Session: 05-05 Solar Receiver Design 3

Paper Number: 116829

116829 - Modeling Receiver Flux of Commercial Power Tower Concentrating Solar Power Plants Using Ray Tracing: A Round-Robin Comparison of Soltrace, Solstice, and Tiesol 

In this work, three different software packages for Monte Carlo ray tracing (MCRT) of central tower concentrating solar power (CSP) systems were compared, in a multi-stage cross-validation process. The three packages are (1) Soltrace, an open source code from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), (2) Solstice, an open source code originally by CNRS-PROMES and Méso-Star with additions by the Australian National University, and (3) TieSOL, a commercial code developed by Tietronix. This investigation builds on previous ray trace comparisons by modeling multi-facet heliostats and a commercial-scale solar field with zoned focal lengths and canting. The agreement of receiver flux distributions across the tools are assessed in single-heliostat, isolated blocking, and full-field case studies. Factors examined in the analysis include varying solar hour, heliostat locations, facet and canting focusing, and aimpoint strategies. The comparison aims at improving accuracy and reliability of the above tools, and providing benchmark cases for the checking of future tools.

Presenting Author: Rebecca Mitchell National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Rebecca Mitchell has been a researcher at NREL for five years, where she develops optical metrology tools for Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) collectors using algorithm development, theoretical modeling, and laboratory and field testing. She now serves as the team lead on the development on the Non-intrusive Optical (NIO) technology which surveys Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) solar fields using UAS imaging. She has led UAS data collection campaigns of heliostats at Sandia National Labs, Crescent Dunes plant, and Cerro Dominador plant. She has been involved in three publications and a recently issued patent for the NIO technology. Dr. Mitchell has mentored several graduate and Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships (SULI) interns and now serves as the lead of the Resource, Training, and Education topic for the Heliostat Consortium project. She received her PhD and MS in Applied Mathematics from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2017 and her BA in Mathematics for Colorado College in 2012.