The sunshape and mirror surface slope error are two main factors that influence the characteristics of incoming and reflected solar beams in a solar concentrator. Different optical modelling tools, however, address these two factors with different methods and simplifications. In this study, simulation methods are reviewed in five optical modelling tools, namely SolTrace, Tonatiuh, Tracer, Heliosim and SolarPILOT. A series of simple test cases are simulated in each tool to compare and verify the implementation of sunshape and slope error models separately. This strategy has successfully identified discrepancies among the tools and contributed to a better understanding of their reasons. It has also uncovered few glitches in some of those tools and contributed to improve them. It is our hope that this study will help to resolve common misconceptions, to build confidence amongst CSP researches on the accuracy of tools with which they have less experience, and to ensure better agreement in optical modelling work in future.
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8 November 2018
SolarPACES 2017: International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems
26–29 September 2017
Santiago, Chile
Research Article|
November 08 2018
Comparison of optical modelling tools for sunshape and surface slope error
Ye Wang;
Ye Wang
1
Solar Thermal Group, Research School of Engineering, Australian National University
, Canberra, Australia
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Daniel Potter;
Daniel Potter
2
CSIRO Energy
, Newcastle, Australia
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Charles-Alexis Asselineau;
Charles-Alexis Asselineau
1
Solar Thermal Group, Research School of Engineering, Australian National University
, Canberra, Australia
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Clotilde Corsi;
Clotilde Corsi
2
CSIRO Energy
, Newcastle, Australia
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Michael Wagner;
Michael Wagner
3
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
, Golden, CO, USA
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Manuel Blanco;
Manuel Blanco
4
Energy, Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC), The Cyprus Institute
, Nicosia, Cyprus
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Jin-Soo Kim;
Jin-Soo Kim
2
CSIRO Energy
, Newcastle, Australia
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John Pye
John Pye
a)
1
Solar Thermal Group, Research School of Engineering, Australian National University
, Canberra, Australia
a)Corresponding author: john.pye@anu.edu.au
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a)Corresponding author: john.pye@anu.edu.au
AIP Conf. Proc. 2033, 210020 (2018)
Citation
Ye Wang, Daniel Potter, Charles-Alexis Asselineau, Clotilde Corsi, Michael Wagner, Manuel Blanco, Jin-Soo Kim, John Pye; Comparison of optical modelling tools for sunshape and surface slope error. AIP Conf. Proc. 8 November 2018; 2033 (1): 210020. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5067222
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