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, a novel high flux solar simulator design using metal halide lamps has been constructed. 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.