Flux Mapping the 400 m2 “Big Dish” at the Australian National University

Abstract

Videographic flux mapping has been used to characterise the focal flux distribution of the 400 m2 solar concentrator located at the Australian National University. Peak fluxes in the focal region of 1.13 MW m−2 have been recorded, which corresponds to a concentration of 1790 suns normalized to 1000 W m−2 insolation and 100 percent mirror reflectivity. Comparisons with ray trace predicted fluxes incorporating surface normal errors indicates that the dish surface has a mean surface error standard deviation of 6 milliradian.