Academic year 2017-2018

A ray tracing study on the effect of optical efficiency on

different materials and sizes of solar selective
absorbers and reflectors in a parabolic trough collector

Aparajeet Gunasekaran
Core provider: Hanze UAS
Specialisation: Northumbria University
Host organisation: Solarus Sunpower Sweden AB, Gävle, Sweden
Academic supervisor: Arthur Weeber
Submission date: 11-02-2019

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Abstract:
Environmental problems in one hand due to the pollution of fossil fuels and the increasing
energy demand on the other hand has alarmed the humans to look for other alternative
solutions for the energy problem On such alternative among the wind, biomass, solar,
geothermal and other renewable energy resources is the solar thermal energy. In solar
thermal energy field the concentrated solar power (CSP) systems use solar absorbers to
convert sunlight to thermal electric power. Despite the good signs for the future of the solar
thermal technology there lacks a development of these technologies to be put in large scale
commercial purpose as equivalent to the developed fossil fuels and neither does it have an
effective policy contributing to the gradual progress of the solar energy. In 2007 the
Aboslicon solar collectors were established for low to medium concentrated solar thermal
collectors manufacturing PTC collectors which are turnkey products for customer specific
requirements and the company Solarus has been in solar CPVT market since 2006 and has
been producing low concentrated photovoltaic and thermal collector systems. The
Absolicon’s low concentration solar collector model T160 is been studied in this thesis. This
solar collector system is modelled to produce thermal electric power for commercial or
industrial purpose only and strictly not suitable for residential purposes. These collector
systems are mainly used for heating purposes in thermo-chemical processes in industries
and power for large buildings that require power all-round the year.
There are two main objectives of this thesis. The first one is to study the optical efficiency of
the T160 solar thermal collector. While coming to the optical efficiency, the PTC collector
has three main optical materials based on which the optical efficiency of the solar collector
particularly the solar receiver of the collector is observed. The optical elements of the
collector are the 1) reflector/concentrator which concentrates the incoming sunlight onto the
2) receiver/absorber tube which is generally made of a selective solar absorber surface
material in order to absorb the concentrated sunlight onto it and the 3) glass cover used that
lets in the sunlight to be absorber and also acts as a protection. These materials’ real optical
properties are varied by using different selective surface materials, of different sizes and
different reflector materials are studied. The materials have varying longitudinal incidence
angles by using incidence angle modifier (IAM) and by their results how the varying optical
efficiencies and the end results of them are compared with that of the Absolicon’s T160
optical efficiency. The second objective of the thesis is to find an optimal ray tracing software
to accommodate a modelling interface and simulating by inputting the real optical properties
through ray tracing simulation of the different materials and able to obtain data that can be
used to calculate optical efficiency at varying longitudinal incidence angles. These results
will be compared with that of the optical efficiency of the T160 model.
SolTrace an open source Monte Carlo ray tracing software program developed by NREL
was used for this thesis work. Using this software the ray tracing simulation for seven of
selective absorber materials with three different sizes each and four of reflector materials
and a glass cover at constant transmittance value whose optical properties were studied
with their optical efficiencies. Out of the absorber materials, their sizes and the reflector
materials used the copper surface texture of 51 mm diameter combined with Alanod MIRO
silver reflector produced the highest optical efficiency of 87.9% but, the 13 mm diameter
absorber with the same combination can provide nearly similar values and can be a great
budget option in comparison with T160 material’s optical efficiency of 83.11%
Keywords: Parabolic Trough Collector, Concentrating Solar Power, Incidence Angle
Modifier, Optical efficiency

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ORIGINALITY DECLARATION

By this letter, I declare that I have written this thesis completely by myself and that I have
used no other sources or resources than the ones mentioned.

The sources used, have been stated in accordance with the EUREC Project Guidelines. I
have indicated all quotes and citations that were literally taken from publications, or that
were in close accordance with the meaning of those publications, as such. Moreover, I have
not handed in an essay, paper or thesis with similar contents elsewhere. All sources and
other resources used are stated in the bibliography. In case of proof that the essay, paper
or thesis has not been constructed in accordance with this declaration, the School of
Engineering considers the essay, paper or thesis as negligence or as a deliberate act that
has been aimed at making a correct judgment of the candidate's expertise, insights and
skills impossible.

In case of plagiarism, the examiner has the right to exclude the student from any further
participation in the particular assignment, and also to exclude the student from further
participation in the MSc programme at the School of Engineering of Hanze University of
Applied Sciences, Groningen. The study results obtained in the course will be declared null
and void in case of plagiarism (also see Article 14 of the Teaching and Examination
Regulations).

Name: Aparajeet Gunasekaran

Place: Gävle, Sweden

Date: 25-01-2019

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Table of Contents
Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... 2
Originality Declaration .................................................................................................................. 3
List of figures ................................................................................................................................ 5
List of tables and graphs.............................................................................................................. 6
Glossary ........................................................................................................................................ 6
Nomenclature ................................................................................................................................ 7
1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………..8
1.1. Motivation…………………………………………………………………………………………...8
1.2. Aim…………………………………………………………………………………………………..9
1.3. Method……………………………………………………………………………………………..10
1.4. Research questions………………………………………………………………………………10
2. Literature survey……………………………………………………………………………………...11
2.1. CPC technology background…………………………………………………………………….11
2.2. State-of-the-art…………………………………………………………………………………….12
2.3. Desired characteristics of a reflector…………………………………………………………….16
2.3.1. Optical properties of a reflector material………………………………………………...17
2.3.2. Hemispherical reflectance………………………………………………………………..18
2.3.3. Reflectors…………………………………………………………………………………..19
2.3.4. Market survey discussion…………………………………………………………………21
2.4. Selective solar absorbing surfacing……………………………………………………………..22
2.4.1. State-of-the-art selective solar absorbers………………………………………………23
2.4.2. Selective solar absorber materials used………………………………………………..26
2.5. Incidence Angle Modifier (IAM)………………………………………………………………….28
2.6. Optical efficiency………………………………………………………………………………….29
3. Methodology…………………………………………………………………………………………..30
3.1. Ray tracing software program…………………………………………………………………...30
3.2. Comparison………………………………………………………………………………………..31
3.2.1. Software features comparison……………………………………………………………31
3.3. Optical surface errors……………………………………………………………………………..33
3.4. Reflection of radiation…………………………………………………………………………….34
3.5. Methodology……………………………………………………………………………………….35
3.5.1. Materials……………………………………………………………………………………35
3.5.2. Assumptions taken for the ray tracing simulation………………………………………36
3.5.3. Dimensions of the collector………………………………………………………………37
3.6. Ray tracing simulation…………………………………………………………………………….37
4. Results and discussion...........................................................................................................38
4.1. Intercept factor comparison………………………………………………………………………39
4.2. Optical efficiency comparison……………………………………………………………………40
4.3. Power comparison………………………………………………………………………………..43
5. Conclusion...............................................................................................................................45
6. Appendix……………………………………………………………………………………………....48

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List of figures:
Figure 2.1: Cross section of a non-truncated CPC…...……………………………………...11
Figure 2.2: Different concentrating collector shapes 1………………………………………13

Figure 2.3: Different concentrating collector shapes 2………………………………………13

Figure 2.4: Different concentrating collector shapes 3………………………………………14

Figure 2.6: Specular radiation and diffuse reflection diagram………………………………18

Figure 2.7: Intrinsic absorber…………………………………………………………………...23
Figure 2.8: Semiconductor – metal tandems………………………………………………….24

Figure 2.9: Multilayer absorbers……………………………………………………………......25

Figure 2.10: Cermets or metal – dielectric composites……………………………………....25
Figure 2.11: Surface textured absorbers……………………………………………………....26

Figure 3.1: Angles of incidence and refraction in media with refractive indices n 1 and n2.35
Figure 4.1: Flux map of receiver tube 13mm copper texture surface material…………….44

Figure 4.2: Flux map of receiver tube 25.4 mm copper texture surface…………………....44
Figure 4.3: Flux map of receiver tube 51 mm copper texture surface………………………45

Figure A.1: Sun position and sun shape parameters input stage in SolTrace………………48
Figure A.2: Optical properties input stage in SolTrace……………………………………….49
Figure A.3: Geometrical modelling stage in SolTrace………………………………………..49
Figure A.4: Ray tracing parameters input stage in SolTrace…………………………………50
Figure A.5: Stage to view the intersection of sunlight rays on the designed model………..50
Figure A.6: Flux intensity map showing results of the glass cover’s ray trace simulation….51
Figure A.7: Flux intensity map showing results of absorber’s ray trace simulation……......51

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List of tables and graphs:
Table 3.1: Absolicon T160 model design parameters…………………………………………37
Table 4.1: Intercept factor for the optical materials……………………………………………39
Table 4.2: Simulated insolation power available at the absorbers…………………………..43
Graph 4.1: Optical efficiency of concentrator aluminium – steel laminate………………….40
Graph 4.2: Optical efficiency graph of Alanod MIRO aluminium concentrator…………….41
Graph 4.3: Optical efficiency of concentrator silver – steel laminate……………………….41
Graph 4.4: Optical efficiency of concentrator Alanod MIRO silver………………………….42

Glossary:
AM – Air mass
SSA – Selective Solar Absorbers
UV – Ultraviolet region
NIR – Near Infrared Region
Vis – Visible region
IR – Infrared region
IAM – Incidence Angle Modifier
AR – Anti-reflecting
HTF – Heat Transfer Fluid
PTC – Parabolic Trough Collector
CSP – Concentrating Solar Power
SEGS – Solar Electric Generating Systems
CENER – National Renewable Energy Centre (Spanish)
NREL – National Renewable Energy Laboratory
CPVT – Concentrated Photovoltaic and Thermal

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Nomenclature:
θc Concentrator half acceptance angle
α Absorptivity
ρ Reflectivity
τ Transmissivity
ϒ Intercept factor
θTOT,surf Surface error
θslope Slope error
θspec Specularity error
θtrack Tracking error
θalign Alignment error
σTOT,surf Standard deviation of surface error
σoptical Standard deviation of optical error
n1 Refractive index of medium 1
n2 Refractive index of medium 2
θ1 Angle of incidence
θ2 Angle of refraction
r⊥ Perpendicular component of unpolarised
radiation
r‖ Parallel component of unpolarised radiation
Ir Incident light
Ii Reflected light
λ Wavelength of light
θ Incident angle of light
R(λ,θ) Total reflectance
Kτα (θ) or K(θ) Incidence Angle Modifier
bo Incidence Angle Modifier coefficient
ηₒ Optical efficiency
Af Aperture area

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 A ray tracing study on the effect of optical efficiency on
different materials and sizes of solar selective absorbers and
reflectors in a parabolic trough collector
1. Introduction:

1.1. Motivation:

One of the most popular, abundant and renewable sources of energy is the solar
radiation energy from the sun. The earth will be without any form of life if there is no sun
radiation. The sun’s light and radiation helps plants to produce their form of energy for
their living and also making the humans directly dependent on the sun for the warmth
and their day to day life on earth. [1] Since sun produces and supplies immense amount
of energy to the earth’s surface at 3 quadrillion kWh of energy every day and 3,850,000
exajoules per year which puts it at the top spot of the other sources of renewable energy
types in regards to the potential to harvest and utilize. [2]

Since solar energy is clean, climate –friendly, very abundant and inexhaustible energy
resource to mankind and is relatively well-spread over the globe it is very motivating and
interesting to exploit a high fortune out of it in return by supplying electricity and heat.
[3].The concentrating solar systems produce very high temperature of heat energy from
the solar radiation. A line focus concentrating system called parabolic trough collectors
directs solar radiation onto a focal line on the collector’s axis. A receiver tube with a fluid
flowing inside absorbs the concentrated solar energy from the tube walls and raises its
enthalpy is installed in this focal line. PTCs use direct or beam radiation and makes use
of single axis tracking system so that the collector is aligned to the direction of the
parallel radiation. Due to the varying positions and irradiance of the sun, an encasement
of this energy can be done successfully with the use of solar thermal and solar
photovoltaic systems. [4]

A carefully designed and validated solar thermal collector with practical examinations
and a fitting software will be very helpful to analyse and trap more useful energy. The
compound parabolic collectors (CPC) are called as non-imaging concentrators because
the concentration of all the sun rays should fall on the receiver. A CPC thermal collectors
comes a viable system to harness the sun’s heat into useful application. With all these
considerations in mind, a fitting ray tracing software is used to simulate and analyse the
efficiency of a CPC thermal collector of Absolicon’s T160 collector.

1.2. Aim:

The changes in the world’s energy consumption are necessary for the survival of the
planet and sustainable environmental development where, the solar thermal
concentrators comes as part of the solution. Absolicon T160 is effective high efficiency

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 solar collector at high temperatures. The system has been developed to drive industrial
processes and generates solar heat and solar temperatures up to 160 ° C. The
Absolicon T160 collector is a single axis parabolic concentrator that focuses the sunlight
onto a pipe absorber with a selective surface. Ray tracing is a method often used to
characterize solar concentrators by examining how the rays interact with the different
components of the solar collector. Ray tracking can be used to quickly determine optical
efficiencies and incidence angle dependencies for different designs of reflector, glass
and absorber. The optical properties are dependent on the receiver/absorber size &
material, reflector design & material, incidence angle of the rays on the reflector,
reflector’s reflectivity, receiver’s absorptivity and the refractive index of the protection
glass used.

The optical properties all have an incidence angle dependency. In this project the main
focus for development is to create and validate a model for the T160 concentrator using
Ray Tracing software and then validate the result by comparing the thermal output
efficiency using collector’s data sheets which will help in studying the increase or
decrease in the efficiency. That will be done by using a ray tracing software programme
called Tonatiuh which is a Monte Carlo based ray tracing software that is able to
simulate the interaction between the sunlight and a concentrating collector. The main
objective or goal of this thesis will be to ultimately improve the optical efficiency of the
collector which will be done by focussing maximum amount of sun rays to fall on the
collector. Absolicon is a solar thermal based company which is in collaboration with
Solarus. With this model we will investigate how different longitudinal incidence angle
modifiers for the thermal absorber in combination with different pipe sizes affect the
optical efficiency. The results can then be used by the company to help optimize the
selection of pipe size and selective surface design.

1.3. Approach:

An overview to that of the methodology used is given below. To start with this thesis,
the performance of this collector is well understood from the literature study. In the
following the thesis works are described.

1) Create and validate a model of the solar collector using a solar ray tracing software. The
model designed will have the following properties:
a) The sun width
b) Real optical material properties of different absorber materials, sizes and reflector
materials
c) Absorptivity of the receiver/absorber pipe selective surface
d) Reflectivity of the reflector/concentrator
e) Transmission of the glass cover
f) Incidence angle modifier (IAM) in the longitudinal axis of the sun’s path
g) Designing of the collector will be done manually in solar ray tracing software initially
with the known parameters/characteristics and then the variations in each of those
parameters/characteristics of each part (reflector, absorber and glass cover) will be

9
 added one by one will be done for simulations and analyses. Each material properties
will be added from the data available with the manufacturer, measured when possible
and otherwise assumed/guessed through a discussion with Absolicon/manufacturer.

2) To investigate software programs and to make real time simulations in them to find out
about:
a) How the optical efficiency differs from material to material.
b) Investigate on how the different pipe sizes are affected by the incidence angle of the
light onto the pipe and as a result how the optical efficiency of the absorber pipe
varies in different incidence angles.

3) The results of optical efficiencies of the different simulated models will be compared in
between themselves and to that of the simulated result of the company’s product in the
solar ray tracing software.

1.4. Research Questions:

 To find an optimal ray tracing software tool in which the real optical properties of a
material can be added and which can help in the calculation of optical efficiency.
 To find the amount of sunlight incidence on the collector when the collector
dimensions are similar to that of the Absolicon’s T160 except the receiver will be
simulated of different dimensions. This is done to find the difference in the amount of
the sun insolation on the absorbers and to compare their results for which will be an
important data to calculate the optical efficiency.
 As the collector itself is setup to track the sun’s transversal path therefore longitudinal
IAM needs to be simulated using a ray tracing software. Optical efficiency will be
directly proportional to the longitudinal IAM data collected.
 A critical analysis on how the different materials and it’s dimensions of the absorber,
how the material choices are made and the materials of the reflector affects the
optical efficiency and which absorber size will be the perfect option for the Absolicon’s
T160 solar collector.

2. Literature Survey:
2.1. CPC technology background:

The CPC is a type of non-imaging concentrators which is concerned with operations

where the image formation of the source is not critical but other factors like effective and
efficient collection of light rays, distribution, concentration and transport of light energy
is, that is, solar energy conversion, illumination optics, signal detection, measurement
and testing. While on the other hand the imaging optics are the techniques to form an
image of the source on the receiver [5]. The CPC is abbreviated as “Compound
Parabolic Collector” and is a branch of optics that deals with the optimal light transfer
between a target and a source (for this thesis the source is sun). The important operation
and advantage of non-imaging optics over imaging optics is that they allow for 1)

10
maximized solar energy concentration (typically a solar cell or thermal receiver) and 2)
illumination controlling of distributed light, which means the light’s spread on the receiver
can be adjusted.

The top three main components of a CPC are the aperture (cover), reflector and the
receiver. A reflector should generally have the highest of reflectance as possible to
reflect the maximum amount of light radiation. The receiver is very important as it should
have high absorptance in order to absorb as much solar radiation as possible. Then the
aperture is usually a cover in the form of glasses for solar CPCs which technically should
have high transmissivity, low refraction and very low reflectivity. Generally the cover
glass should be best of both maximum illumination with minimal warming effect. [1]

Since the motion of the earth is around the sun, then the incidence angle of the sun to
the collector should also be constantly changing. Hence, the bulk of the sun’s ray falling
on the collector is in varied directions and aren’t directly incident on it. The CPCs
concentrate the sunlight on the absorbers for maximum utilization of thermal energy.
Concentration ratio or area concentration ratio is defined as the ratio of aperture area
Aa to that of the receiver area Ar. The concentration ratio are in general with substantial
variations such as area and local flux concentration ratio. The area concentration ratio
C is; [6]

Aa 1
C= =
Ar sin 𝜃𝑐

When considering a two dimensional system, the concentration ratio relationship is

given through the half acceptance angle which is half the radius of the sun is viewed by
the collector. A concentration ratio of 2.5 will be obtained for an ideal CPC with 23.5˚
half acceptance angle. The 23.5˚ is the declination angle of the sun during winter and
summer solstices. The full acceptance angle of this CPC design is at the top from where
the light enters. As the top side of the collector forms the aperture the design of the
acceptance angle has more importance because that is the part of this system which
limits the concentration ratio for CPC around 2-10. Lower the concentration ratio means
that the collector can function as a stationary collector without the sun tracking system
and higher the concentration ratios means the collector needs to have a higher tracking
accuracy for collecting the normal component of the light.

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 Figure 2.1; Cross section of a symmetrical non-truncated CPC. (Duffie and Beckman)
[7]

2.2. State-of-the-art:

The concentrators for this application can be of different types like cylindrical in shape
or have surfaces of revolution, can be reflectors or refractors, and they can be arranged
in continuous or in parts. At the same time the receivers of the solar radiation can be
shaped flat, convex or concave and could be covered or uncovered by any material
which would let the solar radiation to hit the receiver. The different types of collectors
are shown in Figure 2.2.

Figure 2.2: Different concentrating collector shapes: (a) tubular absorbers with diffuse
back reflectors; (b) tubular absorbers with specular cusp reflectors; (c) plane receiver
with plain reflectors (V-trough) [7]
The first two concentrator types as shown in figure 2.2 have similar arrangement of
arrays of evacuated tubes which are cylindrical absorbers. The first type uses tubular
absorber with diffuse back reflector and the second uses a specular cusp-shaped
reflectors. The concentration configuration in (c) has a plane receiver with plane
reflectors at the boundaries to reflect ‘additional’ radiation to the receiver.

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Figure 2.3: Different concentrating collector shapes: (d) Multi-sectional planar
concentrator; (e) compound parabolic concentrator; (f) parabolic trough [7]
Similarly, the concentrators (d) and (e) have the same configuration except that the
compound parabolic concentrator has a medium concentration ratio in comparison to
the multisectional planar concentrator reflects diffuse/peripheral radiation that incidents
on the reflector to the absorber. The configuration (f) is a parabolic trough with a reflector
in the shape of a long parabolic trough (cylindrical surface) with a single receiver (tubular
receiver) along the focal line of the trough.

Figure 2.4: Different concentrating collector shapes: (g) Fresnel reflector; (h) array of
heliostats (reflectors) with central receiver. [7]

The Fresnel concentrators use the Fresnel lens effect which is the technique of using
concentrating mirror with large aperture and short focal length. In the last type (h)
concentrators, there will be present a central receiver (or power towers) which use
hundreds or thousands of individual sun-tracking mirrors called as “heliostats” which
acts as reflectors to radiate solar energy onto the receiver located on top of a tower.
This forms the basis of central-receiver collectors.

In this thesis work the parabolic trough collector system is of focus and the novel aspect
of the system is to study the optical efficiency of the collector. Breaking down on how to
reach the ultimate part to calculate the optical efficiency for individual selective solar
absorbers (SSA) of different size Miguel Terron-Hernandez et al [8] has made a
simulation study using Tonatiuh ray tracing software to analyse between the solar rays
and the solar concentrator to quantify the amount of energy that impinges on the
receiver at a particular time. In a similar way instead of Tonatiuh software SolTrace
program will be used. Combining to that Peter Bermel et al [2] reviewed the optical

13
 properties of many SSAs in which some of the real material properties can be used for
the optical efficiency calculation which will be explained in section 2.4.2. Olle Olssen [9]
investigated the optical and mechanical characteristics of laminated receiver materials
where the results were obtained by experimental tests and analysing optical losses
through Matlab program. In order to simulate the designed model and get the optical
efficiency results then it is necessary to understand from the Tesfamichael T et al [10]
that the solar absorptance of absorbers for thermal solar collectors is usually
characterised at near normal angle of incidence. But the solar absorptance is a function
of angle of the incident light on the absorbers. Hence, longitudinal incidence angle
modifier is used to find the optical efficiency of the angle dependent absorbers at varying
sun angles.

2.3. Desired Characteristics of a reflector and cover glass:

To heat the fluid that is passing through the absorber pipe of any CSP in principle needs
to focus the sunlight onto it. That fluid is often referred to as heat transfer fluid (HTF),
and the heated fluid is either directly used as or it is converted into steam and is let to
pass through a steam generator to produce electricity. The important or the novel aspect
of a reflector which is reflecting maximum amount of sunlight onto the absorber has
been the key issue that has been for long time under the development phase in order
to produce a cost effective solar concentrator. As the renewable sources of energies
are fighting to fend off against the fossil fuels the renewable sources of energies are
thrived to be cost effective both in short and long run. The optical components of a solar
concentrator consists of three important components which are the parabolic trough
reflector, a receiver tube and a cover glass or the protective glass. The cover glass is
used to protect the collector from dust, rain or even snow which will definitely penetrate
through the collector and jam the proper working of the collector, so for that the cover
glass is glued and fixed with a special glue to the collector for protection with the glue
not degrading the working of the collector and is made to have low absorption to the
sunlight. The glass used is required to have low absorption and reflectance to the
incoming sunlight and the one chosen should be with high transmissivity. The glasses
are particularly taken extra care to glue it to the reflector at the bend edges of the
reflector in order to protect the collector from humidity. Nonetheless the general rule for
designing a collector is to have all three of its optical components the concentrator with
high reflectance, the receiver tube with high absorptance and then the glass cover with
high transmittance in order to maximise the total efficiency. Any decrease in efficiency
in any one of the stated materials will result in huge loss of the whole system.

2.3.1.Optical properties of a reflector material:

The reflectance function of the collector system represents the theoretical output. So
when coming to theoretical point of view the thermal solar system should convert energy
from the wavelengths 300-2500 nm (solar wavelengths) and high reflectance in the
whole solar spectrum is desirable. Comparing this to solar cells which only produce
electricity from the wavelengths of 300-1100 nm where there is critical reflectance in
that region solar thermal fares better in that aspect as light with too much scattering will
miss the receiver and hence a low scattering is desired.

14
 So keeping in mind the conditions discussed above it is highly recommended that the
incoming sunlight that reflects from the reflector and that is not properly concentrated
onto the receiver tube will result in immediate loss in the system. Thermodynamics first
law states that all energy that is hitting a surface must follow a direction, so in that case,
the radiations of the sunlight can be distributed in three ways, by absorption (α) of the
radiation into the material, by reflection (ρ) and by transmittance (τ), therefore the
radiation passes through the material. These three phenomenon, relate to each other at
coming wavelengths as;
α+ρ+τ=1
By this equation it is observable that a good reflecting material must have a very low
absorptance and transmittance with very high reflectance, if the ρ = 1 for the
wavelengths in the suns spectrum then that’s the ideal condition for a reflector (100%
reflecting).
Mechanical properties: The reflective material should endure lots of natural forces which
acts against it since it is kept open in the environment to harness energy hence it needs
to be capable of withstanding high mechanical stresses from the incoming storms, snow,
rain and vibrations. Not only mechanical strengths but also the material’s characteristic
features like ability to be flexible to bend and make it into a parabolic shapes and not to
form any dents or damages while handling it.
Durability: When the mechanical properties of a good reflective material are discussed
above, with that the durability prediction of the reflector should come in hand with it.
Durability means the reflector should payoff for long time also by withstanding the
mechanical and optical standards with stability up to 20 years of lifetime or more. That’s
not all that matters in durability but the fact that acid rains or just normal rain occurs the
reflector should be ready to withstand tough climatic conditions for those many years.

2.3.2.Hemispherical reflectance:
Reflectance technically is referred to as hemispherical reflectance where the ability of a
material to reflect the incoming light where the fraction of the incoming light is reflected
back out from the surface of the material. This possess two types of reflection and those
are diffuse reflection and direct specular reflection (beam reflection). The diffuse
reflection happens when the reflected light is scattered from the reflective surface. If the
reflected light follows the same angle of reflection to that of the incident angle (Snell’s
law) then it’s called specular reflection. When a material has light rays falling on it, then
generally the reflection happening on that material is a combination of the above
discussed two types of reflections. [11]

15
 Figure 2.6: Left side represents the specular radiation and the right side diagram is the
diffuse reflection

2.3.3.Reflectors:
Market survey on commercial reflectors:
A study on the commercial reflectors available in the market is surveyed/studied and
these reflective materials are suitable for use in the Absolicon’ T160 solar collector. One
matter to be pointed out is that the reflective materials stated below are only the opinion
of the author of this thesis

Aluminium – Steel laminate:

Aluminium - steel laminate is a reflective material with a thin film of aluminium laminated
over a steel sheet of metal. This reflective material is a choice for many company’s
parabolic troughs because of its low price, high stability and having a reflectance that is
suitably scattering in the trough to name few main reasons.
This material has its reflectance at an average of 82.7% in light spectrum of the range
300 – 2500 nm [12] and the foil itself is made to be completely specular and has a
scattering cone with a deviation of half angle ~ 1.50 which is the result of the adhesive
and steel sheet used. The cost of aluminium – steel laminate is priced at $9.3/m2 but as
an estimation made in by my supervisor for this according to a study made by them is
that the price for this material would be $13/m2 for an area of 4000 m2. [9]

Silver – steel laminate:

This material is very similar to the aluminium – steel laminate just the difference being
that the silver polymeric film is laminated over a steel sheet of metal. This material has
the few similar properties of aluminium – steel laminate. Outdoor and indoor durability
of silver – steel laminate is excellent and there isn’t any occurrence of delamination of
both the materials.
The important factor for this reflective material is the specular reflectance and it is
observed to be 92.3% at AM1.5 and 94.5% at AM2 on an average value between the

16
wavelength ranges of visible spectrum 300 – 2500 nm. This material also has scattering
at 20˚ half angle scattering, but an adhesive free substrate will be useful if a smooth and
no-scattering surface is desired. Silver – steel laminate is priced higher than the
aluminium – steel laminate as silver is more expensive in general to low cost aluminium
as silver – steel laminate costs $13 - $30/m2 and for the area of 4000 m2 the price is
$14.5/m2 - $25/m2. [9]

Alanod MIRO Silver:

Alanod is a German manufacturer specialized in aluminium and they have a large variety
of reflective materials. They’re the one of the leading producers of anodized aluminium
in the world and their most advanced type of reflective materials are of MIRO series (in
the company Alanod the MIRO has different models of the reflective materials) which
has its reflective properties of material of an average 80% reflectance in the solar
spectrum of wavelength 300 – 2500 nm. [12]
Since the material is based on aluminium sheets of metal, it does not provide enough
strength and flexibility like the steel sheets which makes it too fragile and hard to handle.
Thickness control of this reflective material is difficult as it doesn’t offer much flexibility.
The price of this product comes as another downside because MIRO silver is one of the
most expensive products in its line and is heavier too. The cost of a 0.8 mm thick MIRO
with 95.6% reflectance silver sheet is ~$40/m2 and that of aluminium MIRO2 sheet with
~88% reflectance is priced at $29/m2. [9]

3M
3M is one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of thin foils. This material (SRF98) has
very good mechanical properties and can be applied to any smooth surfaces so the
mechanical properties needed can be given by the substrate.
The specular reflectance SRF98 is 98% on average in the solar spectrum of wavelength
300 – 2500 nm [12] which is very high reflectance of many other types of reflectors and
is mainly developed for usage in lighting industry where several reflections are common.
But the high reflectance comes under a cost as it is ~$60/m2 [9] and this cost involves
work in attaching the foil to the substrate and doesn’t include the substrate itself. The
high price of the LDT’s silver foil is a drawback to be used as reflective material for
Absolicon’s collector. Also the foil is particularly unsuitable because it doesn’t reflect
light in the infrared part of the spectrum.

Thick and thin mirrors:

Thick glass mirrors mean the thickness being more than 1 mm and these kind of mirrors
have been a common choice in the past CSP applications. This can be seen from the
Solar Electric Generating Systems (SEGS) CSP plant in California’s Mojave Desert. The
thick mirrors are easy to install as per the consideration of the SEGS and more durable.
Thick mirrors are proven to have excellent durability of more than 25 years with reflection
loss of less than 1% in 25 years’ time of commercial application and corrosively
resistant. But these glasses are hard to shape into a parabola, so these glasses are
divided into small segments and installed but this requires lots of intricate construction
work.

17
 Thin mirrors are generally priced lower than the thick mirrors at a cost of $16 - $43/m2
but are more fragile, requires very careful handling and have experienced corrosion in
some of the systems. Thick mirror materials with ~93% specular reflectance is priced at
$43 - $65/m2. [9] [13] [14]

2.3.4.Market survey discussion:

In the above presented market survey on some of the suitable commercially available
solar concentrator materials, their subjective remarks on weather durability and
mechanical stability aren’t taken from any standardized tests to compute their
characteristics and instead data from the manufacturers have been used.
The prices presented in the market survey ought to be considered as a rough
assessment collected from a range of sources, because the price of reflective material
depends predominantly on the volume of purchase and hence the companies were
reluctant to give the exact prices before any actual purchase.
2.4. Selective solar absorbing surfaces:

Understanding of selective solar absorbing (SSA) surfaces - Solar absorbers with

selective coating of any material which has the ability to absorb a fraction of the sun’s
insolation by having high absorptance (low reflectance) in the solar spectrum and low
emittance (high reflectance) in the infrared region is called a selective solar absorber
(SSA). In other words it can be simply put that the SSAs are those materials which
absorb the fraction of sunlight at a given wavelength. Emittance is defined as the ratio
of monochromatic intensity emitted by a surface in a particular direction to the
monochromatic intensity that would be emitted by a blackbody at the same temperature.

The standard spectral solar flux that incidents on the surface of earth after the
absorption and filtration of the atmosphere, the range is limited from 0.3 and 2.5 μm
which is the UV or visible range or near infrared range (NIR) wavelength. The spectrum
consists of both diffuse and direct (beam) radiations which combine and contribute to
the heat-up of the solar collectors. One parameter that characterizes the performance
of the absorbers in a solar collectors is the solar absorptance. Since the SSA that is
generally used in a solar collector is of an opaque material, so the spectral absorptance
can be expressed in terms with respect to the total reflectance, R(λ,θ), as:

α(λ, θ) = 1 − R(λ, θ),

Where λ is the wavelength and θ is the incident angle of light measured normal from
the absorber surface. Transmissivity for opaque surfaces is assumed to be zero.

As stated above about the visible spectrum of light’s wavelength, the solar reflectance
are usually measured between the same 0.3 – 2.5 μm range at near normal (θ≈0) angle
of incidence by using an instrument called spectrophotometer. Which leads to the fact
that the solar absorptance can be characterised at near normal incidence angle for
which the sun should be at the angle which is in opposite direction to the gravitational
pull of the earth at any point on the surface or in other words at a zenith angle relative
to the solar absorber. For more inclined angles of incidence when the sun is not in zenith

18
 angle the solar absorptance at near normal must be characterised to accommodate the
modified incidence angles of the solar thermal collector systems. This modifications in
angles can be accommodated by using the Incidence Angle Modifier (IAM) for optical
efficiency, Kτα (θ) which is a function of angle θ given by: [10]

τα 1
K τα (θ) = ( ) = 1 − b0 ∗ ( − 1),
τα 0 cosθ

Where α is the solar absorptance and τ is the transmittance of the collector cover glass
where both the parameters are angle dependent. The subscript “0” represents the
values at normal incidence angle. A constant bo is called as the incidence angle modifier
coefficient whose values can differ for different solar collectors for the T160 collector the
bo value is 0.255. [15]

2.4.1.State of the art Selective Solar Absorbers:

The selective surface coatings are based on different optical absorption mechanisms
including, intrinsic absorption, semiconductor-metallic layers, multilayer films, quantum
size effects, light trapping, and particulate coatings. It will be simple to just design an
absorber with intrinsic properties, but eventually there are no materials available in
nature that has the ideal solar selective properties. The different types of SSAs are
discussed below:
Intrinsic Absorbers:

These absorbers use materials which inhibit pure or intrinsic characteristics or

properties that result in their desired spectral selectivity. Intrinsic solar selective
properties are found in transition metals and semiconductors as discussed above, but
also there isn’t any perfect ideal selectivity for any naturally occurring material. Some of
the examples are, metallic W (tungsten), Si doped with B, CaF 2, V2O5, HfC etc. Metals
generally possess a plasmon frequency above which the absorptivity gradually
increases. A typical metal’s plasmon frequency is well into the ultraviolet region as
shown in figure 2.7 well above ideal cut-off wavelength for reasonable operating
conditions [2]. Nevertheless the intrinsic absorbers haven’t been of much commercial
use or have been very productive compared to the other types of absorbers because
no ideal intrinsic material are actually available, but they do find their use in high
temperature absorber multilayers and composite coatings.

19
Figure 2.7: Reflectance of an ideal selective absorber compared to that of a metal and
a heavily doped semiconductor

Semiconductor – Metal Tandems:

It is a general science that the semiconductor materials are transparent for frequencies
below their electronic band gap, but are strong absorber of higher frequencies. Which
means that if a semiconductor with band gaps from about 0.5 eV (2.5 μm) to 1.26 eV (1
μm) absorb short wavelength radiation when a semiconductor is placed on a metal, then
it is known to provide low emittance helping in obtaining the desired spectral selectivity
to semiconductor – metal tandems while longer wavelength radiations will pass through
the semiconductor and are reflected back by the metal layer beneath it. As these types
of absorbers possess high refractive index near their band edge, this creates an
unwanted reflection for frequencies above its band gap. Hence AR coatings are
generally needed to suppress reflection which naturally enhances the performance of
the absorber as shown in the figure 2.8. Semiconductors depending on the operating
conditions, some of them of interest are Silicon (1.1 eV), Germanium (0.7 eV) and lead
sulphide (0.4 eV).

Figure 2.8: Schematic cross section of a semiconductor – metal tandems selective

absorber

20
Multilayer Absorbers:

Multilayer interference stacks or multilayer thin films consist of alternating stacks of

metal and dielectric layers which becomes efficient selective absorbers. This is done by
having alternating layers of metals in several nanometers thick or less than the
thickness of skin depth which allows for the partial transparency to let multiple
reflectance pass through the bottom of the dielectric layers and notably is independent
of the dielectric layer. A multilayer model of Ge/Ag selective absorber consists of 11 unit
cells with 10 nm of silver and 150 nm of vacuum. Figure 2.9 shows the emission spectra
of the fifth and tenth layers calculated at room temperature. From the graph it shows
that in the IR region the emissivity decreases by two orders of magnitude in comparison
to the visible region. Though the graph shows an emissivity in the visible not high
enough which shows that the selective absorber isn’t a good one. This concept is to just
demonstrate that this simple multilayer structure can profoundly modify optical
properties. [2]

Figure 2.9: (a) Schematics of the Ge/Ag selective absorber with optimized front and
back coatings and (b) simulated emittance spectra of (a) [2]

Cermets:

Metal-dielectric composite coatings or cermet or absorber-reflector tandems or ceramic-

metal composite coatings consist of nano-scale metal particles embedded in a ceramic
matrix or in other way it can be said as a porous oxide impregnated with metal. They
have highly absorbing coating in the solar region (black) which is transparent in the IR,
and deposited onto a highly IR-reflective metal substrate. An example of nickel-quartz
cermet coatings (Ni:SiO2) in which a sputtered nickel as a base layer for composite films
has a lower reflectance in the thermal range than the polished metal substrates, giving
higher emittance values, but acts as an oxidation barrier for the metal substrate. Here
the Al and Cu are the polished metal substrates studied and they both almost have their
optical properties similar. Emittance of a 300 nm sputtered nickel base layer is 0.12 and
0.13 for Ni on Al and Cu respectively as shown in the figure 2.10. For 600 nm thick films

21
an increase in emittance of 0.01 is observed. The emittance values of the uncoated Cu
and Al substrates are 0.03 and 0.02 respectively. Although the emittance is higher for
the Ni sputtered substrate, the solar absorptance is significantly increased: from 0.91
on Al to 0.96 on Ni-coated Al. The important fact being that the sputtered base layer
influences the surface microstructure of the growing film enhancing absorptance by
cavity trapping. Hence the rough surface produces higher absorptance than the
polished surfaces but at a cost to the emittance. [16]

Figure 2.10: Comparison of the near normal hemispherical reflectance of sputtered Ni

base layers on Al and Cu and the uncoated cleaned Al and Cu substrates.

Surface texturing:

A general approach to increase the solar absorptivity is by the method surface texturing
which functions by multiple reflections generated internally. This technique is done to
obtain good spectral selectivity by the optical trapping of solar energy because short
wavelength photons are easily trapped inside the surface as shown in figure 2.11 (in
the figure 2.11 it can be seen that the incoming short wavelength light can be internally
reflected up to 50 times to enhance absorption). On the other hand, photons with
wavelengths larger than the dendrite spacing will encounter a flat or reflecting surface.
The dendrite or porous microstructures with feature sizes can be adjusted by modifying
(properly orienting the textured material) the microstructures (microcrystallites) will help
in improving the optical properties of the solar absorbers. [2]

22
 Figure 2.11: (a) Schematic representation of a dendritic selective surface. (b) SEM
image of copper textured via an ion beam [2]

2.4.2. Selective solar absorber materials used:

The materials used for the optical efficiency calculation are chosen as per the
commercial availability. Some of the materials like the copper textured surface by ion
beam is done only by NASA and it isn’t in commercial purpose but the other absorbers
are put to use almost commercially. The processes to develop an absorber surface is
not discussed as that is out of the scope of this thesis. Hence the processes are
discussed in brief about the fabrication of the materials and also the metals’ properties
are given brief statement about their characteristics. Listed below are the absorber
materials and their optical properties particularly absorptivity and emissivity. All the
absorber materials listed are internal and confidential hence the below absorbers are of
high potential commercial use.
SiO2/TiO2/α-Si/Al:
This absorber is a composition of boron doped amorphous silicon film deposited by
plasma decomposition of mixed gas composed of monosilane, hydrogen and diboran
deposited on aluminium substrate films. An antireflective coating of TiO2 and SiO2 is
made on the amorphous silicon film shows a high absorptance of 81% and emittance of
14%.
SiO2/Ti/SiO2/Al:
The substrate is silicon for this absorber (Si) and the bottom layer which is a thick Al
metal layer of ≥100 nm with high optical reflection property in the visible region. The
layer above is the dielectric layer (SiO 2) with proper optical constant and thickness (95
nm) to match the phase and amplitude of the sunlight propagated in the film. The next
layer being the Ti (15 nm) which is called the solar energy layer or the absorption layer
and having optical characteristics tuneable for the device. A key layer with very thin
metal with complex refractive index and to absorb maximum energy from the solar
spectrum. The top layer is the AR coating of SiO2 (105 nm) that is used to protect the
device from the environmental conditions. The simulated results for the selective
material is shown in figure 12, it can be seen that over 95% of optical absorption can be
reached in the 450 – 1000 nm region (> 90% in 420 – 1200 nm region) as match to the
solar radiance spectrum.

23
Figure 12: Simulated data with respect to transmittance, reflectance and absorptance
of the SiO2/Ti/SiO2/Al on the Si substrate at the normal incidence of irradiation. [17]
SiO2/Ni: Al2O3:
There are two main techniques of fabrication, those are electrochemical deposition and
sputtering processes. Nickel pigmented anodic Al 2O3 costs less and an optimized single
layer cermet composed of Ni:Al 2O3 with nickel coated glass and SiO2 AR coating offers
94% absorptivity and 7% emissivity at normal incidence in the wavelength range 300 –
2500 nm. A rod of nickel substrate at thickness 300 nm and a top plain porous alumina
layer of thickness 200 nm is modelled. The material at increasing angle of incidence has
decreasing absorptance as shown in figure 13. [10]

Figure 13: Solar absorptance of nickel pigmented aluminium oxide and sputtered
nickel/nickel oxide absorber coatings versus angle of incidence from 5˚ to 80˚. [10]
SiO2/Mo: Al2O3:
Both the Ni: Al2O3 and Mo: Al2O3 are both Al2O3 cermet coatings, having similar type of
fabrication processes and have excellent optical properties. The anodised Mo can be
done by plasma sputtering to form Mo: Al 2O3 cermet layer having absorptivity of 96%
and emissivity of 10% experimentally in the 300 – 2500 nm wavelength region.
SiO2/Ni: SiO2:
Another cermet absorber but has a nickel graded metal concentration on a SiO 2 cermet
coating. This absorber can be made from co-sputtering, evaporation, and chemical
vapour deposition. Again the AR coating is SiO2 which acts as a protection also. The
films are 120 nm thick with an additional 70 nm AR coating. The figure 14 shows an
absorptance and emissivity of 93% and 14% respectively and experimentally. [18]

24
 Figure 14: Spectral hemispherical reflectance of 120 nm Ni:SiO 2 selective absorbers
with and without the 70 nm SiO2 AR coating
AlN/Al: AlON:
Al is a metallic component and AlON as a ceramic component in cermet. The AR coating
and protective coating is Aluminium Nitride (AlN). Numerical calculations has resulted
that double cermet layer film structure has the highest photothermal conversion
efficiency for the Al: AlON cermet solar selective coatings. The optimized film as shown
in figure 14 the AlN AR coating is of 114 nm thickness and is observed to have an
absorptance of 95.8% and emittance as low as 3.5% - 8%. [19]

Figure 14: Reflective spectra of layer-added coatings of AlN.

Copper surface texture:
An ion source system to create unique morphologies in different configurations for
several of NASA’s space applications have been used. It consists of an ion beam
discharge chamber where successful textures on potential space radiator materials are
been used. A chamber discharging ion beam was used on electrode surfaces and a
secondary electron emission is used to change the characteristics of a solar wave
(sunlight) tubes (absorbers). This is accomplished by sputtering textured carbon onto
copper. Hence a textured copper surface with an ion beam as it is called shows high
absorptance value as an absorber at 98.3%. [13] [16] [17] [20]

2.5. Incidence Angle Modifier (IAM):

Not all the radiation from the sunlight incident on the solar collector is been absorbed by
the receiver of the collector. This is a trade-off between the increasing thermal losses in

25
 proportion to increase with area and increasing optical losses with decreasing area is a
factor that needs to be optimized for long term thermal collector performances. This is
been explained by the intercept factor ϒ, which is the fraction of sunlight absorbed by
the receiver to the total amount of sunlight onto the collector.
Some of the factors that generally affect the intercept factor ϒ are the errors in
displacement of the receivers, concentrator contour errors, and tracking errors all lead
to shifting of reflected rays from the focal point and consequently affect the intercept
factor ϒ. Hence the mentioned errors or factors eventually leads to affect the
absoprtance of the receiver and the transmittance of any cover glass used. In fact, the
change in angle of incidence θ is also a factor for the radiation to miss the focal point.
These effects can be represented by biaxial incidence angle modifiers, in the transverse
(x-y) and longitudinal (x-z) planes.
When the radiation is transversal to the collector there occurs a huge drop in the sunlight
incident (ϒ) on the absorber because of the transversal increase in angle of incidence.
In longitudinal plane however there will not be as steep drop in radiation (ϒ) reception
of the receiver as the longitudinal angle variation is in-line to the axial setup of the
collector. Longitudinal angle variation is with the function of θ and with the variation of θ
of the reflectance, transmittance and absorptance of the collector.
Incidence angle modifier is a way to characterize the absorbers in a solar collector
systems models where the radiation from sun and its effect of the incidence angle on
the optical performance is calculated. For solar collectors, the angular optical
performance is modelled with an incident angle modifier, Kτα(θ); [10]
1
K τα = 1 − bo ( − 1)
cosθ
Where bo is the incidence angle modifier coefficient, θ is the angle of incidence and
Kτα(θ) = (τα)θ/(τα)n is the product of the transmittance τ of cover and absorptance α of
absorber at different angles of incidence normalized to normal incidence.
This measurement of IAM is taken with the performance of the collector at the solar
insolation levels at the normal to the surface of the collector plane (which means to face
the same direction as of the collector). Then the sunlight shines in an angle to the
collector, this greatly changes the performance of the collector and this is where the
performance of the collector differs and this is where the IAM values provide us an
angular performance factor. [10] [15] [2] [21] [22]

2.6. Optical Efficiency:

The optical efficiency of a solar collector depends on three broad factors such as the
optical properties of the materials involved, the geometry of the collector and the errors
involved in the construction of the collector. These losses are connected to four
parameters such as the reflectivity of the reflector, absorptivity of the receiver,
transmissivity of the cover system (glass cover) and the intercept factor (which is
associated geometrical errors, collector’s shape, shadowing by the bellows or the sides
of a parabolic collector and mechanical deformation during construction). Additionally,
the incidence angle of the beam solar radiation affects those four parameters, anyway
this effect can be quantified by the incidence angle modifier.
In general the simple optical efficiency at noon time is calculated by the equation;
ηo,0˚ = ρταγ ǀθ=0˚

26
 Where ρ is the reflectivity of the reflector surface, τ is the transmissivity of the glass
cover, α is the absorptivity of the receiver and ϒ is the intercept factor.
For different incidence angles the optical performance of the different material’s
parameter must change and hence that can be calculated by the incidence angle
modifier function
ηo,θ≠0˚ = ηo,0˚ K(θ)

Where K(θ) is the incidence angle modifier and its formula is explained in detail in the
next section.
For 85˚ < θ < 90˚ the K(θ) = 0 because in those angles the very less amount of sunlight
or the sunlight doesn’t even reach the collector and hence the output is almost as good
a zero.
In the end, since the sunlight is incident on the whole of the collector, then the aperture
area Af of the solar collector should be taken into consideration as that is taken as the
reference for the total number of sunlight or insolation of the collector (input) to the total
output. Now the optical efficiency is given by;
ηo,0˚ = ρταγK(θ)Af

3. Methodology:
3.1. Ray Tracing software program:
In particular, understanding and modelling a solar resource and how best possibly to
convert the harnessed energy into useful forms requires a special tool or product to
successfully predict the system’ performances. One important aspect of a CSP system
is to predict its optical properties. The optical systems of a CSP system can be complex
to predict and each time a new prototype cannot be built and tested to just to study or
experiment or develop a product’s optical properties of different optimizations. Hence it
is not practically possible. On the other hand, the computer software programs offer an
efficient way to predict the optical behaviour of these systems. For this problems to be
solved a ray tracing (RT) software programs offer a very upfront assessment of the
optical performances of the solar collector or solar fields.
There are two open-source software programs that have been experimented for the
optical efficiency simulations in this thesis and they are Tonatiuh and SolTrace. In these
software the Absolicon’s T160 collector have been designed and the other simulations
and optimization variations shown in analysing will be explained in the later part of this
thesis report. For now the comparison between the two software programs will be done.

Tonatiuh:
An open-source Monte Carlo ray tracing software with its codes written in C++ and
developed by National Renewable Energy Centre in Spain (CENER). This programs
system simulation is based on three models those are the concentrating system model,
incoming solar radiation model and a model made to interact between the concentrating
system elements and the incoming radiation. Tonatiuh has predefined geometric forms

27
 which allows for the construction of a detailed optical system and then their subsystem’s
optical behaviour can be analysed. One unique matter about the program is that it uses
parallel processing which makes the complete usage of CPUs available for faster
processing of the simulations and reduced computation time. The depiction of the ray
tracing interaction with the concentrating element and the subsystems has a user
friendly graphical interface. CAD import and angular dependencies of material optical
properties are some of the standout features.
SolTrace:
Another open-source software tool developed by National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL). This program is developed to perform modelling and simulation of
optical concentrating solar collectors. Another Monte Carlo ray tracing based software
with its codes written in C++ where the program has a system in which the optical
properties needs to be analysed will be organized in different “stages” of processing.
The geometrical modelling of the system comes with different ways like shape, contour,
and optical quality for a concentrating system. The user can give how many number of
rays to be traced, optical material properties, optical errors and sun shape. An input and
output user interface to analyse, in which the software shows how many rays have
interacted with each element of the concentrating system and a good flux map showing
the flux intensity of the insolation. This program also supports the CAD file imports. [23]

3.2. Comparison:
3.2.1.Software features comparison:
A comparison of the software programs based on their “software capabilities” is made.
This comprises the way the sun modelling is done, ability to add real material
characteristics, surface errors such as specularity and slope errors, and to analyse
optical properties with angular variations
3.2.1.1.Comparison based on the sun model, addition of real material properties and
surface errors:
Tonatiuh:
For sun modelling the software has the features of producing an ideal sun shape where
the predefined shape with an insolation of 1000 W/m2 is given, a pillbox shape
(rectangular sun shape) and buie shape. This software allows for the addition of the real
material’s optical properties and the various surface errors that can be added like the
specularity and slope errors with normal (univariate) or pillbox distributions.
SolTace:
This software has pillbox and Gaussian (a sinusoidal shape) sun shapes. A user defined
sun shape can also be created in this software which will come as a flexible option to
more vary the type of simulations required. A user friendly interface for adding up the
optical properties of real materials is provided for both the sides of a material.
Specularity and slope errors in Gaussian (univariate) or pillbox shape distributions are
possible to include in the material properties.
Verdict:
Both the software programs can implement the Buie sun shape for sun modelling. Here
the SolTrace software comes as an advantage by providing a possibility to create a user
defined sun shape in which it is possible to replicate the Buie sun shape of the Tonatiuh

28
 software. SolTrace also has the possibility to simulate in a Gaussian sun shape. Also
the SolTrace while simulated can present the amount of sun rays incident on the
collector and the sun rays falling on the receiver of a solar collector system that is
simulated.
Both the software programs has the ability to add real optical material properties in them
but in Soltrace ‘n’ number of materials can be created in a separate “optical stage” and
those materials can be added up while in “geometry stage” after modelling an element
of any system and the optical properties can be added up after to each element. But in
Tonatiuh, the optical properties are only created after making geometrical modelling and
this restricts us to add only that material’s optical properties instead of adding any
number of real material’s optical properties as of SolTrace. By this feature in SolTrace
a decrease in time is experienced but in Tonatiuh every time the optical properties are
required to be typed and changed whenever there is any requirement of optimization or
an element’s optical properties needs to be changed. Both programs have the ability to
add up the surface slope and specularity errors but in Tonatiuh the errors are added in
radians unit and in SolTrace it is added in milliradians.
3.2.1.2.Comparison based on the angular variation of optical properties:
Tonatiuh:
The angular variation is not a feature provided in this program but there is another very
powerful feature, which is simulating a yearly/annual analyses of a collector’s output
and to find longitudinal or transversal incidence angle modifier (IAM) per hour of
collector’s output will be compiled for the whole year around. For which Tonatiuh has its
own script files in which particular coding is done for designing and running of
simulations. The output of the simulation will be in export files named in “.dat” format
which can be run in Matlab software program. Even in Matlab software another set of
compatible coding scripts needs to be written to run the results from the files of Tonatiuh
software. The run results can be represented in graphical or in 3D maps as per the
coding written.

SolTrace:
SolTrace implements equations or user defined data so it has the ability to perform
angular variation of optical properties. SolTrace also has the scripting feature as of the
Tonatiuh but it requires an interface for tool coupling with SketchUp software program.
SketchUp is owned by Trimble a surveying, navigation and mapping Equipment
Company. SketchUp is a 3D modelling software for mechanical engineering, civil
engineering, architectural, film and video game designs. SolTrace does have a scripting
window but no article could be found about its scripting codes or files or even how to
operate it. But any how it should be able to function the similar program of Tonatiuh.

Refraction model:
To model a refraction value on an element Tonatiuh accepts the transmission,
absorption, reflection and refractive index (based on the type of material selected) and
applies Monte Carlo numerical approach over these values and SolTrace has Fresnel
equations implementation and it doesn’t accept as many values as Tonatiuh because
its transmissivity becomes a function of refractive index.

29
 Tonatiuh:
Two refractive surfaces with the coefficients of absorption, reflection, transmission and
refractive index at each side of the element is required to model a refractive component
and these values remain constant no matter what the incidence angles are in Tonatiuh.
This program uses the Snell’s Law to calculate the direction of the transmitted ray. As
a consequence there is no decrease in transmission for incidence angles higher than
zero.

SolTrace:
This software deals reflective or refractive elements in two different ways. For reflective
elements only the reflection for both the sides (front and back) are considered and for
refractive elements the transmissivity and reflectivity are considered. For transmissivity
the transmission coefficients are defined (to the two interfaces of the material) and the
index of refraction. As said above the SolTrace makes use of Fresnel equation for
numerical calculation of reflection and refraction at the surface interfaces (angular
variations). For angular variation in reflection, an external table through which we can
define the reflectance ρ as a function of incidence angle.

3.3. Optical surface errors:

Generally Gaussian distribution is assumed in simulation modelling to that of the surface
errors in ray tracing programs characterized by standard deviation σ. The angle
between the deviated reflection and ideal specular direction accounts for the total error
for all surface irregularities and is expressed in terms of reflected vector as:
θTOT,surf = 2θslope + θspec + θtrack + θalign
where,
θTOT,surf – Surface error: the global error of the surface
θslope – Slope (contour) error: irregularities in the shape of the reflector
θspec – Specularity (dispersion, spread beam) error: microscopic irregularities of the
surface
θtrack – Tracking error: irregularities in reflector focusing on the receiver
θalign – Alignment error: displacement from correct position die to imperfect installation,
wind or soiling
The first term is multiplied by 2 and it’s because of Snell’s Law, as θspec, θtrack, and θalign
are referred to as the reflected ray on the receiver while θ slope, is referred as the normal
to the surface (deviation of θ on the surface normal causes a deviation of 2θ on the
direction of the reflected ray on the receivers). The standard deviation σ TOT,surf is:
2
σTOT,surf = √(2σslope ) + σ2spec + σ2track + σ2align

But to be precise the SolTrace using Fresnel equation uses the total error as given in
the equation.

30
 Σoptical = √(4σ2slope + σ2specularity )

Surface slope error is considered a macro feature and specularity error is a micro
feature to the surface structure effect. [24]

3.4. Reflection of radiation:

There are two important equations which help us in understanding the amplitude,
phases, polarizations angles of incidence, refraction, transmission and reflected waves
of light (or electromagnetic radiation in general) when light enters between two
interfaces of an optical media which is transparent and with different refractive indices,
to the corresponding parameters of the incident waves. The Fresnel equation and
Snell’s law are the two most fundamental findings in classical optics to understand the
“Law of Reflection”.
In optics, the Snell’s law (also called the Law of Refraction) is used in ray tracing
software programs to compute the angles of incidence or refraction and in experimental
optics, to find the refractive index of a material. These optics are one of the most
fundamental forms of equation in classical optics because they help in describing the
behaviour of light at optical surfaces and are applicable to all fields of optical designs:
imaging, lasers, spectroscopy, lens design and holography.
The derivation of Fresnel equation starts with the Snell’s law and the electric and
magnetic fields of the boundary relations at the interface between two media with
different electromagnetic properties. Fresnel has derived equations for the reflection of
unpolarised radiation passing from medium 1 with a refractive index n1 to medium 2 with
refractive index n2:
sin2 (θ2 − θ1 )
r⊥ =
sin2 (θ2 + θ1 )
tan2 (θ2 − θ1 )
r‖ =
tan2 (θ2 + θ1 )
Ir r⊥ + r‖
r= =
Ii 2
where θ1 and θ2 are the incidence angles and refraction as shown in figure 3.1. The
equation of r⊥ is the perpendicular component of unpolarised radiation and the parallel
component of unpolarised radiation r‖ (perpendicular and parallel refers to the plane
defined by the incident beam and the normal to the surface). The equation r gives the
average of the reflection of unpolarised radiation of the two components. θ1 and θ2 are
the angles that are related to the indices of refraction by Snell’s law,
n1 Sin θ1 = n2 Sin θ2
Hence if incidence angle and indices of refraction are known, the r⊥ through r‖ can be
used to calculate the single interface’s reflectance.
Therefore for the normal incidence radiation for both θ1 and θ2 are zero and then the
Snell’s law and the r can be combined to yield
Ir n1 − n2 2
r(0 ) = =( )
Ii n1 + n2

31
 Provided if one medium is air (which has a refractive index of unity), then the equation
r(0) will become [25] [7]
n−1 2
r(0 ) = ( )
n+1

Figure 3.1: Angles of incidence and refraction in media with refractive indices n1 and n2

3.5. Methodology:
The SolTrace ray tracing software uses the principles of geometrical optics as well as
statistical methods to simulate the behaviour of a solar concentration system by
generating rays from a simulated source and observing the interactions between the
rays and the surfaces of the elements of the system as the software is based on Monte
Carlo method. Hence it’s a useful tool in design and analysis of the solar concentration
systems.
Just for the analysis as SolTrace follows Fresnel law and hence the ray trajectory is
assumed to be equal to the angle of incidence and the reflected radiation in compliance
to the law. So in this way the materials’ spectral reflectance depends on the reflectivity
with its refractive index. [8]

3.5.1.Materials:
The below lists the different absorber materials chosen for the ray trace simulation:
 SiO2/TiO2/α-Si/Al
 SiO2/Ti/SiO2/Al
 SiO2/Ni: Al2O3
 SiO2/Mo: Al2O3
 SiO2/Ni: SiO2
 AlN/Al: AlON
 Copper surface texture

The different reflector materials used for the ray tracing simulation is listed below:

32
  Aluminium – Steel laminate
 Silver – steel laminate
 Alanod MIRO Silver
 Alanod MIRO Aluminium
The glass cover used for the simulation in this thesis study is constant and doesn’t
change its material for other simulations. The glass material has a transmissivity of 94%
and the average reflectivity of the glass is 6% but the reflectivity is incidence angle
dependent hence its reflectivity varies.

3.5.2.Assumptions taken for the ray tracing simulation:

 To simplify the analysis and to focus more on the comparative evaluation of the
optical properties and variables such as the optical efficiency and the incidence angle
of the sunlight on the collector the work is done with the fixed irradiation value of 1000
W/m2 as a constant though the SolTrace software has the capability to carry out an
analysis with irradiation deviations.
 The concentration ratio for the Absolicon’s T160 collector is calculated by the ratio of
the surface area of the aperture (glass cover area) to that of the surface area of the
receiver.
 The collector system is considered to be void of any manufacturing errors.
 The optical and physical properties of the materials used in this system are assumed
to be temperature independent.
 The geographical coordinates corresponds to the equatorial region and the
simulation takes place at solar noon (0˚).
 The solar collector is tilted to the direction of south so that the collector can be aligned
along the sun’s path of east-west direction.
 The collector operates in the solar range of wavelength of light (300 nm – 2500 nm).
 The sun’s radiation in the software is beam radiation.

If diffuse radiation is taken into account then the software has to consider the energy
and impact angle of photons which are important. But they’re difficult to estimate since
the light particle’s path of travel depends on the various natural factors affecting it in
atmosphere such as the water vapour, dust, aerosols etc. Due to these matters it
becomes almost impossible for the software to predict or simulate a diffuse source of
sunlight for simulation because the constantly changing environment conformations can
affect the trajectory and the energy aligned towards the receiver’s direction.

33
3.5.3.Dimensions of the collector:
The collector’s main dimensions of the parabolic trough used for the ray tracing are as
follows:

Table 3.1: Absolicon T160 model design parameters

Parameter Measurement (mm)
Length 5450
Width (aperture) 1010
Height 283.36
Focal Point 225
Absorber length 5450
Absorber Diameter 13, 25.4, & 51

The other different sizes of the absorber used for the ray tracing are of 13 mm and 51
mm diameter whereas the Absolicon’s T160 collector is manufactured with the absorber
diameter 25.4 mm [8]. The absorber sizes are chosen to have one smaller and bigger
size than that of the Absolicon’s T160 for the simulation purpose. They are chosen to
observe how the different sizes affects the optical efficiency, number of sun ray hits on
the absorber and the power absorbed by the receiver with the difference incidence
angles of sunlight.
A comparative study on the different materials of absorber, size of the absorber and the
materials of reflector affect the optical efficiency and the power available at the absorber
is done and to observe which of the resulting favourable selection of materials and sizes
for the use on the Absolicon’s T160 solar collector can be used or improved for real life
application.

3.6. Ray tracing simulation:

SolTrace software has been used for the ray tracing simulation instead of the other
open-source software Tonatiuh because the calculation of intercept factor ϒ (ratio of
number of simulated sun rays falling on the absorber to the number of simulated sun
rays falling on the collector) is possible for the calculation of the optical efficiency of the
collector. So the method that is used to simulate the required conditions to calculate the
optical efficiency is stated below. It is to be noted that the software only provides the
required data for the calculation of the optical efficiency and not any readymade results.
Steps followed for the simulation is as explained below:
1. Sun position & sun shape: As it can be seen from the figure A.1, the software provides
an option to use the “Global Coordinates or the Latitude, day, hour” for the sun’s position
out of which the global coordinates are used as the collector setup is assumed to be set
up at the equator. The SolTrace functions the X, Y and Z axes representing in the west,
zenith and north directions respectively. The sun shape is given as pillbox because 1) it
gives a simple rectangular sun shape and 2) the Gaussian sun shape does not give an

34
 accurate simulation as of the pillbox sun shape of the collector’s simulated sun rays.
Here in this simulation a 4.65 mrad of pillbox sun shape is used.
2. Optical properties: In the optics stage of the software the real material optical properties
can be added like reflectivity, transmissivity, slope and specularity errors (indicated in
red box). The same optical properties can be added to both the phases (front & back
sides) of the material. Multiple material’s optical properties can be added as shown in
the figure A.2. The error type chosen here is pillbox. All the materials whose optical
efficiencies to be compared have been included (indicated by a black box). Those include
the absorbers, reflectors and the glasses materials’ reflectivity and transmissivity (as
discussed in the section ‘ray tracing software comparison’ SolTrace calculates the
absorptivity by the formula α+ρ=1 for opaque materials) used for comparison of this
study.
3. Geometrical modelling: This section offers a wide range of solar collector designs for for
modelling and simulations. The black box drawn on the figure shows the different types
of modelling done on to create a solar collector. Here the Absolicon’s T160 collector has
been designed and the different absorber diameters has been added for the optical
efficiency study. The “Global coordinates” section (in red box) in this stage represents
the change the origin and the aim point of the collector modelled in this stage. The
“Element editing” section helps in the addition of different elements and modelling of an
element. In the modelling section comes very handy in designing of various elements in
a single stage itself as can be seen in the figure A.3, multiple (five) elements are
designed.
4. Ray tracing: The ultimate aim for this modelling is to trace rays of sun onto the collector
model. This stage allows for the ray tracing options and provides the section for the
“parameters” of ray tracing. The desired number of ray intersections is chosen to be ten
thousand and the maximum number of generated sun rays are set to be at one million.
These parameters chosen for ray tracing makes it simple and concise to simulate and
get the output for the optical efficiency calculation. See figure A.4.
5. Intersection of rays: This stage is only for the visual representation of the collector design
and the points in which the sun rays hit the receiver on the collector elements as shown
in the figure A.5. The X, Y and Z coordinates of the collector represent that the collector
faces the north and is setup to be in the east-west tracking direction.
6. Flux intensity maps: The main purpose of this stage is to show the flux intensity of the
insolation of the sunlight simulated on the glass (aperture of the collector) and the
absorber tube show in figures A.6 and A.7. The main purpose of this software to use for
the ray tracing simulation is that its simulation gives the sun ray hits data from the glass
cover to that incident on the absorber tube which is useful information for the calculation
of intercept factor and ultimately the calculation of collector’s optical efficiency. The two
figures A.6 and A.7 shows one for the flux map of the glass cover and the other for the
absorber tube. Another vital data that can be extracted from the software is the power
absorbed by each of the elements (absorber tube and glass cover) which is the data of
the total insolation on the collector from which the optical efficiency can be calculated.
[23]

4. Results and discussion:

The ultimate goal of this thesis is to find the absorber type, shape and reflector material
suitable for the Absolicon’s T160 solar collector with the comparative study on optical

35
 efficiency of the materials discussed in the previous sections. So to start off with the
comparison of results of the optical efficiencies of the various materials used in the
SolTrace software simulation, the optical efficiency is directly proportional to the
intercept factor ϒ and by which it greatly affects the absorptance of the receiver. So the
intercept factor depends on the reflectivity of the reflector which concentrates the n
number of sun rays onto the absorber. So the intercept factor is similar for all the
absorber materials and sizes are simulated by one reflector material at a time, which
means that when aluminium steel – laminate absorber material with 84.7% absorptivity
will be kept constant for the simulation of all the absorber materials and their different
sizes. So, the optical efficiency values, intercept factor and the power are only observed
for that concentrator material at a time.
The results of intercept factor, optical efficiency and power will be compared to that of
how an ideal solar concentrator material with ideal optical conditions results in its optical
efficiency, intercept factor and power. This is just to show how far the optical materials’
results are from that of the ideal material characteristics. The glass cover used has a
transmissivity of 94% and a reflectivity of 6% which is a constant optical throughout the
simulation.

4.1. Intercept factor comparison:

The intercept factor (measured between 0 to 1) is a key parameter to calculate the
optical efficiency. It should be noted that the intercept factor for the solar collector listed
in the table 4.1 is for the normal incidence of sunlight on the solar collector and for the
IAM the optical efficiency graph will be used for comparing results in later section.
Table 4.1: Intercept factor for the different sizes of the absorber material sizes and the
reflectors used.
Reflector material Absorber diameter (mm) Intercept factor ϒ

Ideal 13 0.664
25.4 0.714
51 0.757
Aluminium – Steel 13 0.382
laminate 25.4 0.469
51 0.524
Alanod MIRO Aluminium 13 0.391
25.4 0.483
51 0.54
Silver – Steel laminate 13 0.407
25.4 0.502
51 0.561
Alanod MIRO Silver 13 0.415
25.4 0.511
51 0.574

The intercept factor shown in the table 4.1 is made only for the different sizes of the
materials and not the type of materials itself because the reflected sun rays from the
reflector does not change with the type of the absorber material. That is because of the

36
 reason that, the number of sun rays incident on the absorber is not affected by the
material of the absorber. The intercept factor is just the interaction of number of sun ray
hits on the absorber material.
From this table 4.1 it is observable that the reflector with the highest reflectivity of 95.6%
(Alanod MIRO Silver) has the highest intercept factor at 0.574 for the absorber size of
51 mm diameter. Also the fact that in all the reflectors the absorber size of 51 mm has
the highest intercept factor in general. This concludes that the higher the size of the
absorber naturally more is the number sun ray hits on the absorber in ratio to the number
of sun ray hits on the whole collector. The reflectivity of the reflector plays a crucial role
in the intercept factor, by which the higher reflectivity of the reflector higher is the
interaction of sun rays on the absorber as per the simulation.
The simulated result of Alanod MIRO silver reflector has the highest intercept factor in
all sizes of absorbers in contrast to the other reflectors (13, 25.4 & 51 mm). The lowest
of the intercept factor is of the Aluminium – steel laminate reflector with reflectivity of
84.7%. All the absorber sizes have low intercept factor in comparison to the other type
of reflector materials.
4.2. Optical efficiency comparison:
The calculations for the optical efficiency (ηₒ) of the different materials’ optical properties
are added one-by-one in the SolTrace software and the results are compiled by using
the longitudinal IAM formula then it is multiplied with the optical properties of other
materials (absorptivity, reflectivity, transmissivity and intercept factor). Angles of
incidence for the calculation is used between 0˚ (normal incidence) to 70˚. The angles
of incidence has been limited to 70˚ because below that angle the optical efficiency
drops very low and it is not of much importance as there will be very less amount of
power (negative values) available to harness.

ηₒ For refelctor Aluminium Steel Laminate, ρ= 0.847

1
0.9
0.8
Optical Efficiency, ηₒ (%)

ηₒ (SiO2/Ni:Al2O3)
0.7
0.6 ηₒ (SiO2/Mo:Al2O3)

0.5 ηₒ (SiO2/Ni:SiO2)
0.4
ηₒ (SiO2/TiO2/α-Si/Al)
0.3
ηₒ (SiO2/Ti/SiO2/Al)
0.2
0.1 ηₒ Ideal

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Angle of Incidence (˚)

Graph 4.1: Optical efficiency of the listed absorber materials simulated under the
concentrator aluminium – steel laminate.

37
 ηₒ For refelctor Alanod MIRO Aluminium, ρ= 0.88
1

0.9
ηₒ Ideal
0.8
ηₒ (SiO2/Ni:Al2O3)
Optical Efficiency, ηₒ (%)

0.7 ηₒ (SiO2/Mo:Al2O3)
ηₒ (SiO2/Ni:SiO2)
0.6
ηₒ (SiO2/TiO2/α-Si/Al)
0.5 ηₒ (SiO2/Ti/SiO2/Al)
0.4 ηₒ (AlN/Al:AlON)
ηₒ (Cu surface texture)
0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Angle of Incidence (˚)

Graph 4.2: Optical efficiency graph of the listed absorber materials simulated under the
Alanod MIRO aluminium concentrator.

ηₒ For refelctor Silver-Steel Laminate, ρ= 0.923

1

0.9

0.8
Optical Efficiency, ηₒ (%)

0.7 ηₒ Ideal

0.6 ηₒ (SiO2/Ni:Al2O3)
ηₒ (SiO2/Mo:Al2O3)
0.5
ηₒ (SiO2/Ni:SiO2)
0.4 ηₒ (SiO2/TiO2/α-Si/Al)
0.3 ηₒ (SiO2/Ti/SiO2/Al)

0.2 ηₒ (AlN/Al:AlON)
ηₒ (Cu surface texture)
0.1

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Angle of Incidence (˚)

Graph 4.3: Optical efficiency of the listed absorber materials simulated under the
concentrator silver – steel laminate

38
 ηₒ For refelctor Alanod MIRO Silver, ρ= 0.956
1
0.9

0.8
Optical Efficiency, ηₒ (%)

ηₒ Ideal
0.7
ηₒ (SiO2/Ni:Al2O3)
0.6
ηₒ (SiO2/Mo:Al2O3)
0.5
ηₒ (SiO2/Ni:SiO2)
0.4
ηₒ (SiO2/TiO2/α-Si/Al)
0.3
ηₒ (SiO2/Ti/SiO2/Al)
0.2 ηₒ (AlN/Al:AlON)
0.1 ηₒ (Cu surface texture)
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Angle of Incidence (˚)

Graph 4.4: Optical efficiency of the absorber materials simulated under the concentrator
Alanod MIRO silver
From the graphs 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4 it can be seen that the ideal optical conditions for
a solar collector has much better optical efficiency than the other absorber materials
under the reflectors Aluminium – steel laminate, Alanod MIRO aluminium, silver – steel
laminate and Alanod MIRO silver. But the focus of this thesis is on the different absorber
materials’ optical efficiencies and which can be used to improve the optical material
properties in Absolicon’s T160 solar collector.
As the simulation in SolTrace is compiled and the data from the software program is
formulated and put in graphs 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4 for comparative study. The Alanod
MIRO silver concentrator generally has all its absorber materials’ optical efficiency on
an average higher than that of the other concentrators. Particularly the copper textured
surface absorber material with the absorptivity of 97.8% eventually has the highest
optical efficiency in this whole comparison of absorber materials. Optical efficiency of
copper textured surface absorber material is 87.9% at normal incidence and gradually
decreases as the longitudinal angle variation increases.
The copper surface textured material tops the graphs 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4 in all the
concentrators’ simulations producing 76.02% optical efficiency in the aluminium – steel
laminate (which is lowest of optical efficiencies for that material), 80.9% for Alanod MIRO
aluminium (second lowest), 84.85% for silver – steel laminate (second highest of the
four concentrator materials used). The absorber material with the lowest optical
efficiency is SiO2/TiO2/α-Si/Al with 62.96% under the aluminium – steel laminate
concentrator which also has the lowest concentration of sun rays and the lowest of
intercept factor.
Obviously, from the above observation of the results, the optical efficiency is
proportionate to the reflectivity of the reflector and the absorptivity of the absorber. From
the results in the graphs 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4 it can be concluded that the absorber
materials’ optical efficiencies simulated in all the concentrators has the following order
of decreasing efficiencies (with copper textured surface material being the highest and
the SiO2/TiO2/α-Si/Al being the lowest in all) SiO2/Mo:Al2O3 (96% absorptivity),

39
 AlN/Al:AlON (95.8%), SiO2/Ti/SiO2/Al (95%), SiO2/Ni:Al2O3 (94%), and SiO2/Ni:SiO2
(93%).
Different sizes of the absorbers haven’t been discussed here because optical efficiency
is irrespective of the size and for all sizes the optical efficiency is similar except for
different materials the optical efficiency changes. This is because of the fact that the
absorptivity of the absorber materials remains the same irrespective of the size of the
absorbers.
4.3. Power comparison:
The power (in Watts) is the insolation power available at the absorber which can be
harnessed as the output from the solar collector and that does not mean the whole
output of the total collector system (which is out of the scope of thesis). The power is
compared with only the concentrator of the highest reflectivity and that is Alanod MIRO
silver reflector. Only that reflector is considered for the power comparison because all
the other reflector materials offer similar power comparatively to each other materials
but just the different power numbers and it wise to not to elaborate too much of the
similar type of power difference between the reflector materials in the results section.
Hence only the reflector material with highest power output is compared. The table 4.2
below represents the Alanod MIRO silver reflector’s power output for all the materials
and the three sizes simulated in SolTrace software.
Table 4.2: Simulated insolation power available at the absorbers for the Alanod MIRO
silver reflector at normal incidence angle.
Absorber material Absorber Diameter (mm) Power (W) at 0˚
13 5477.2
Ideal 25.4 5465.6
51 5498.68
13 4841.9
Copper surface texture 25.4 4841.77
51 4868.53
13 4752.78
SiO2/Mo: Al2O3 25.4 4752.66
51 4778.93
13 4742.76
AlN/Al: AlON 25.4 4742.88
51 4768.97
13 4703.27
SiO2/Ti/SiO2/Al 25.4 4703.15
51 4729.15
13 4752.78
SiO2/Ni: Al2O3 25.4 4752.66
51 4778.93
13 4604.14
SiO2/Ni: SiO2 25.4 4604.25
51 4629.58
13 4010.16
SiO2/TiO2/α-Si/Al 25.4 4010.05
51 4032.22

40
 Obviously, from the table 4.2 of power values it is apparent that copper surface texture
absorber material receives the highest amount of power than the other absorber
materials at 4841.9W, 4841.77W and 4858.53W for the 13 mm, 25.4 mm and 51 mm
respectively. Again the SiO2/TiO2/α-Si/Al material has lowest insolation power available
on an average for all the sizes of the absorber materials. These comparisons of the
absorber materials are similar in magnitude of power in comparison for all the other
types of reflectors simulated.
This brings the fact that intercept factor and the absorptivity affect the power of insolation
at the absorber and the material with the higher the absorptivity, reflectivity,
transmissivity and the intercept factor proportionate will be the power absorbed by the
receiver of any solar thermal collector system.
It is also notable that much variation in the power of insolation by the change in size isn’t
affected. For example, from the table 4.2 the 13mm and 25.4 mm absorber materials
represent very similar power of insolation. This is because of the fact that the focal point
of the parabolic trough concentrates at nearly the same circumference of the absorber.

Figure 4.1: Flux map of receiver tube 13mm copper texture surface material

Figure 4.2: Flux map of receiver tube 25.4 mm copper texture surface

Figure 4.3: Flux map of receiver tube 51 mm copper texture surface

The circumference where the highest amount of concentration of the 25.4 mm receiver
is the bottom part that covers a total 50 mm out of the 79.75 mm total circumference
(that is the central point being midpoint of that circumference 25 mm to the right and left)

41
 in figure 4.1 and for the 13 mm receiver it is 24 mm out of 40.82 mm of total
circumference in figure 4.2.
The Alanod MIRO silver reflector definitely is the best selection for the highest optical
efficiency and the copper surface texture has the highest optical efficiency value in that
part. But this reflector comes under a heavy price of $40/m2 comparing to the silver –
steel laminate which costs $13 - $30/m2 which is fairly cheaper and has reasonably high
reflectivity.
Anyway the Absolicon’s T160 uses the silver – steel laminate reflector which seems to
be a viable choice for harnessing insolation power from the sunlight but if the
upgradation is possible for some more extra budget option the Alanod MIRO silver
reflector though very expensive, it could be a very good source of harnessing insolation
power in long term. The solar selective absorber as AlN/Al: AlON which already has a
high absorptance of 95.8% and is put into commercial use while the highest of the
studied absorber material is the copper texture surface which is in prototype level
experimentations and not fully put into commercial purpose which is its downside.
Coming to the sizes to choose for the discussed materials, the 13 mm absorber size
offers the same reception of insolation power as that of the 25.4 mm absorber and is
not much of a difference from the highest absorption ability of the 51 mm absorber size.
So it is a viable option to adapt to 13 mm diameter absorber. It could save weight and
material cost, but those in-depth discussion of all these costs is out of the scope of this
thesis. Also the factors which comes into the effect of decreasing size will be the actual
thermal output, even those are beyond the scope of this thesis.

5. Conclusion:
The goal of this thesis is to make a comparative study on optical efficiency of different
types of solar selective absorber materials, their sizes and different reflector materials
while keeping the glass material the same. The incidence angle modifier (IAM) for
longitudinal angles to the collector are varied. In order to test for the above mentioned
studies, SolTrace a Monte Carlo ray tracing is software used for the simulation of this
thesis. The solar collector is set up to track sun in the east-west direction and hence is
setup facing south. The solar thermal collector model in which this thesis revolves is the
Absolicon’s T160 solar thermal collector. In order to successfully design the collector
and vary the incidence angle modifier practically will be an arduous job and to vary so
many different real optical material properties and experiment their optical efficiency will
take much more time than stipulated for this thesis work. To eradicate these difficulties
a near practical experimentation of these processes or testing can be by SolTrace.
The two of the most powerful, open-source and optimal software programs studied for
this thesis are Tonatiuh and SolTrance. They both use Fresnel equation and Snell’s law
for the ray tracing and have been compared of their abilities to simulate a ray trace on
model in a predefined environmental conditions of sunlight, their data which is a useful
tool for calculatation of optical material properties after designing the Absolicon’s T160
model. After a point of research on both the software programs it was concluded that for
the study of optical efficiencies the Soltrace software is a more befitting than the
Tonatiuh software just because of the fact that the feature for the calculation of intercept
factor used importantly for this thesis’s study was available.
The solar selective absorber materials were chosen according to the market availability
and also one selective absorber material still in development were used. The different

42
 sizes of the absorber tube were decided to be used for this study were of one smaller
and bigger diameter of the T160 model’s absorber diameter, chosen in order to study
how the big and small size affects the optical efficiency, intercept factor and the
insolation power available to be harnessed by the collector. The sizes were chosen
according to a simulation study made quite similar to that of the one made in this thesis
and the sizes available commercially. The reflector materials were also studied including
their cost per square meter and their commercial usage currently. Four of those
reflectors and seven of the absorber materials including one each of T160’s absorber
and reflector materials were also simulated in the SolTrace software in order to compare
whether a higher efficient reflector material or absorber or both of them of better
efficiency could be found out or not. Also to see whether other two sizes of absorber
could be used for better efficiency or not. The glass material used as cover will be a
material that will be constant with an optical property throughout the thesis.
After the simulation data had been compiled and put into formulas for the calculation of
longitudinal IAM, it was found that the copper textured surface (which is a material under
development) combined with the Alanod MIRO silver reflector are the only materials out
of the other optical materials providing a higher optical efficiency and insolation power
available to harness by the collector for every sizes of the receiver, but it was also
studied that a 13 mm absorber can prove to be nearly as efficient as the T160’s 25.4
mm and the 51 mm diameter absorber tubes because of the very good focal point of the
T160’s parabolic trough. Which opens up a window to make these changes and if there
is affordability of budget to upgrade to Alanod MIRO silver reflector then it can be good
option for long term investment and the excess money spent on the reflector could be
compensated by the reduced cost in fitting a smaller absorber tube.

References:

[1] "Thermal Performance of a Solarus CPC-Thermal Collector," 2014.

[2] P. Bermel, J. Lee, J. D. Joannopoulos, I. Celanovic, M. Soljačie and S. Soljačie¸2, "CHAPTER 7 SELECTIVE
SOLAR ABSORBERS".

[3] Solar energy perspectives, 2011.

[4] S. Y. Sawant, S. More, G. Ravindranath and S. S. Thipase, "Article ID: IJMET_09_06_014 Concentrator
using SolTrace," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), vol. 9, no. 6,
pp. 113-121, 2018.

[5] J. Cisneros, "UC Merced UC Merced Electronic Theses and Dissertations," 2010.

[6] Q. Wang, J. Wang and R. Tang, "Design and optical performance of compound parabolic solar
concentrators with evacuated tube as receivers," Energies, 2016.

[7] W. A. Beckman, Solar Engineering of Thermal Processes, 2013.

[8] M. Terrón-Hernández, M. I. Peña-Cruz, J. G. Carrillo, U. Diego-Ayala and V. Flores, "Solar ray tracing
analysis to determine energy availability in a CPC designed for use as a residentialwater heater,"
Energies, 2018.

43
[9] O. Olsson, "UPTEC F07 013 Evaluation of reflective materials and optical losses for the linear solar
concentrator Solar 8," 2007.

[10] T. Tesfamichael and E. Wäckelgård, "Angular solar absorptance and incident angle modifier of
selective absorbers for solar thermal collectors," Solar Energy, 2000.

[11] J. Nilsson, "Optical durability of reflector materials for solar energy applications," 2018.

[12] A. Fernández-García, L. Martínez-Arcos, F. Sutter, C. Delord, C. Sansom and F. Wolfertstetter,

"Equipment and methods for measuring reflectance of concentrating solar reflector materials," Solar
Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 2017.

[13] P. Bermel, J. Lee, J. D. Joannopoulos, I. Celanovic and M. Soljacie, "SELECTIVE SOLAR ABSORBERS,"
Annual Review of Heat Transfer, 2012.

[14] C. E. Kennedy, "Review of Mid- to High-Temperature Solar Selective Absorber Materials," 2002.

[15] T. Tesfamichael, "Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and
Technology 556 Characterization of Selective Solar Absorbers Experimental and Theoretical
Modeling," 2000.

[16] M. Farooq, A. A. Green and M. G. Hutchins, "High performance sputtered Ni : SiO2composite solar
absorber surfaces," Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 1998.

[17] X.-F. Li, Y.-R. Chen, J. Miao, P. Zhou, Y.-X. Zheng, L.-Y. Chen, Y.-P. Lee, C. Zhou, N. Jiang, X. Lu, J. Shao,
W. Lu, J. Ge, X. M. Ding and X. Y. Hou, "Recent progress in high-temperature solar selective coatings,"
Springer, 1976.

[18] M. Farooq, A. A. Green and M. G. Hutchins, "High performance sputtered Ni : SiO2 composite solar
absorber surfaces," Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 1998.

[19] C. Wang, J. Shi, Z. Geng and X. Ling, "Polychromic Al-AlN cermet solar absorber coating with high
absorption efficiency and excellent durability," Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, vol. 144, pp. 14-
22, 9 1 2016.

[20] Z. Li, J. Zhao and L. Ren, "Aqueous solution-chemical derived Ni-Al 2O 3 solar selective absorbing
coatings," Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 2012.

[21] "FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Development of a simulation program

for solar collectors and photovoltaic cells with a biaxial angular dependence Nicolò Passaro 2014".

[22] "Numericalstudyofopticalperformanceofaparabolic-troughconcentratingsolarpowersystem31".

[23] T. Wendelin, A. Dobos and A. Lewandowski, "SolTrace: A Ray-Tracing Code for Complex Solar Optical
Systems," 2013.

[24] T. Osório, P. Horta, M. Larcher, R. Pujol-Nadal, J. Hertel, D. W. Van Rooyen, A. Heimsath, S. Schneider,
D. Benitez, A. Frein and A. Denarie, "Ray-tracing software comparison for linear focusing solar
collectors," in AIP Conference Proceedings, 2016.

[25] "Lustrum scientific meeting of the Flemish Society of Neuro-Psychiatry. Knokke, 28th May 1988.
Abstracts.," Clinical neurology and neurosurgery, 1988.

44
[26] V. Tiangco, E. Sison-Lebrilla, M. Krebs and B. B. Blevins, "California Energy Commission".

[27] "471-2004-1-Concentrating collector-Serkan Kapucu".

Appendix:
Methodology:
Ray tracing simulation steps figures:
Step 1:

Figure A.1: Sun position and sun shape parameters input stage in SolTrace
Step 2:

Figure A.2: Optical properties input stage in SolTrace

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Step 3:

Figure A.3: Geometrical modelling stage in SolTrace

Step 4:

Figure A.4: Ray tracing parameters input stage in SolTrace

Step 5:

Figure A.5: Stage to view the intersection of sunlight rays on the designed model

46
Step 6:

Figure A.6: Flux intensity map showing results of the glass cover’s ray trace simulation

Figure A.7: Flux intensity map showing results of absorber’s ray trace simulation.

47