OTSun Project: Development of a Computational Tool for High-Resolution Optical Analysis of Solar Collectors
Abstract
The OTSun project is a research project co-funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, with the reference number ENE2015-68339-R, where the main goal is to develop a computational tool for high-resolution optical analysis of solar collectors. The project is runs from 2016 to 2018 and is composed of eight tasks. The main motivation of the project is to develop an open source code that serves as reference to simulate optical systems for solar energy applications where the most important optical effects are being considered. In order to achieve high-resolution results the radiation-matter interaction effects, the dependence of the incident angle on absorptive and anti-reflective surfaces, and also the dependence of the wavelength will be taken into account. The tool is based on the Monte Carlo ray- tracing method, and a useful software interface will be provided allowing the user to create, or import, the solar collector geometry. A data base of solar materials will be provided with the tool. Finally, the optical efficiency and the energy distribution on the receiver will be calculated by the program.
Keywords
Ray-tracing, Optical characterization, Optical simulation, Freecad