화학공학소재연구정보센터
Solar Energy, Vol.196, 484-493, 2020
Fiber-based daylighting system using trough collector for uniform illumination
A lot of research attention has been given to collect sunlight through solar concentrators for indoor illumination. Traditional, parabolic trough as a line focus with single array of fibers had mechanical design and installation issues. Here, a novel daylighting system is proposed to transmit maximum light into the optical fibers using parabolic trough as the primary collector and nonimaging reflector as the secondary reflector. The proposed system increases light levels, improves installations difficulties, and maintains long-term reliability. All modules are designed and verified through raytracing simulation for calculating the efficiency and achieving the required light-levels. The proposed trough-based design inserts maximum light into the fiber bundle, which is placed at the center of the trough. Further, the fiber-coupled bi-layer prismatic optical diffuser provides relatively high uniform illuminance distribution. Simulation results have shown that the light concentration of 285, an optical efficiency of 42%, and an acceptance angle of +/- 1.1 degrees are achieved that are better than that of previous trough-based daylighting system.