Software was used to geometrically validate the modeling of dual parabolic concentrator design and the equation of ray tracing. The final simulation result of dual parabolic concentrator design was produced with Monte Carlo Ray Tracing method utilizing the Tonatiuh Software. The simulation experiment outcome at elevation degrees of 15°, 45°, and 60° showed the average number of absorbed solar energy was 740.81 Watt with an optical efficiency of 80.47% on average. To show the accuracy level of the design, we conducted a test and a comparison between the flux distribution and the effect of slope error of 1–5 mrad. We could conclude that the experimental prototype performance of dual parabolic concentrator managed to concentrate the LED laser ray on the surface of the receiver, which consistent with the theoretical calculation.