Student research opportunities

Optical design for high-efficiency central tower receivers

Project Code: CECS_1155

This project is available at the following levels:
CS single semester, Engn4200, Engn R&D, Honours, Summer Scholar
Please note that this project is only for undergraduate students.

Keywords:

ray-tracing, optics, simulation, graphics, 3D, geometric optics, heliostat

Supervisor:

Dr John Pye

Outline:

Central tower solar-thermal systems use an array of mirrors 'heliostats' to direct solar radiation at a 'receiver' placed on top of a large tower. Typically a heat transfer medium, such as water, molten salt or sodium is passed through tubes in the receiver, and transports the heat for downstream storage and power generation.

Design of receivers is balancing act that depends on the optical performance and layout of the heliostat field, together with the optical properties of the receiver absorbing surface and the shape and size of the receiver.

In this project, we aim to implement a novel approach to simplify and speed up this design process, by adopting a simplified representation of the heliostat field optics. The project builds on earlier work using an open-source Python-based ray tracing code called Tracer (by Yosef Meller, Univ of Tel Aviv), which we have recently been extending and improving.

Goals of this project

* read in a heliostat field layout from a text file
* calculate the field performance using accurate ray-tracing
* reduce the field performance to simplified model
* demonstrate equivalence of the simplified model to within a certain tolerance
* demonstrate faster ray-tracing based evaluation of several simple/initial candidate receiver designs.

Requirements/Prerequisites

First-year physics and mathematics are sufficient for this topic. Python programming experience (eg as taught at ANU) is a greatly preferable, but strength in other object-oriented programming may be sufficient. You should be prepared to do the work in a Linux environment -- it definitely makes it easier to muster all the required software tools.

Student Gain

You will develop important skills in numerical programming, 3D graphics, vector algebra. You will gain exposure to geometrical optics and core tools for development and design of optical systems. Ability to design a core part of a modern renewable energy technology, the solar thermal concentrator.

Background Literature

General overview of solar thermal (read online via ANU library website):
Lovegrove & Stein, 2012. Concentrating solar power technology: principles, developments and applications. Woodhead Publishing.
http://library.anu.edu.au/record=b3426605

Original webite for 'Tracer':
http://yosefm.github.io/tracer/

Most recent code (a fork of a fork):
https://github.com/jx1a0/Tracer

Documentation about using NumPy for high-performance numerical work with Python:
http://scipy-lectures.github.io/

Some general papers on ray tracing and optical analysis for concentrating solar thermal applications:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2007.08.004
http://infoserve.sandia.gov/sand_doc/2008/088053.pdf

Another general solar thermal source (a bit dated however):
http://www.powerfromthesun.net/

Contact: