Design of a solar concentrator combining paraboloidal and hyperbolic mirrors using ray tracing method

A solar concentrator combining primary paraboloidal and secondary hyperboloidal mirrors is numerically designed by using the ray tracing method to obtain higher concentration ratio when the concentrator tracing error exists. It is found that, when the concentrator tracing errors are 0.5° or 1°, the concentration ratios are about 2027 or 1220 without the detector in the radial-direction, and the concentration ratios are about 5447 or 4701 with the detector in the radial-direction. It is shown that such method can increase the concentration solar flux by two folds when the concentrator tracing error exists. Obviously, it is an effective method to reduce the effect of concentrator tracing error even when the angle of concentrator tracing error is considered. In addition, when the angle of concentrator tracing error is small than 1°, a set of mirror shapes is suggested where the primary mirror has a f-number of 0.22 and the secondary mirror has a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.61.