Design and performance analysis of an annular fresnel solar concentrator

In this paper, an annular Fresnel solar concentrator (AFSC) is proposed. This novel concentrator was incorporated with a series of annular mirrors, and its performance was simulated using MATLAB software. The influences of different structures were also simulated. The tracking deviation, device deviation, and comprehensive deviation were analysed using different deviation angles. The results demonstrated that this concentrator could simply adjust the concentrating ratio, which reached 300 when the maximum concentrator height was 0.78 m and the maximum diameter was only 1.72 m. Non-linear changes in the performance of the annular Fresnel reflector occurred when the structure size increased linearly. Further, the radiation distribution and performance of the annular Fresnel reflector were found with different deviations. When the tracking deviation angle was 0.5 degrees, the receiving rate was 98.37%. This new AFSC has excellent concentrated solar power (CSP) application prospects. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.