Solar radiation model (details)

FranciscoRamirez
FranciscoRamirez Altair Community Member
edited February 2023 in Community Q&A

Hello!

I'm doing this tutorial: ACU-T: 3201 Solar Radiation and Thermal Shell Tutorial (https://help.altair.com/hwcfdsolvers/acusolve/topics/tutorials/acu/acu_3201_intro_hm_r.htm#acu_3201_intro_hm_r). However, I don't understand the output of the AcuSolve Command Prompt:

<span class="keyword cmdname">acuSflux -time "dec-3-2019 11:00:00" -tinc 1800 -nts 25 -lat 42.6064 -lon -83.1498 -ndir "1,0,0" -udir "0,0,1"</span>

where the output is this:

image

Here are my questions:

  1. What does each column mean?
  2. What database or what model is used to obtain this solar data?
  3. Does the solar data take clouds or another weather event into account?
  4. Where I can find a theory manual indicating the solar radiation model implemented in HyperWorks CFD?

 

Best regards,

Francisco,

 

 

 

Best Answer

  • acupro
    acupro
    Altair Employee
    edited February 2023 Answer ✓

    If you issue

    acuSflux -h

    you will see what the various entries to the command indicate.

    1 - You end with four columns in the resulting data file - time in seconds, X/Y/Z components of solar flux (the solar flux vector - input to the SOLAR_RADIATION command, with type = linear)

    2 - Algorithm used in this program is a combination of 
    standard solar position:
    altitude/pressure relationship of mid summer tables
    clear sky radiation model
    report (SERI/TR-215-2436)
    http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/pubs/spectral/model/

    Gettotal direct solar irradiation
    Extracted from spetral2
    code:   http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/codes_algs/spectral/
    theory: http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/pubs/spectral/model/

    3 - This all assumes clear sky, no historical weather data

    4 - We only have the information in item 2 above

Answers