Dome-shaped Fresnel lens concentrator with high efficiency and angular performance

In this work, a dome-shaped Fresnel concentrator was designed and analyzed to enhance the optical efficiency and angular performance of refractive solar concentrator systems. Three segmentation strategies, including equal angle division, equal vertical coordinate division, and equal horizontal coordinate division, were proposed to optimize the dome-shaped Fresnel surface. Simulation results showed that the equal vertical coordinate division achieved the widest acceptance angle, while the equal horizontal coordinate division provided the highest optical efficiency. The equal angle division exhibited balanced performance with simple geometry and high manufacturability. The equal horizontal coordinate division was selected as the optimal solution due to its high efficiency and manufacturability, achieving an efficiency of 78.4%, an acceptance angle of 1.52 deg, a tracking error of 6 deg, and a working F-number of 0.72. With a radius of 500 mm and a prism thickness between 2 and 10 mm, the concentrator demonstrated high concentration capability, wide angular performance, and structural reliability, making it a promising design for future solar thermal and photovoltaic applications.