Solar concentrator radiation problem (solar ray tracing)

soankerabhinay · October 14, 2019, 17:41

Hi,
I am trying to determine the solar heat flux distribution on a cylindrical receiver that is reflected from a dish type concentrator. I did not find any tutorial that involves solar concentrators! I want to simulate simple case without any fluid involved. Just a dish concentrator (mirror) and solid cylinder located at the focal point. There is no air or any other fluid medium.
Can I use S2S model with solar ray tracing for this case? I tried to create a view factor file, but it shows an error
" The number of radiating faces should be a non-zero. Atleast one boundary zone (attached to the fluid) should participate in the view factor computation"
Is it necessary to have atleast one fluid component to use S2S? I don't get this error if at least one of the components is defined as fluid.
If S2S is not appropriate for this case, which radiation model is good for solar concentrators.
Thanks!

LuckyTran · October 14, 2019, 17:59

You need a fluid. If you're planing on doing only a radiation model, you still need a dummy non-participating fluid. The radiation models in Fluent are not meant to be standalone radiation solvers. What Fluent is looking for is the boundary zone attached to the working fluid to perform the view factor calculation.

soankerabhinay · October 16, 2019, 01:43

Sorry for the late response. Thank you very much for the clarification! I will try model it with some dummy fluid in my model and see if it works. Thanks again for the response.

October 14, 2019, 17:41	Solar concentrator radiation problem (solar ray tracing)	#1
soankerabhinay New Member Abhinay Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Posts: 23 Rep Power: 11	Hi, I am trying to determine the solar heat flux distribution on a cylindrical receiver that is reflected from a dish type concentrator. I did not find any tutorial that involves solar concentrators! I want to simulate simple case without any fluid involved. Just a dish concentrator (mirror) and solid cylinder located at the focal point. There is no air or any other fluid medium. Can I use S2S model with solar ray tracing for this case? I tried to create a view factor file, but it shows an error " The number of radiating faces should be a non-zero. Atleast one boundary zone (attached to the fluid) should participate in the view factor computation" Is it necessary to have atleast one fluid component to use S2S? I don't get this error if at least one of the components is defined as fluid. If S2S is not appropriate for this case, which radiation model is good for solar concentrators. Thanks!

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October 14, 2019, 17:59		#2
LuckyTran Senior Member Lucky Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Orlando, FL USA Posts: 5,763 Rep Power: 66	You need a fluid. If you're planing on doing only a radiation model, you still need a dummy non-participating fluid. The radiation models in Fluent are not meant to be standalone radiation solvers. What Fluent is looking for is the boundary zone attached to the working fluid to perform the view factor calculation.

October 16, 2019, 01:43		#3
soankerabhinay New Member Abhinay Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Posts: 23 Rep Power: 11	Sorry for the late response. Thank you very much for the clarification! I will try model it with some dummy fluid in my model and see if it works. Thanks again for the response.