Complementary construction of ideal nonimaging concentrators and its applications

A construction principle for ideal nonimaging concentrators based on the complementary edge rays outside the nominal field of view is presented, with illustrations for the trumpet, compound parabolic concentrator, and compound hyperbolic concentrator. A simple string construction for the trumpet concentrator is shown to follow from this observation—the trumpet having been the one ideal concentrator for which no string-construction method had previously been noted. An application of these observations for solar concentrator design when nonisothermal receivers are advantageous is also presented.