Development of high flux solar simulators for solar thermal research

MH advantages are spectral match to sunlight, safer, low cost, high efficacy.Small arcs result in high local flux not found in commercial sun focused systems.7×6 kW MH lamps commonly focused achieved 1000 suns and peak intensity 927 kW/SQM.12 kW of power, 25% lamp transmission efficiency through a 175 mm aperture.

High flux 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 flux 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 flux of approaching 1 mW/m2 to the secondary focal plane of a closely coupled ellipsoidal reflector. A comparison of different designs and their performance is also presented in this paper.