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

The performance of a new high-flux solar simulator consisting of 18 × 2.5 kWel radiation modules has been evaluated. Grayscale images of the radiative flux distribution at the focus are acquired for each module individually using a water-cooled Lambertian target plate and a CCD camera. Raw images are corrected for dark current, normalized by the exposure time and calibrated with local absolute heat flux measurements to produce radiative flux maps with 180 µm resolution. The resulting measured peak flux is 1.0-1.5 ± 0.2 MW m-2 per radiation module and 21.7 ± 2 MW m-2 for the sum of all 18 radiation modules. Integrating the flux distribution for all 18 radiation modules over a circular area of 5 cm diameter yields a mean radiative flux of 3.8 MW m-2 and an incident radiative power of 7.5 kW. A Monte Carlo ray-tracing simulation of the simulator is calibrated with the experimental results. The agreement between experimental and numerical results is characterized in terms of a 4.2% difference in peak flux and correlation coefficients of 0.9990 and 0.9995 for the local and mean radial flux profiles, respectively. The best-fit simulation parameters include the lamp efficiency of 39.4% and the mirror surface error of 0.85 mrad.

[1]  A. Steinfeld,et al.  Solar Energy in Thermochemical Processing , 2012 .

[2]  Wojciech Lipiński,et al.  Operational Performance of the University of Minnesota 45 kWe High-Flux Solar Simulator , 2013 .

[3]  S. Abanades,et al.  Investigation of thermal and carbothermal reduction of volatile oxides (ZnO, SnO2, GeO2, and MgO) via solar-driven vacuum thermogravimetry for thermochemical production of solar fuels , 2015 .

[4]  John Pye,et al.  A new 500m2 paraboloidal dish solar concentrator , 2011 .

[5]  L. Rizzuti,et al.  Conversion of solar energy to chemical energy by photoassisted processes—I. Preliminary results on ammonia production over doped titanium dioxide catalysts in a fluidized bed reactor , 1982 .

[6]  W. Lipiński,et al.  Solar chemical reactor technology for industrial production of lime , 2006 .

[7]  K. Lackner,et al.  Sustainable hydrocarbon fuels by recycling CO2 and H2O with renewable or nuclear energy , 2011 .

[8]  Zhiwei Sun,et al.  Time-resolved spectra of solar simulators employing metal halide and xenon arc lamps , 2015 .

[9]  Wojciech Lipiński,et al.  Design of a New 45 kWe High-Flux Solar Simulator for High-Temperature Solar Thermal and Thermochemical Research , 2011 .

[10]  Nesrin Ozalp,et al.  Description and characterization of an adjustable flux solar simulator for solar thermal, thermochemical and photovoltaic applications , 2014 .

[11]  Katherine R. Krueger Design and characterization of a concentrating solar simulator. , 2012 .

[12]  Aldo Steinfeld,et al.  A Novel 50kW 11,000 suns High-Flux Solar Simulator Based on an Array of Xenon Arc Lamps , 2007 .

[13]  Gilles Flamant,et al.  Co-production of hydrogen and carbon black from solar thermal methane splitting in a tubular reactor prototype , 2011 .

[14]  Eckhard Lüpfert,et al.  Beam Characterization and Improvement with a Flux Mapping System for Dish Concentrators , 2002 .

[15]  S. Abanades,et al.  Thermodynamic and Kinetic Study of the Carbothermal Reduction of SnO2 for Solar Thermochemical Fuel Generation , 2014 .

[16]  Philipp Haueter,et al.  Characterization of a 6 kW high-flux solar simulator with an array of xenon arc lamps capable of concentrations of nearly 5000 suns. , 2015, The Review of scientific instruments.

[17]  Daniel Feuermann,et al.  Radiometric characterization of ultrahigh radiance xenon short-arc discharge lamps. , 2008, Applied optics.

[18]  Ari Rabl,et al.  Active solar collectors and their applications , 1985 .

[19]  Wojciech Lipiński,et al.  Optical Design of Multisource High-Flux Solar Simulators , 2015 .

[20]  Comparison of 3 Heat Flux Gauges and a Water Calorimeter for Concentrated Solar Irradiance Measurement , 2014 .

[21]  J. Ballestrín,et al.  Calibration of high-heat-flux sensors in a solar furnace , 2006 .