Design and Simulation of a Solar Collector Reflector

Utilizing and harvesting solar power through many methods is the trend these days. One of these methods is the use of solar collectors to convert solar power into thermal energy that can be used in several applications. In this paper the aim is to offer a new theoretical approach for simulating and designing the reflector of the absorber using MATLAB, increasing its intercept factor and hence its efficiency. After that, the result of this approach is to be compared with conventional reflectors (flat and circular shaped reflectors). In comparison, the new reflector at the specified dimensions showed a huge improvement over the flat reflector where the maximum intercept factor was around 97% for the designed reflector and about 84% for the flat one. On the other hand, the max intercept factor both the circular and the designed reflector were almost the same, still if the reflector width range falls within the range (5-11 cm) the designed reflector exhibits a larger intercept value than the circular one and above (11 cm) the contrary occurs.