Solar flux map distribution of a parabolic-spheric dish based on photographic method

This paper presents a novel method to derive solar flux map of irradiation near to the focal plane of an innovative concentrating point focusing technology facility. The system has a reflector covered by mirrors focusing sun radiation on a Stirling engine. It has been designed and manufactured from the sketch. It consists of a novel dish of 8.6 m in diameter, whose reflector is made of glass mirrors and has a focal distance of about 4.5 m. The profile is the innovative part of this facility where the mirrors have been designed in order to reduce manufacturing costs. The inner part of the concentrator consists in a spherical shape profile and the external part represents a parabolic profile. Flux measurements is obtained integrating photogrammetric and photometric procedures. The approach used here is presented in a real case application which provides pixel values of radiation for the receiver plane. The solar flux map achieved for a sunny day is reported and compared with the one obtained by a ray-tracing analysis.