Design of a New 45 kWe High-Flux Solar Simulator for High-Temperature Solar Thermal and Thermochemical Research

Abstract

In this paper, we present a systematic procedure to design a solar simulator for hightemperature concentrated solar thermal and thermochemical research. The 45 kW¡, simulator consists of seven identical radiation units of common focus, each comprised of a 6.5 kWg xenon arc lamp close-coupled to a precision reßector in the shape of a truncated ellipsoid. The size and shape of each reflector is optimized by a Monte Carlo ray tracing analysis to achieve multiple design objectives, including high transfer efficiency of radiation from the lamps to the common focal plane and desired flux distribution. Based on the numerical results, the final optimized design will deliver 7.5 kW over a 6 cm diameter circular disk located in the focal plane, with a peak flux approaching 3.7 MWIm^.

Optical Design of Multisource High-Flux Solar Simulators

“…9 Radiative flux distribution on a hemispherical target surface of 0.2 m radius, with its base at the focal plane and the hemisphere extending behind the focal plane, for (a) the 18-lamp HFSS design presented in this paper and (b) the seven-lamp HFSS design with geometrical parameters listed in Table 5, which is similar to the design reported by Krueger et al [14] (units of radiative flux: kW m 22 ) Table 3 Simulation parameters Rated electric power input to the lamp (kW) 2.5 Factor accounting for part-load operation of the lamp 0.7 Electric-to-radiation conversion efficiency of the lamp [20] 0.6 Reflector surface error, h m (mrad) 2.5 Specular reflectivity of reflector, q [21,22] 0.9 Table 5 Geometrical parameters of the seven-lamp solar simulator design used to assess the radiative flux distribution on a hemispherical target. The geometry is similar to that reported by Krueger et al [14].…”

“…Geometrical relations have been formulated to describe the design of HFSSs with seven lamps [14] and with ten lamps [12]. In this paper, we formulate the relations describing the geometry of a set of HFSSs.…”

Experimental and numerical characterization of a new 45 kW_el multisource high-flux solar simulator

“…Theoretically, this spectrum mismatch may lead to overestimation of the flux of over 30% [19]. In practice, a calorimetric method is often used to correct the calibration [20,21], even though such methods can introduce new error sources of similar order. To establish a common comparison ground for the various European laboratories involved in the SFERA project (Solar Facilities for the European Research Area), the degree of agreement between the different flux meters (both calorimeters and flux gauges) used in CNRS-PROMES (France), DLR (Germany), PSA-CIEMAT (Spain) and PSI (Switzerland) was studied [22].…”

Review of Heat Transfer Research for Solar Thermochemical Applications

“…The xenon arc lamp has a short arc, which eliminates distortion, and has spectral characteristics representative of sunlight. Petrasch et al [110] developed a Monte Carlo model to capture the effect of lamp and reflector geometry on flux distribution on an intended target plane, and Krueger et al [111] presented a systematic analytical-numerical procedure to design a high-flux solar simulator, as well as insight into the impact of design parameters on the transfer efficiency of radiation from source to target and tradeoffs of total power and spatial distribution of the flux. The University of Minnesota solar simulator has seven radiation units and provides up to 9.2 kW over a 60 mm diameter circular area located in the focal plane, corresponding to an average flux of 3200 kW m…”

“…High-flux solar simulators use artificial radiation sources to replicate the spectral and directional attributes of commercial solar concentrators [109][110][111][112]. Most simulators use multiple radiation units each comprised of a high power (typically 6.5-7 kW e ) xenon arc lamp close-coupled to a precision reflector in the shape of a truncated ellipsoid.…”