Solar light collecting and guiding system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11226076-B2
Application number	US-201816491458-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 23, 2018
Priority date	Mar 7, 2018
Publication date	Jan 18, 2022
Grant date	Jan 18, 2022

Abstract

This invention presents a solar light collecting and guiding system for stabilizing the output light intensity, wherein the system comprising an array of converging lenses and optical fibers for collecting light focused by converging lenses. The fibers and the lenses are in one-to-one correspondence wherein the input end of an optical fiber is located in the focus position of the corresponding converging lens, and the axis of the optical fiber overlaps with the principal axis of the corresponding converging lens. The system is equipped with a sunlight tracking positioning device for synchronized motion, wherein the device is applied to tracking the sun light ray vertical incident into the central converging lens. The system has the function of outputting stable light intensity, that is, it can effectively reduce the variation of the collecting efficiency caused by the positioning deviation between the incident angle of sunlight and the designed input angle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A solar light collecting and guiding system, comprising:
an array of converging lenses for collecting sunlight into optical fibers;
the optical fibers for collecting sunlight focused by the array of converging lenses; and
a sunlight tracking positioning device,

wherein
the array of converging lenses is composed of (2n x +1)×(2n y +1) converging lenses arranged in the east-west direction and the north-south direction, wherein the number of rows and columns of the converging lenses are 2n x +1, and 2n y +1 respectively, wherein both n x and n y are positive integer no less than 2, wherein the centers of the converging lenses of the same row or the same column are located in a circle, and the principal axes of the converging lenses intersects the circle center;
wherein the input ends of the optical fibers are located in the focus position of the corresponding converging lens, and the axes of the optical fibers overlap with the principal axis of the corresponding converging lens;
wherein the sunlight tracking positioning device is applied to tracking the sun light ray vertical incident into the central converging lens, and the array of converging lenses and optical fibers move synchronously with the tracking positioning device; wherein the numbers of converging lenses of the array satisfies the conditions of

tan
2

⁡

(

n
x

⁢

δ
x

)

+

tan
2

⁡

(

n
y

⁢

δ
y

)

<

(

R
+
r

f

)

2

,

where δ x is the angle between the principal axes of two adjacent converging lenses in each row of converging lenses, and δ y is the angle between the principal axis of two adjacent converging lenses in each column of converging lenses, R is the core radius of the optical fibers, r is the radius of the light spot of the sunlight concentrated by the converging lens, and f is the focal length of the converging lens.

2. A solar light collecting and guiding system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein all the converging lenses are of the same type and having the same size and focal length.

3. A solar light collecting and guiding system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein all the optical fibers are of the same type and having the same core radius and numerical aperture.

4. A solar light collecting and guiding system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the focal length of the converging lens should meet the condition of

f
≥

D
2

⁢

1

N
⁢
A

-
1

where NA is the numerical aperture of the optical fibers and D is the diameter of the converging lens.

5. A solar light collecting and guiding system as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the focal length of the converging lens should meet the condition of

1
.
2

⁢
D

2

⁢

1

N
⁢
A

-
1

≥

f
.

6. A solar light collecting and guiding system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the radius of the light spot of the sunlight r concentrated by the converging lens should not be greater than the core radius of the optical fibers R, that is, r≤R.

7. A solar light collecting and guiding system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the angle between the two adjacent converging lenses in the converging lens array should meet the condition of
tan 2 ( n x δ x +β)+tan 2 ( n y δ y +β)≤tan 2 (ω e )

where β is the maximum angle between the sunlight ray and the axis of the central converging lens owing to tracking positioning error, the maximum incident deviation angle ω e is the angle between the sunlight ray and the principal axis of the converging lens when the minimum coupling efficiency η for the central converging lens allowed by the system is reached, wherein the maximum incident deviation angle ω e and the minimum coupling efficiency η of the central converging lens meet the condition of

η
=

1
-

r

⁢
2

⁡

(

φ
-

sin
⁢

⁢
φcosφ

)

-

R
2

Assignees

• Univ Jiangsu

Inventors

• Chen Mingyang
• Xu Xiaoming
• Wang Ling

Classifications

• F21V2200/17

  characterised by the admission of light into the guide · CPC title

• F21S11/005 Primary

  with tracking means for following the position of the sun · CPC title

• F21V5/04

  of lens shape · CPC title

• F21V5/048

  the lens being a simple lens adapted to cooperate with a point-like source for emitting mainly in one direction and having an axis coincident with the main light transmission direction, e.g. convergent or divergent lenses, plano-concave or plano-convex lenses · CPC title