ANIMATION TOOL FOR ESTIMATING THE OPTICAL EFFICIENCY OF A THERMOPHOTOVOLTAIC GENERATOR

摘要

In order to achieve high efficiency in a thermophotovoltaic (TPV) generator, it is important that a high fraction of emitted photons with energies below the TPV cell band gap are reflected back to the emitter. This can be accomplished in several ways, and one suggestion is to place an edge filter between the emitter and the TPV cell array in an elliptical optic design. An animation tool, developed in the Excelâ program, for determining the optical availability in such a system has been presented previously. The animation components were a blackbody emitter, an edge filter, and an array of TPV cells. The tool was used to demonstrate the importance of an efficient filter and the usefulness of optics that makes the edge of the filter as sharp as possible. It is available at . rnThe animation tool has been further developed for estimating the optical efficiency, and more factors may be varied. The tool can now handle also the emittance of the emitter, absorption losses in mirrors and filter, as well as TPV cell characteristics such as quantum efficiency, back surface reflectance, and fill factor.