Refractive secondary concentrators, coupled with advanced primary concentrators, can efficiently convert solar energy to heat for a wide variety of space applications including power generation, thermal propulsion, and furnaces. These applications typically require very high temperatures (as high as 2000 K) and high concentration ratios (10,000 to 1). To enable concentration systems that meet these requirements, the NASA Glenn Research Center is developing the refractive secondary concentrator, which uses refraction and total internal reflection to concentrate and direct solar energy. Presented is an overview of the refractive secondary concentrator technology development effort, including a description of benefits, past accomplishments, and future plans. Highlighted is a recent proof-of-concept test of a prototype sapphire refractive secondary concentrator performed in a solar vacuum environment that demonstrated throughput efficiency of 87%. It is anticipated that the application of an optical coating to the inlet surface of the refractive secondary to reduce the reflection losses at this surface can improve the throughput efficiency to 93%. Plans to conduct additional solar thermal vacuum tests to demonstrate high temperatures and high throughput power are also presented (up to 2000 K and 5 kW).
Solar refractive secondary concentrator technology overview
Space Technology and Applications International Forum - 2001 ; 2001 ; Albuquerque, New Mexico
AIP Conference Proceedings ; 552 , 1 ; 1023-1028
2001-02-02
6 pages
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
Solar Refractive Secondary Concentrator Technology Overview
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