Visible Spectrum Incandescent Selective Emitter
The purpose of the work performed was to demonstrate the feasibility of a novel bi-layer selective emitter. Selective emitters are incandescent radiant bodies with emissivities that are substantially larger in a selected part of the radiation spectrum, thereby significantly shifting their radiated spectral distribution from that of a blackbody radiating at the same temperature. The major research objectives involved answering the following questions: (1) What maximum VIS/NIR radiant power and emissivity ratios can be attained at 2650 K? (2) What is the observed emitter body life and how does its performance vary with time? (3) What are the design tradeoffs for a dual heating approach in which both an internally mounted heating coil and electrical resistance self-heating are used? (4) What are the quantitative improvements to be had from utilizing a bi-layer emitter body with a low emissivity inner layer and a partially transmissive outer layer? Two approaches to obtaining selective emissivity were investigated. The first was to utilize large optical scattering within an emitter material with a spectral optical absorption that is much greater within the visible spectrum than that within the NIR. With this approach, an optically thick emitter can radiate almost as if optically thin because essentially, scattering limits the distance below the surface from which significant amounts of internally generated radiation can emerge. The performance of thin emitters was also investigated (for optically thin emitters, spectral emissivity is proportional to spectral absorptivity). These emitters were fabricated from thin mono-layer emitter rods as well as from bi-layer rods with a thin emitter layer mounted on a substrate core. With an initially estimated energy efficiency of almost three times that of standard incandescent bulbs, a number of energy, economic and environmental benefits such as less energy use and cost, reduced CO{sub 2} emissions, and no mercury contamination was initially projected. The work performed provided answers to a number of important questions. The first is that, with the investigated approaches, the maximum sustained emitter efficiencies are about 1.5 times that of a standard incandescent bulb. This was seen to be the case for both thick and thin emitters, and for both mono-layer and bi-layer designs. While observed VIS/NIR ratios represent improvements over standard incandescent bulbs, it does not appear sufficient to overcome higher cost (i.e. up to five times that of the standard bulb) and ensure commercial success. Another result is that high temperatures (i.e. 2650 K) are routinely attainable without platinum electrodes. This is significant for reducing material costs. A novel dual heating arrangement and insulated electrodes were used to attain these temperatures. Another observed characteristic of the emitter was significant grain growth soon after attaining operating temperatures. This is an undesirable characteristic that results in substantially less optical scattering and spectral selectivity, and which significantly limits emitter efficiencies to the values reported. Further work is required to address this problem.
- Research Organization:
- Golden Field Office, Golden, CO (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EE) (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG36-02GO12066
- OSTI ID:
- 828224
- Report Number(s):
- DE-FG36-02GO12066; TRN: US200430%%1006
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 30 Apr 2004
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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