Testing of the single-element stretched-membrane dish

Technical Report · Sat Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1992

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5662978· OSTI ID:5662978

Grossman, J W; Houser, R M; Erdman, W W

The goal of the Stretched-Membrane Dish Program is the development of a dish solar concentrator fabricated with a single optical element capable of collecting 60 kWt. Solar Kinetics, Inc., has constructed a prototype 7-meter dish to demonstrate the manufacturability and optical performance of this innovative design. The reflective surface of the dish consists of a plastically deformed metal membrane with a separate reflective polymer membrane on top, both held in place by a low-level vacuum. Sandia conducted a test program to determine the on-sum performance of the dish. The vacuum setting was varied 8.9- to 17. 2-cm of water column and the vertex to target distance was varied over a range of 15.24 cm to evaluate beam quality. The optimal setting for the vacuum was 11.4 centimeters of water column with the best beam quality of 6.4 centimeters behind the theoretical focal point of the dish. Flux arrays based on slope error from the CIRCE2 computer code were compared to the measured flux array of the dish. The uniformly distributed slope error of 2.3 milliradians was determined as the value that would produce a modeled array with the minimum mean square difference to the measured array. Cold water calorimetry measured a power of 23.3 {plus minus} .3 kWt. Reflectivity change from an initial value of 88.3% to 76.7% over a one year period. 12 refs.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 5662978
• Report Number(s): SAND91-2203; ON: DE92013680
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140702* -- Solar Thermal Power Systems-- Central Receiver
141000 -- Solar Collectors & Concentrators
C CODES
CALORIMETRY
COATINGS
COMPUTER CODES
CONCENTRATING COLLECTORS
CSP
Concentrating Solar Power
ENGINES
EQUIPMENT
HEAT ENGINES
MEMBRANES
PARABOLIC COLLECTORS
PARABOLIC DISH COLLECTORS
REFLECTIVE COATINGS
SOLAR COLLECTORS
SOLAR CONCENTRATORS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
SOLAR FLUX
STIRLING ENGINES
TESTING