Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
77772 | Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells | 2015 | 11 Pages |
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.