REVIEW OF OPTICAL SOFTWARE FOR USE IN CONCENTRATING SOLAR POWER SYSTEMS

A review of the main software tools used in the optical design, analysis and optimisation of central receivers systems has been performed. The review was performed using all the resources available to a post graduate researcher. The functionality of the codes was explored and it was found that the codes could be divided into two broad categories: those used to analyse and optimise field layout and those capable of accurately simulating the flux incident on the receiver from one or more heliostats. As of yet, no code reviewed can perform both tasks. Emphasis was placed on the availability of the codes. It was found the Biomimetic and CRS4-2 codes were unavailable, HFLD and TieSOL can be purchased commercially/academically, SPRAY, STRAL and HFLCAL can be purchased commercially or possibly obtained through collaboration, SolTrace is free to download and use and Tonatiuh is open source. The possibility of writing one’s own code was also

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