Novel high-flux indoor solar simulator for high temperature thermal processes

Abstract

A novel 32 kWe high flux solar simulator compound of eight xenon arc lamps coupled with a truncated paraboloid mirror and a secondary paraboloid mirror was designed, built, and tested. Collimated rays from a set of xenon arc lamps emulating outdoor solar radiation were reflected by a secondary set of paraboloid mirrors to a common system focus. Relative irradiance measurements were performed to obtain the xenon arc lamp radiation spectrum. Thermal power delivered by each lamp was evaluated by using a heat flux gauge mounted at the system focus. Concentrated thermal power was estimated by the heat superposition method, which allowed us to quantify both the total and the concentrated peak power along with the heat flux mapping. A 10.2% energy conversion efficiency was achieved. Experimental results determined a 3.0 kW total concentrated power on a 100 mm spot diameter resulting in a 1028 kWm−2 peak flux at the center; a lamp total thermal radiant power average of 615 W was achieved, and the lamp spectrum was compared with the 6200 K blackbody radiation spectrum.