Optimal Positioning of Reflectors to Increase Heat Interception of a Compound Parabolic Solar Collector using Taguchi Method

This work represents the optimization of reflector positioning of compound parabolic collectors for enhanced heat interception. The heat intercepted by a compound parabolic collector can be improved either by increasing the quantity of incident solar radiation or by absorbing a greater percentage of the available radiation. In the redesigned system, the utilization of incident heat has been increased by increasing the utilization of incident heat, instead of increasing the quantity of incident heat. We have increased the overall efficiency of the compound parabolic collector by applying Taguchi’s method, increasing the maximum concentration ratio to a value almost equal to the geometric concentration ratio and therefore achieved maximum utilizations of the available solar radiation. We have increased the heat intercepted by 23% from 3.7 KW to 3.75 KW and by applying electronic and mechanical tracking, an increase in average solar flux concentration by 10 times is observed.