A high-performance solar simulator pursuing high flux and fine uniformity: Modelling, optimization, and experiment

Abstract

The high flux solar simulator is a significant experimental tool in concentrated solar power applications. For a simulator, the uniformity of its light spot is as vital as high flux, since uneven light spots may result in the thermal-stress failure of the solar receiver. However, most constructed simulators have only pursued extremely high flux but ignored uniformity, thus degrading the simulator’s overall performance. Considering that improving uniformity comes at the expense of decreasing the flux, a high-performance solar simulator must meet a reasonable compromise between high flux and fine uniformity. In this paper, a simulator whose input power reached 30 kWe was designed and optimized using an in-house Monte Carlo Ray Tracing (MCRT) model, and corresponding processes were demonstrated to provide universal guidelines. To improve the uniformity while maintaining satisfying high flux, a non-coaxial reflector with optimized parameters was implemented. Based on the design and optimization results, a realistic solar simulator was manufactured and calibrated through experimental methods. The results demonstrate that the manufactured simulator achieved an about 10% reduction in non-uniformity while reaching a peak flux of 8.6 × 106 W·m−2, meeting the design expectation for a high-performance simulator.