Solar energy pick-up

• US 4,099,516 A
• Filed: 04/28/1976
• Issued: 07/11/1978
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/1975
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Daniel Pierre Caulier
• Original Assignee: Daniel Pierre Caulier
• Inventors: Caulier, Daniel Pierre
• Primary Examiner(s): Sprague, Kenneth W.
• Application Number:
  US05/681,190
• Time in Patent Office: 804 Days
• Field of Search: 126/270, 126/271, 237/1 A, 350/293
• US Class Current: 126/667
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 7/08 with elliptical curvature
• CPC Class Codes: F24S 23/70 with reflectors
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 5/10 with curved faces
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/40 Solar thermal energy, e.g. solar towers
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 126/907 Absorber coating

Abstract

The present invention relates to solar energy pick-ups composed of a fixed cylindrical mirror having an elliptic transverse section and a heat collector parallel to the generatrices of the cylinder, placed at the bottom of the mirror, in the plane parallel to the large axis of the ellipse in which a heat-carrying fluid circulates.

Claims

1. A solar energy pick-up producing an energy concentrating effect, comprising an elongated fixed mirror having a semi-elliptical transverse cross-section, said mirror having a light reflective surface on the concave side of its semi-elliptical cross-section, an open side, and a bottom portion opposite said open side adjacent the intersection of the major semi-axis of its semi-elliptical cross-section with the mirror, and a longitudinally extending heating collector positioned within the semi-elliptical cross-section of the mirror near said bottom portion thereof and along the major semi-axis of said mirror;

said collector having a width L extending from adjacent the bottom portion of the mirror toward said open side thereof along said major semi-axis and said major semi-axis of the semi-elliptical mirror having a length a, said width L and length a being selected such that the width L is smaller than the length a and the ratio L/a is between 1/8 and 1/3.

2. A pick-up as claimed in claim 1 in which said ellipse has an eccentricity e greater than 0.80.

3. A pick-up as claimed in claim 2, wherein said mirror has a transverse section in the form of a semi-ellipse cut along the small axis and a pair of open longitudinally spaced ends;

a transparent plate closing said open side of the mirror and a pair of side plates respectively closing said open ends of the mirror thereby to define a tight enclosure.

4. A pick-up as claimed in claim 2, in which said heat collector is constituted by a flat, hollow body, elongated parallel to the generatrices of the cylinder.

5. A pick-up as claimed in claim 2, wherein said collector is constituted by a plurality of tubes parallel to the generatrices of the semi-elliptical mirror which are juxtaposed in the plane passing through the major-semi axis of the ellipse.

6. A pick-up as claimed in claim 2, including a pair of spaced semi-elliptically shaped plates and a frame securing said end plates together longitudinally spaced relation to each other;

said mirror being composed of a rectangular plate having a reflecting face, a pair of longitudinally spaced opposite side edges, and a pair of laterally spaced side edges extending therebetween, said plate being fixed at said longitudinally spaced opposite edges on the periphery of said two rigid side plates and at its laterally spaced side edges on two opposite sides of said frame.

7. A pick-up as claimed in claim 1, wherein said tubes are placed near the outer face of the mirror, and said pick-up includes means for connecting said tubes to said heat collector whereby the heat carrying fluid circulates in said tubes before penetrating into the heat collector.

8. A pick-up as claim in claim 1, wherein said mirror is formed of two envelopes separated by an intermediate space and said pick-up includes means for connecting said intermediate space to said collector, whereby said heat carrying fluid circulates in said intermediate space where it is preheated before penetrating into the collector.

9. A pick-up as claimed in claim 3, wherein the inner reflecting face of the mirror is coated with a transparent polymerizable resin.

10. A pick-up as claimed in claim 2, wherein the opening of the mirror is obturated by a plate of grooved glass.

11. A pick-up as claimed in claim 4, wherein at least a part of the outer surface of the heat collector is coated with a layer of small diameter glass balls.

12. A pick-up as claimed in claim 1 comprising, a cylindrical mirror which presents a transverse section composed of two ellipse portions juxtaposed by their apex and having the same axis which is inclined with respect to the horizontal plane, the upper ellipse having an eccentricity greater than that of the lower ellipse and a vertical transparent plate which closes the aperture of said mirror.