High Collection Nonimaging Optics

High Collection Nonimaging Optics covers the many developments and the wider range of applications of nonimaging optics. This book is organized into 11 chapters that emphasize the application of nonimaging optics to concentrators for solar energy. This text begins with discussions on the development of formalisms in nonimaging optics, specifically in the use of geometrical vector flux concept, which have led to entirely different concentrator designs. These topics are followed by a description of the so-called compound parabolic concentrator, the prototype of a series of nonimaging concentrators that approach very close to being ideal and having the maximum theoretical concentration ratio. The next chapters examine the concept of the flow line approach to nonimaging concentration; the geometrical optics model of nonimaging optics; and constructional tolerances and manufacturing methods for nonimaging optical components. A chapter highlights the applications of concentrator designs to solar energy concentrations. The last chapter surveys the applications of nonimaging optics to optical system design and to instrument design, with particular reference to utilization of light sources with maximum efficiency. This book will be of great benefit to nonimaging optics scientists and design engineers.

Publisher Description

The world's insatiable consumption of energy must be met with new technologies that offer alternative, environmentally conscious sources of light and power. The relatively young field of nonimaging optics is an ideal tool for designing optimized solar energy collectors and illumination optics and holds great promise in the development of solid stat

Nonimaging optics is a subdiscipline of optics whose development over the last 35–40 years was led by scientists from the University of Chicago and other cooperating individuals and institutions. The approach provides a formalism that allows the design of optical devices that approach the maximum physically attainable geometric concentration for a given set of optical tolerances. This means that it has the potential to revolutionize the design of solar concentrators. In this monograph, the basic practical applications of the techniques of nonimaging optics to solar energy collection and concentration are developed and explained. The formalism for designing a wide variety of concentrator types, such as the compound parabolic concentrator and its many embodiments and variations, is presented. Both advantages and limitations of the approach are reviewed. Practical and economic aspects of concentrator design for both thermal and photovoltaic applications are discussed as well. The whole range of concentrator applications from simple low-concentration nontracking designs to ultrahigh-concentration multistage configurations is covered. Table of Contents: Introduction / CPCs / Practical Design of CPC Thermal Collectors / Practical Design of CPC PV Concentrators / Two-Stage Nonimaging Concentrators for Solar Thermal Applications / Two-Stage Nonimaging Concentrators for Solar PV Applications / Selected Demonstrations of Nonimaging Concentrator Performance / The Importance of Economic Factors in Effective Solar Concentrator Design / Ultrahigh Concentration / Bibliography

This book aims to overcome the traditional ray paradigm and provide an analytical paradigm for Nonimaging Optics based on Field Theory. As a second objective, the authors address the connections between this Field Theory of Nonimaging Optics and other radiative transfer theories. The book introduces the Field Theory of Nonimaging Optics as a new analytical paradigm, not statistical, to analyze problems in the frame of nonimaging geometrical optics, with a formulation based on field theory of irradiance vector D. This new paradigm provides new principles and tools in the optical system design methods, complementary to flowline method, overcoming the classical ray paradigm. This new Field paradigm can be considered as a generalization of the ray paradigm and new accurate and faster computation algorithms will be developed. In a parallel way, the advance in the knowledge of the principles of Field Theory of Nonimaging Optics has produced clear advances in the connection between nonimaging optics and other apparently disconnected theories of radiation transfer. The irradiance vector D can be considered as the macroscopic average of Poynting vector, with a clear connection with radiation pressure. Lorentz geometry techniques can also be applied to study irradiance vector D. There are clear thermodynamic connections between the nonimaging concentrator and Stefan-Boltzmann law of radiation. From this thermodynamic connection, nonimaging optics and irradiance vector D can also be studied from a phase space point of view. This book is intended for researchers, graduate students, academics and professionals looking to analyze, design and optimize optical systems.

This book brings together experts in the field who present material on a number of important and growing topics including lighting, displays, solar concentrators. The first chapter provides an overview of the field of nonimagin and illumination optics. Included in this chapter are terminology, units, definitions, and descriptions of the optical components used in illumination systems. The next two chapters provide material within the theoretical domain, including etendue, etendue squeezing, and the skew invariant. The remaining chapters focus on growing applications. This entire field of nonimaging optics is an evolving field, and the editor plans to update the technological progress every two to three years. The editor, John Koshel, is one of the most prominent leading experts in this field, and he is the right expert to perform the task.

From its inception nearly 30 years ago, the optical subdiscipline now referred to as nonimaging optics, has experienced dramatic growth. The term nonimaging optics is concerned with applications where imaging formation is not important but where effective and efficient collection , concentration, transport and distribution of light energy is - i.e. solar energy conversion, signal detection, illumination optics, measurement and testing. This book will incorporate the substantial developments of the past decade in this field. * Includes all substantial developments of the past decade in the rapidly moving field of nonimaging optics* The only authoritative reference on nonimaging optics, from the leader in the field