Optical Simulation of Different Cavity Receivers Shape Used in Solar Tower Power Plant

In this paper, we present an optical simulation of concentrating solar tower system using different forms of cavity receiver. Mathematical model used to find the position of the sun, angle of incidence, position of the reflected ray and orientation of heliostats is developed in MATLAB. For each heliostat, the angle of incidence is included in the calculation of the reflected radiation. Optical simulation was performed employing TracePro ray tracing software using Monte Carlo ray tracing method to get the concentrated solar ray distribution in the cavity receiver. The aim of the work is to seek the geometry that gives the best distribution of concentrated rays, with the best efficiency.