Case (i): P < L, P < D x y In this case the solar rays penetrate the collector surface and the shadow on the collector takes the shape NTEExM as shown in Fig. 4. Point E is a point where the ray penetrates the collector, and point T is a point where the ray is tangent to the collector. In order to calculate the shaded area, the components of the points E and T must be determined. Since the catenary function fc(y) is hyperbolic, the solution for the component yE is obtained numerically from the solution of the following equation (see Appendix A):
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