Our facility uses the sun to simulate a range of high temperatures, extreme solar flux levels, and varying pressure or vacuum environments. This capability supports the development and validation of thermal technologies under the most demanding conditions. As the facility continues to grow, it remains at the forefront of innovation, providing critical insights and solutions for the solar energy industry.
The NSTTF solar furnace uses a heliostat to reflect the suns light off a concentrator dish. This provides a renewable source which is capable of a wide range of high flux test scenarios, thermal model validation tools, and extreme environments. To protect equipment, this dish is in a fixed configuration inside an open-sided building. A heliostat reflects the sun through an attenuator to control the amount of solar flux on target.
Current features and capabilities:
- Peak irradiance of 600 W/cm2
- Max Temperatures near 3000 ⁰C
- Spot Size: 5 cm or 3 in
- 300 psig solar reactor for gas distribution
- 1 torr vacuum solar reactor
- 50K frame rate UHF camera system
- FTIR photometrics for onboard spectroscopy
- FLIR Camera (-20°c to 2000°c)
- Up to 32 thermocouples
- 12 channels for voltage and Current measuring
- Programmable Flux profiles via attenuator
Our solar simulator is a one-of-a-kind, high-flux solar simulator with an Automated Sample Handling and Exposure System (ASHES), providing accelerated lifetime aging tests for materials under high-temperature/high-flux conditions. A robotic sample-handling system can be used to move multiple coupons automatically into and out of the concentrated flux sequentially to expose the samples to predetermined temperatures, fluxes, and/or durations.
Current features and capabilities:
- Peak irradiance is ~1.1 MW/m2 of 130 W/cm2
- Average irradiance of ~0.9 MW/m2 over a spot size of ~1 inch (2.5 cm)
- Spot Size: 2.5 cm
- 24/7 operation available
- Programmable Sample System (ASHES)
A new vertical simulator also is in development to reach 500 w/cm2.
Our 36 ft. diameter dishes each produce 75kW thermal power and peak fluxes up to 1500 W/cm2. They are individually controlled to track to sun with 2 axis control.
