A novel approach to reduce ray tracing simulation times by predicting number or rays

A ray tracer, specifically designed for concentrating solar power systems, has been developed at the Solar Thermal Energy Research Group (STERG). In most ray tracers a simulation runs until a number of rays, predefined by the user, have been traced. In a novel approach the raytracer uses a user defined tolerable error and confidence interval to predict and automatically trace the required number of rays for a simulation. This reduces computational time as only the minimum required number of rays are traced. This method has not been incorporated into any of the openly available ray tracers. The method and algorithm incorporated into the STERG raytracer are described here. As a validation test case the Eurodish and optimised field layout of Planta Solar 10 plant have been simulated. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.