Abstract
A solar thermal simulator is suitable for indoor experiments of solar receivers and reactors when solar insolation and weather conditions are not favorable. Moreover, due to the easy control of electric power input, the solar thermal simulator allows the adjustment of power input incident on solar receivers and reactors and thus the implementation of accurate experiments. We manufactured a solar simulator, which is comprised of three sets of a xenon lamp and an elliptical reflector. In order to serve as a test facility, optical characterization of the solar simulator via radiation heat flux measurement is a critical prerequisite. We applied the flux mapping method to measuring the heat flux distribution of the three lamps. We presented the measurement results in terms of the heat flux distribution, the peak heat flux, the power distribution, the maximum power, and the efficiency for electric power conversion into radiation power. Characterization results show that our solar simulator provides the peak heat flux of $3,019kW/m^2$, the maximum power of 16.9 kW, and the conversion efficiency of 45%, additionally with a 10% operation margin for output increase.
