Design of inflatable solar concentrator

Abstract

Solar concentrators improve the performance of solar collection systems by increasing the amount of usable energy available for a given collector size. Unfortunately, they are not known for their light weight and portability, which is ideal for basic applications like solar cooking. The goal of the project was to a design a light-weight and portable solar concentrator with minimal tracking requirements. The concept of an inflatable compound parabolic concentrator was developed, which required modifying the theoretical profile geometry. An analytical model was created to predict the efficiency of the system for different design parameter configurations. The model was used to develop a design and manufacturing process which was used to design and manufacture small-scale and full-scale prototypes. Experiments were designed to test the performance of the concentrators and the test results were used to determine a model accuracy of 11.4 1.3 % and 1.9±1.6% using the small-scale prototype and full-scale prototype, respectively.