Optical Design and Analysis of a Solar Crucible

A solar crucible was optically designed to be coupled with a Fresnel lens: it is a small size concentrator commercially available. To study the thermal aspects of the system, simple experiments were performed on field, and the results were utilized to set-up a model. Finally, the designed crucible was analyzed using the developed model in order to evaluate the shape of the crucible and its behavior under vacuum or in a protected atmosphere without oxygen.