Title :
A high intensity solar facility for simulating thermal nuclear environments
Author_Institution :
M.M. Sutton & Associates, Oakland, CA, USA
Abstract :
The ability of a tilted array of toroidally contoured, equatorially mounted heliostats to provide extremely high radiant energy concentrations is investigated. The US Army´s White Sands Missile Range requires flux densities of 300 cal/cm2-s (12.6 MW/m2 ) over a 1/2 m2 area for the purposes of simulating the thermal effects of a nuclear event. A computer simulation was used to measure the effect of selected parameters on array performance. Three array configurations were then defined and their performances evaluated. The highest flux density profile has a peak value of 425 cal/cm2 -sec (17.9 MW/m2). The target area covered by a flux of at least 300 cal/cm2-sec is slightly greater than 1/2 m2 . This flux profile was produced by an array optimized for noon on the winter solstice using 26000 m2 of heliostat area
Keywords :
digital simulation; engineering computing; solar energy concentrators; White Sands Missile Range; array performance; computer simulation; equatorially mounted heliostats; high intensity solar facility; high radiant energy concentrations; thermal nuclear environments; winter solstice; Degradation; Discrete event simulation; Mirrors; Missiles; Optical pulse generation; Optical pulse shaping; Optical receivers; Optical surface waves; Shape; Solar energy;
Conference_Titel :
Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, 1989. IECEC-89., Proceedings of the 24th Intersociety
Conference_Location :
Washington, DC
DOI :
10.1109/IECEC.1989.74746
