Alignment Method of Segmented Primary Mirror for the Solar Concentrator in Temixco-México, Using Optical Technique

This paper is focused on the alignment of panels that conform the primary mirror of the solar furnace of high radiative flux (HFSF) using geometrical optics with an arrangement similar to that of the Ronchi test but without the grid. Considering the optical design of the HFSF which involves 409 hexagonal mirror facets, grouped in 5 sets according to their focal length. The general idea is to align each section separately, taking advantage of the different curvature radii. A quasi-point source is placed near in the center of curvature of one of the set of mirrors to be aligned, and the divergent light coming from the source illuminates the whole region of the concentrator. Then, the light directed to the region under consideration is reflected by the group of mirrors and the reflection from each mirror forms a separated image over an observation screen. In this screen, the actual image of the source is compared to the theoretical image, using a previously produced map of their positions, by means of ray trace software. The alignment procedure consists on forcing the real image to coincide with that expected from the computation, by rotating the mirror around its supporting point.