Concept design and simulation of a concentration lens with uniform square irradiance

A planar concentration lens comprised of square and rectangular lenses for solar concentration application is presented. The design of the concentration lens was based on the concept of Fresnel lens and the layout of the square light spot was proposed to match the receiving area. The uniformity of the light spot was determined by the structure of the concentration lens, which has different structures for different design wavelengths. The uniformity of the light spot and concentration ratio of the concentration lens were simulated. The numerical results indicate that the concentration ratio and uniformity of the light spot decrease with the increment of the wavelength. In order to improve the performance of the concentration lens, a novel hybrid wavelength structures was designed. The analysis results reveal that both the spot uniformity and concentration ratio of such a novel concentration lens were insensitive to the wavelengths variation. In addition, the angular tolerance of the concentration lens was discussed for different incident angles. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.