Stoves and furnaces – Solar heat collector – With concentrating reflector
Patent
1991-08-22
1994-11-22
Yeung, James C.
Stoves and furnaces
Solar heat collector
With concentrating reflector
126600, 126685, 126697, F24J 210
Patent
active
053659201
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention refers to a solar concentrator system comprising at least one metallized foil strip and heat exchanger means located in front of said metallized foil strip such that solar radiation hitting on the metallized surface of said metallized foil strip is reflected towards said heat exchanger means.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Known solar concentrator systems usually comprise heavy reflector elements made of glass and/or metal which are expensive to manufacture because their shape must be finished very accurately. In the past, it has been proposed to make use of lighter foil mirrors instead of the heavy glass or metal mirrors. Thereby, a metallized foil is tentered over a frame made of fibre composite material and brought into a parabolic shape. Thus, the weight of such a mirror element is approximately one quarter of the weight of a comparable mirror element made of glass or metal. Such a solar concentrator system comprises an essentially inexpensive, lightweight concentrator incorporating a metallized plastic foil with fixed focus. On the other side, the frame must be precisely and expensively manufactured to the calculated shape whereby even minor deviations from the ideal or theoretically required shape result in a substantial degradation of the efficiency of the system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved solar concentrator system.
Features of the invention are set forth in claim 1.
Thus, the expensive, fragile, heavy and optically inaccurate parabolic cylinder mirrors can be replaced by inexpensive, light and unbreakable mirrors with high optical precision. The circular cylinder face can be realized easily with the required accuracy. By means of a secondary concentrator mirror, the final focusing of the solar radiation can be effected.
Expedient embodiments of the invention are set forth in the dependent claims 2-20. A process of manufacturing is described in claim 21.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
In the following, some embodiments of the solar concentrator system of the invention will be further described, with references to the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 shows the basic design of a solar concentrator system according to the invention in a cross-sectional view;
FIG. 2A shows a schematic view of the design;
FIG. 2A shows a schematic view of another embodiment;
FIG. 2C shows a schematic with the clamping rails;
FIG. 3 shows a diagram to explain the theoretical basics of a preferred embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 4 shows a schematic perspective view of a further embodiment of the solar concentrator system according to the invention;
FIG. 5 shows a side view of a further embodiment of the solar concentrator system according to the invention; and
FIGS. 6-8 show schematic views of further variants of the proposed solution .
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The solar concentrator system according to the invention comprises a concentrator mirror having a metallized plastic foil to reflect solar radiation hitting the reflecting surface in parallel relationship. The concentrator mirror of the invention is used in place of the cylindrical parabolic concentrators made of mirror glass and should provide an equal or even a better concentration of the solar radiation hitting the surface of the concentrator. The concentrator mirror of the invention is located on a portion of a plastic foil having circular cross-section, e.g. on a partial face of a circular cylinder jacket. For this purpose, a tubular foil 1 is used which is highly transparent and comprises circular cylindrical shape in cross-section. Such a shape is assured by providing a pressure in the interior of said tubular foil 1 which is higher than atmospheric pressure. In FIG. 1 of the drawings, only a partial cross-sectional view of a tubular foil 1 is shown.
A strip-like portion of the tubular foil 1 is provided with a metallized reflecting layer forming a concentrator mirror 2 for reflecting solar radiation 3 impinging on its metallized surface in pa
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Bomin Solar GmbH & Co. KG
Creighton Wray James
Yeung James C.
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