Iso-intensity absorber configurations for parabolic concentrators

The non-linear differential equations describing the uniform concentration of sunlight onto absorber surfaces co-axial with the optical axis of both paraboloid and parabolic trough concentrators are solved numerically to determine those absorber configurations having a uniform surface flux distribution. It is found that there are generally two families of such iso-intensity absorber surfaces for each concentrator and hence that a uniform concentration is achievable with any one of many configurations. Computer generated plots for several different iso-intensity absorber shapes of potential application interest are presented and the results compared with derived analytic approximations.