Horizontal fin ray trace analysis
Ray tracing analysis for the horizontal fin is shown
in Fig. 10. In Fig. 11 the optical efficiency plot for the horizontal fin ICPC shows an unbalanced
curve skewed to the right. The plot shows that the horizontal fin ICPC has greater energy collection efficiency in the evening than in the morning. As seen in Fig. 10, at an angle of 30 degrees, reflected ray striking the fin are both single and multiple reflections. As shown in Fig. 12, at an angle of 150 degrees, the only rays that are reflected to the fin are single reflection rays.
Fig. 13 shows efficiency effects of three different reflectivities of 1.00, 0.94, and 0.70. Efficiency is reduced for the smaller reflectivity values. The curve also skews more to the right for the smaller values of reflectivity.
Comparisons of different gaps between the absorber fin and the cover glass were analyzed by setting the reflectance to 1.00. As shown in Fig. 14, the efficiency is reduced as the gap between the absorber fin and the glass enclosure increases.
