ANALYSIS OF A PTC SYSTEMS WITH MOVING FOCAL POINT

Abstract

A parabolic trough collector (PTC) is one of the most common concentrated solar power systems (CPS). Usually, this system is seen with a fixed focal point and parabolic mirrors rotate around this point. These mirrors are concentrating sun’s rays into the focal point and thus heating it. The rotation of mirrors is set to follow the movement of the Sun. The idea of this paper is to analyse a PTC system when parabolic-shaped mirrors are fixed and the focal point is moving to absorb as much sun’s rays as possible. When a parabola is placed to reflect rays into the point, these rays are perpendicular to the directrix of that parabola. Once this ray starts to change its angle, so does the focal point change in two ways. The first one is a dimension of a focal point- not a point but a cluster of points that can be assembled on a surface shaped like a cylinder, for example. A second change that occurs is that location of the focal point shifts to a different position. This paper shows what happens to the focal point of parabolic-shaped mirrors when they are fixed on the ground and entering rays follow the path of Sun rays. This analysis will take into consideration one location (for its latitude and longitude) and for that location azimuth and altitude will be calculated and implemented on this PTC system.