The design of a point focus, distributed receiver solar power system is presented. It is shown that a two axis concentrator, with a two axis solar tracker and drive, has significant advantages over other possible optical systems. It is further shown that each concentrator should have its own optical receiver attached. A new dish and mount design is presented. This design provides a much stronger, lower cost dish. It further provides an easy way to attach a cheap drive system. The new mount is a gimbal, or cradle, in which the dish is mounted. The cradle provides a polar axis mount for the dish. The dish and cradle are very strong and will survive high winds in any orientation. Several other significant improvements to other parts of the solar energy collection system are presented. These include an improvement to the receiver cavity design, a thermal shield and secondary reflector to be added to the receiver, an improved steam output system for the receiver, a plumbing system that eliminates the need for flexible couplings in the water lines, and a water distribution system that eliminates nearly half of the thermal insulation needed on the pipes going through the collector array. Two economic optimizations are presented. The first analyses the return on investment for various dish spacings. The second analyses the cost per unit area of the concentrator dish and mount. It is found that the optimum dish diameter is ten meters and the optimum packing density in a conventional array is about 13%. / Graduation date: 1995

The thermal effects of stitch welding the coolant conduits of a water-cooled flat plate solar collector to its absorber plate have been studied. A physical model of the heat transfer process from the plate to the fluid flowing inside the tube has been presented. The heat transfer coefficient based on the difference between bond temperature and fluid bulk mean temperature is an important factor in determining the collector efficiency factor F'. The upper and lower limits of the actual value of F' have been predicted by considering two extreme boundary conditions to which the fluid is subjected. For a thick and conductive tube wall, F' does not depend on spot size and spot spacing, and tends to an upper limit of 0.883. For a thin and non-conductive tube wall, the boundary condition comprises of a series of step changes in both the axial and circumferential directions of the heat flux. In this case, the heat transfer coefficient and hence F' approach their lower limits which are determined by the welding spot configuration. It was also found that F' increases with the following parameters: the spot angle; the percentage of tube length being welded; and the number of spots among which the welding is being distributed. Furthermore, the temperature distribution inside the fluid has also been computed for this case. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Mechanical Engineering, Department of / Graduate

M.Ing. / A dissertation presented on the basic solar design principles such as sun-earth geometry, energy wavelengths, optics, incidence angles, parabolic collector configurations and design, materials for solar applications, efficiencies, etc to be considered in Solar Concentrating Collector design. These principles were applied in the design and fabrication of a prototype solar collector. The solar collector was tested to verify and correct mathematical models that were generated from existing literature; as well as for optimization work.