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Design and commissioning of a virtual image solar simulator for testing thermal collectors

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posted on 2017-12-01, 14:22 authored by Roger Moss, Stan Shire, Philip EamesPhilip Eames, Paul Henshall, Trevor Hyde, Farid Arya
© 2017 The Author(s) A solar simulator has been designed and built for testing prototype (0.5 × 0.5 m) flat plate thermal collectors. An internally reflecting light tube generates multiple virtual images of the four halogen floodlights to ensure uniform illumination. Ray-tracing simulations were used to choose the tube dimensions and maximum allowable clearance. Illumination measurements agree well with these predictions. The visible & near IR spectrum appears to follow a black body curve. In the absence of a “cold sky” IR filter there is a secondary, long wavelength IR spectral component that causes heating of the cover glass on a solar flat plate collector. The cover glass temperature can be maintained at typical outdoor levels using a cooling fan. The design would be well suited to LED illumination. Simulation of solar collector response to this spectrum shows that an efficiency based on pyranometer readings is approximately 1% higher than would be obtained with an AM1.5 spectrum.

Funding

This collaborative programme between Warwick, Loughborough and Ulster universities was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), reference EP/K009915/1, EP/K010107/1 and EP/K009230/1.

History

School

  • Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering

Published in

Solar Energy

Volume

159

Pages

234 - 242

Citation

MOSS, R. ...et al., 2018. Design and commissioning of a virtual image solar simulator for testing thermal collectors. Solar Energy, 159, pp. 234-242.

Publisher

© The Authors. Published by Elsevier

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/

Publication date

2018

Notes

This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Elsevier under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

ISSN

0038-092X

Language

  • en

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