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A measurement system for the experimental determination of the flux distribution at the focal plane of the KTH high-flux solar simulator was designed and implemented. It is based on a water-cooled Lambertian target and a thermopile flux sensor placed close to the focal point of the solar simulator. Correction factors to account for systematic effects were determined and an uncertainty analysis was performed. The measurement system was successfully used to evaluate the flux distribution of a single lamp/lens-arrangement with a peak flux of 675kW/m2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A detailed 3-D radiation analysis of a dish-Stirling cavity receiver is carried out to estimate the cavity steadystate temperatures in order to assess the receiver integrity, lifetime and efficiency performance. For this purpose, a parabolic dish was modeled with 5.2 m focal length, 8.85 m aperture diameter and 2 mrad surface error. Three generic cavity shapes (cylindrical, diamond-shaped and reverse-conical) with three different emissivities (0.2, 0.4 and 0.7) are studied. Worst-case scenario heat generations (total absorbed radiation), maximum steady-state temperatures and energy balances of the cavities are calculated to evaluate the receiver performance. The results show that reverse-conical cavities can significantly reduce cavity wall peak temperatures (by 40-120 K), improve the temperature evenness and decrease the radiation losses by 4-5%. Regarding radiation properties, low reflectivities present lower steady-state temperatures even for low/moderate direct solar fluxes. Due to the lower temperatures, lower total thermal losses are also expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]