SOF
About this facility
The DLR Solar Furnace is a tool and test facility which is able to deliver concentrated solar light with peak flux densities of up to 5 MW/m² from 22 kW in total. Such high irradiances can produce temperatures of up to 2700K on test samples. A solar furnace consists of an arrangement of high quality mirrors which leads the focused beam of high energy with an average focal length of 7,3 m to the experimental area of a diameter of 3 cm
Sectors and technologies
The core applications are testing and evaluating experiments in the field of basic research or close to industry requests like high temperature solar thermochemical cycles, photochemical experiments and reactions e.g. toxin destruction, assessment of materials under conditions of extreme temperature and radiation intensity, material research, component testing e.g. absorbers for CSP, at least the production of hydrogen or space experiments. Test of satellite-components under extreme conditions such as High vacuum down to 10-6 mbar
Technical specifications
6 parameters| Dish size [m2] | Heliostat 8,2 x 7,4 m |
|---|---|
| Nominal power on target [kW] | 22 kW |
| Peak flux on target [kW/m 2] | 5000 kW/m2 |
| Maximum Sun concentration | 5000 |
| No. of lamps | 10 |
| Special features | Xenon short-arc lamps OSRAM XBO 6000 W/HSLA |
Available services
- Solar Radiation Measurement and Weather Station
- Advising on Solar Radiation Measurement & Data Processing
- DNI Measurement and Analysis
- Measurements on material properties
- Geometrical assessment of Solar Concentrators (Single Facets, Point and Line Focus Collectors)
- Accelerated Aging of absorbers & absorbing coatings
- Optical Properties/Characterization of Absorbers & Receivers and their coating
- Surface Properties of Absorbers & Receivers and their coating
- Calibration of Concentrated solar irradiance sensors
- High flux sensors qualification
- Qualification of high radiative flux processes
- Calibration of Infrared sensors for temperature measurement
- Non-Contact Temperature Measurement at Solar Furnaces
- High temperature optical properties measurement
- High Temperature Thermochemical Research Units
- Thermal and Thermodynamic characterization of prototype Reactors for Central Receiver on Tower Technologies under real operating conditions
- Solar Fuels and Thermochemistry
- Solar Thermochemical Hydrogen/Syngas
- Water splitting thermochemical cycles
- Surface materials treatment
- Advanced materials analysis and characterization techniques
- Surface Treatment and Metallic Coatings
- Thermal analysis
- Testing of high temperature processes
- Testing of materials at high temperature
- Thermal treatment of materials at high temperature
- Testing of materials at high flux
Contact & links
gerd.dibowski@dlr.de; christian.willsch@dlr.de; Vamshi.Thanda@dlr.de