Study on a concentrator of confocal configuration composed of spherical facets with identical aperture and identical radius of curvature

In this paper, a concentrator of confocal configuration composed of spherical facets with identical aperture and identical radius of curvature is proposed. Through the simulation the flux distribution of the concentrator with different focal length and different facets aperture is analyzed respectively. The simulation results show that the flux on the receiving plane exhibits local maximum. This maximum value appears as the focal length of the concentrator is around 4 m. In other words, the concentrator of 4 m focal length contains 36 spherical facets with 1 m diameter, can achieve the same a focusing effect as that of 8 m focal length contains 90 spherical facets with 1 m diameter. Compared with the cost splicing parabolic concentrator this concentrator is expected to be an alternative cost-effective option.