title: Large scale water lens for solar concentration.
abstract: Properties of large scale water lenses for solar concentration were investigated. These lenses were built from readily available materials, normal tap water and hyper-elastic linear low density polyethylene foil. Exposed to sunlight, the focal lengths and light intensities in the focal spot were measured and calculated. Their optical properties were modeled with a raytracing software based on the lens shape. We have achieved a good match of experimental and theoretical data by considering wavelength dependent concentration factor, absorption and focal length. The change in light concentration as a function of water volume was examined via the resulting load on the foil and the corresponding change of shape. The latter was extracted from images and modeled by a finite element simulation.
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Mondol
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vogel
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bastian
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D007909:Lenses; D055595:Mechanical Phenomena; D012031:Refractometry; D013472:Sunlight; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D014867:Water