Design, Manufacturing and Performance Evaluation of a Fixed Focus Scheffler Concentrator in Kerman

Scheffler fixed focus concentrator is used for domestic and industrial applications in various parts of the world. This concentrator has an elliptical frame and designed in such a way that can provide fixed focus during a year with proper rotation. In this research, design and manufacturing principles of a Scheffler standing concentrator with an area of 2.7 m2 is presented. To this end, concentrator and its receivers were designed using Solidworks software.. Thermal efficiency of a manufactured concentrator was obtained from its operation for many days with different conditions. The results show that a concentrator with an area of 2.7 m2 can provide incident radiation up to 9.82 times that on the horizontal surface at the focal point. In addition, results of the experiment show that this concentrator can provide enough heat for boiling of 12 liters of water in less than 2 hours. A thermal efficiency of 37% was obtained for a receiver with surface of black color and glass cover. Finally, the standing concentrator was used to heat 100 lit of water resulting in an increase of water temperature to 60 °C.