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Article history:
Received 16 March 2015
Accepted 9 June 2015
Available online 2 July 2015
High ux solar simulators, used to produce controlled high temperature experiments are a valuable tool
for the research and development of high temperature material processes. As an alternative to a direct
external solar concentrator where the sun's radiation is concentrated using a parabolic dish, an indoor
solar simulator uses an array of high intensity discharge lamps attached to ellipsoidal mirrors to focus
their light at a secondary focal point where temperatures in excess of 2000 C can be reached. To mimic,
as closely as possible, the spectrum of the sun, a novel high ux solar simulator design using metal halide
lamps has been constructed. The 42 kWe simulator consisting of seven 6 kWe metal halide lamps
delivered a peak thermal ux of approaching 1 mW/m2 to the secondary focal plane of a closely coupled
ellipsoidal reector. A comparison of different designs and their performance is also presented in this
paper.
Crown Copyright & 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Solar energy
Solar simulator
Concentrated heat ux
Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2. Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3. Arc modelling and optical characterisation
4. Fabrication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5. Flux measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6. Performance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Acknowledgement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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1. Introduction
The application and design of solar simulators falls into two
main classications, non-concentrating uniformly distributed light
used in the testing of photovoltaic (PV) cells and solar hot water
collectors and high ux concentrators used to generate high
temperatures exceeding 1000 C used for a variety of research
applications including material processing, thermo-chemical
reactions, the production of solar fuels and in simulated solar
thermal power generation. The radiation heat source needs to
n
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2015.06.016
0927-0248/Crown Copyright & 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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436
437
441
443
443
444
446
446
446
B.M. Ekman et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 141 (2015) 436446
2. Design
Factors that were taken into consideration during the design
stage included costs, the emission spectrum of the lamp, the lamp
efciency, lamp cooling, reector size, shape and quality, reector
surface coating, the positioning of the lamp within the reector,
reector support and safety. From a comparison of the lamps used
in high intensity solar simulators, the xenon lamp has clearly been
the preferred choice for two main reasons, the radiation spectrum
and the size of the arc light source. The spectral distribution of the
suns radiation is shown in Fig. 1.
The bulk of the energy is within the visible light wavelength of
350700m sharply falling off in the UV region and a more gradual fall in the near and far infrared. By contrast the xenon lamp
emission spectrum shown in Fig. 2 shows a at low energy distribution prole in the visible light region with a number of
intense spikes in the infrared [10].
437
Fig. 1. Solar spectral distribution incident on the earth's surface. (Reproduced from ASTM Terrestrial Reference Spectra).
438
B.M. Ekman et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 141 (2015) 436446
Fig. 2. Spectral distribution of radiant energy emitted by the xenon lamps (reproduced from National High Magnetic Field Laboratory).
Fig. 3. Spectral distribution of radiant energy emitted by the argon arc lamp [reproduced from 4].
Fig. 4. Spectral distribution of radiant energy emitted by the metal halide lamp. The white line is the intensity distribution of the sun [reproduced from 10].
B.M. Ekman et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 141 (2015) 436446
5% ohimic losses
(foil + electrode)
5% ohimic losses
10% UV
wavelength
range
<380nm
Fig. 5. Energy conversion in a metal halide lamp as a percentage of the power input
[10].
Fig. 7. Photo of the installed 6 kWe metal halide lamp showing the inner and outer
quartz glass envelopes and the electrode gap.
439
440
B.M. Ekman et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 141 (2015) 436446
the light emitted by the lamp making contact with the reector,
the result is that only 5760% of the light from each lamp will
reach the secondary focal point region at the target receiver. The
remainder of the light will be scattered. By comparison the xenon
lamp generates 70% of its energy in the over 700 nm range where
the reectivity performance is 10% less at an average of 80%
(Table 1).
A comparison of installations of high ux solar simulators in
date order is listed in Table 2. Low ux simulators commonly used
to test photovoltaic cells or other low to medium temperature
concentrators have not been included. Clearly the xenon lamp is
the most favoured light source used.
A point source of light located at the primary focal point will be
reected by the elliptical reector to the secondary focal point
however all arc light sources have a dimension and the greater the
arc dimension, the greater the distance from the primary focal
point (located at the centre of the arc) to the end of the arc. This is
demonstrated in Fig. 11 below. The resultant geometric ux at the
target plane will be related to the light angle (from to ) which is
dependant on the size of the light source and the focal length of
the ellipsoidal reector. Light at the secondary focal plane that falls
out of the size of the receiving aperture would be additional lost
scatter and result in further reduction to the concentration
efciency.
Fig. 10. Reectivity vs wavelength chart for polished aluminium with silicon oxide coating [12].
B.M. Ekman et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 141 (2015) 436446
It is clear from Fig. 11, that the size of the light source and the
focal length have a signicant effect on the magnication of the
focused beam at the secondary focal plain.. The light souce magnication of a 15 mm arc with a 3000 mm focal length would
result in the equivalent magnication to a 23 mm arc with a
1500 mm focal length. In addition one can conclude that the outer
region of a reector (with smaller ) generates a smaller and
sharper image of the source. The ellipsoidal reector used is
express by Eq. (1) and with the known arc gap of the Osram metal
halide lamp used of 23 mm, angles and were 12 and 3.5
respectively.
x2
y2
+ 2 =1
a2
b
(1)
W
V
A
kV s
lm
kV s
mm
mm
mm
mm
6000
123
55
10/40, Max 60
600,000
6000
23
360
75
210
441
are contained within a reactor. Initially these are small scale prototype reactor experiments however one of the goals would be to
prove the viability for commercial size operations. Although there
are currently no commercial high temperature solar reactors that
are operational and processing material on a large scale, the solar
simulator must mimic the paramaters of such commercial facility.
In this scenario the sun's rays are not parralel but have a nite
angular size of the suns disc of about 33 min of an arc or about
9.6 mrad.Therefore the reected rays form an image of nite size
centred about the focus. The width or beam spread of the reected
sun's image is r on a plane normal to the reected beam. Fig. 13
describes the geometry of the angle of the suns ray reected from
a parabolic mirror.
The width of the reected beam at the focal plane is given by
Eq. (2)
r = 2p tan
2
(2)
r = 2p tann
2
(3)
Table 2
Comparison of high ux solar simulators in date order [28].
Total electric
power (kW)
Delivered radiative
power (kW)
Peak ux
(kW/m2)
Stagnation temperature(K)
1
9
20
270
3
NR
16,000
NR
(4000)
NR
200
15
6.5
1
10
7
200
150
45.5
75
50
7.5
4250
11,000
3700
2900
3700
2740
6
6
7
10
42
60
NR
NR
4230
4200
2942
(2930)
Simulator
Date
BERKELEY CA -KUHN
NASA RES CENTREJAWORSKE
ETH ZURICH-HIRSCH
ETH ZURICH-PETRASCH
UNI OF MINNESOTAKRUEGER
UNI OF FLORIDA-ERICKSON
DLR-GERMAN AEROSPACE
CENTRE
NR not reported (calculated)
1991 Xenon
1996 Xenon
20
30
2003 Argon
2007 Xenon
2011 Xenon
2012 Xenon
2012 Xenon
Number of
lamps
442
B.M. Ekman et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 141 (2015) 436446
Fig. 12. Size of arc image at the secondary focal plane for an arc length of 9 mm and 23 mm and a focal length of 1585 mm and 3000 mm.
0.918
1585
31
(0.87)
1800
26
0.89
2032
37.7
0.87
3000
27.41
50
283
508
6
2014 Metal
halide
1122
15.3
42
2100
50
456
800
6
2012 Xenon
6.5
2011 Xenon
4230
NR
42
2942
59.1
346
750
7.5
45.5
2740
70
379
950
3700
50
150
2007 Xenon
ETH ZURICHPETRASCH
UNI OF MINNESOTAKRUEGER
UNI OF FLORIDAERICKSON
EKMAN - SWINBURNE UNI.
15
10
11,000Av
6800
3700
Lamp
type
443
4. Fabrication
Simulator
Table 3
Parameters of the lamp and reector array of high ux simulators [3,6,7].
Stagnation temperature(K)
Reector
heighth(mm)
Truncation
angle(o)
Focal
length
(mm)
B.M. Ekman et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 141 (2015) 436446
5. Flux measurement
To avoid spectral errors in the measurement of the ux distribution [15,16], ux measurement involved a circular foil heat
transducer also known as a Gardon type water cooled (Model:
Vatell TG1000-1) heat ux gauge. The thermal ux measured by
the transducer is proportional to the temperature difference
between the centre of the foil disc and the edge. The disk is
bonded to a circular opening in a cylindrical heat sink. The foil is
made of Constantan and the heat sink is Copper. Exposing the
thermogauge transducer to heat ux produces a voltage that is
proportional to the thermal ux. The thermogauge is coated with a
high temperature colloidal graphite with an emissivity of 0.82 and
calibration constant of 0.782 that compensates for the spectral
absorptance of the coating [15,16]. The gauge, mounted on an
aluminium plate, provided continuous heat ux readings while
incremental movements were made in the x, y and z directions.
Care was taken to ensure that the surface coating was not
damaged as well as ensuring that convective heat loss was minimised to maximise gauge accuracy. The ux measurements taken
for each individual lamp are shown in Fig. 18a.
444
B.M. Ekman et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 141 (2015) 436446
Fig. 14. (a) Image of a metal halide lamp using a Din 13 shade lter. Arc is not visible but appears to be spherical in shape. (b) Image of the metal halide lamp taken under a
variable ND lter. Arc is now visible and cylindrical in shape.
Fig. 15. (a) Results of ray tracing for a single reector. (b) Model of the distribution of ux at the focal plane.
Fig. 16. Schematic of the positioning of the 7 module array, front and side views.
6. Performance
A theoretical calculation of the stagnation temperature based
on a measured maximum heat ux value of 927 kW/m2 is given by
Eq. (2). The stagnation temperature is the highest temperature
B.M. Ekman et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 141 (2015) 436446
445
Fig. 17. (a) Expanded 3D image of a single module including mounting, support structure, lamp socket and reector. (b) Solar simulator at Swinburne University consisting of
seven metal halide lamps each coupled to a precision ellipsoidal reector.
Fig. 18. Distribution of the thermal ux (a) each of the seven lamps measured at the focal plane. (b) with all lamps seven combined. Units are in watts/m2.
q = T 4
(2)
446
B.M. Ekman et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 141 (2015) 436446
7. Summary
Historically high ux solar simulators have used xenon lamps
as their light source primarily for their short arc length and high
power however metal halide lamps and their associated drives are
signicantly lower in cost than the equivalent power rated xenon
lamp system. In addition metal halide lamps have a better spectral
match to natural sunlight and are much safer to handle and
operate than xenon lamps. Operational and design parameters
that maximise the transfer efciency include a truncation angle in
the range of 5070, lamps with short arc length, increased truncation diameter, shorter focal lengths and a decreased tilt angle.
With all lamps commonly focused, almost 1000 suns of concentration were achieved. A peak ux of 927 kW/m2 was measured and a total of 12 kW of power was delivered through a
175 mm diameter aperture. Ray tracing results compare reasonable well with experimental results and lamp power transmission
efciency to a 175 mm aperture was 25%. Installation of a CPC
would double the power delivered to a 175 mm aperture
increasing the transmission efciency closer to 50%. Metal halide
lamps coupled with precision ellipsoidal reectors will produce a
atter, less intense ux prole that closely mimics both the
spectral distribution of sunlight as well as generating a wider focal
hot spot as do the long focal lengths of commercial sun focused
optical systems.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank the Australian Renewable
Energy Agency, (ARENA) Australian Government (PhD Scholarship) for their nancial support.
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