Development of High Flux Solar Simulators for Solar Thermal Research

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, the novel high flux solar simulator design uses metal halide lamps and not follow the conventionally practise of using xenon lamps. The 42kWe simulator consisting of seven 6kWe metal halide lamps delivered a peak thermal flux of approaching 1mW/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.