Design, Manufacturing and Performance Evaluation of a Fixed Focus Scheffler Concentrator in Kerman

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Department of Energy, Institute of Science and High Technology and Environmental Sciences, Graduate University of Advanced Technology, Kerman, Iran

2 1Department of Energy, Institute of Science and High Technology and Environmental Sciences, Graduate University of Advanced Technology, Kerman, Iran

3 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran

Abstract

Scheffler fixed focus concentrator is used for domestic and industrial applications in various parts of the world. This concentrator has an elliptical frame and designed in such a way that can provide fixed focus during a year with proper rotation. In this research, design and manufacturing principles of a Scheffler standing concentrator with an area of 2.7 m2 is presented. To this end, concentrator and its receivers were designed using Solidworks software.. Thermal efficiency of a manufactured concentrator was obtained from its operation for many days with different conditions. The results show that a concentrator with an area of 2.7 m2 can provide incident radiation up to 9.82 times that on the horizontal surface at the focal point. In addition, results of the experiment show that this concentrator can provide enough heat for boiling of 12 liters of water in less than 2 hours. A thermal efficiency of 37% was obtained for a receiver with surface of black color and glass cover. Finally, the standing concentrator was used to heat 100 lit of water resulting in an increase of water temperature to 60 °C.

Keywords

Main Subjects


[1] A. Munir, O. Hensel, W. Scheffler, Design principle and calculations of a Scheffler fixed focus concentrator for medium temperature applications, Solar Energy, 84(8) (2010) 1490-1502.
[2] W. Scheffler, S. Bruecke, G. von Werdenbergstr, Introduction to the revolutionary design of Scheffler reflectors, in: 2006 Solar Cookers and Food Processing International Conference, Granada, Spain, July, 2006, pp. 12-16.
[3] A. Chandak, S. Somani, Design of multistage evaporators for integrating with Scheffler solar concentrators for food processing applications, in: International Solar Food Processing Conference, 2009.
[4] R.J. Patil, G.K. Awari, M.P. Singh, Comparison of performance analysis of Scheffler reflector and model formulation, Indian Journal of Science and Technology, 4(10) (2011) 1335-1339.
[5] G.A. R. Patil, M.Singh, An Approximate Generalized Experimental Data Based Model for Scheffler Reflector, International Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Basic Sciences Vol. 1 , 2014.
[6] M.R. Phate, D.M. Gadkari, S.S. Avachat, A.D. Tajne, Experimental analysis of 2.7 m2 Scheffler reflector and formulation of a model, Int J Eng Trends Technol, 12(1) (2014) 1-5.
[7] A. Munir, O. Hensel, W. Scheffler, H. Hoedt, W. Amjad, A. Ghafoor, Design, development and experimental results of a solar distillery for the essential oils extraction from medicinal and aromatic plants, Solar energy, 108 (2014) 548-559.
[8] S. Alberti, Analysis and Optimization of the Scheffler Solar Concentrator, (2014).
[9] J.A. Duffie, W.A. Beckman, W. Worek, Solar engineering of thermal processes, Wiley Online Library, 2013.
[10] P.A. Funk, Evaluating the international standard procedure for testing solar cookers and reporting performance, Solar Energy, 68(1) (2000) 1-7.