Over the past several years, a family of computer programs to calculate the
optical performance of cylindrical (and other non-symmetric) solar collectors
have been developed at the Solar Energy Applications Laboratory at the Colorado
State University. The programs use a three dimensional Monte Carlo ray tracing
algorithm to trace a large number of "solar" photons through possibly many
surface interactions until the photons are either absorbed by a surface or exit
the volume of interest. The overall transmission-absorptance product
([tau][alpha]) of the collector is computed as the ratio of photons absorbed by
all designated absorber surfaces to the number of photons incident upon an
imaginary aperture plane defined by the user (in the absence of all other
surfaces). The output of the calculation is a matrix of biaxial Incident Angle
Modifiers (IAM's) suitable for use with available
TRNSYS
collector models. The IAM is defined as the ratio of a collector's performance
([tau][alpha]) at a particular angle of incidence to the collector's
performance at normal incidence ([tau][alpha])normal.
This web page makes the program manual and computer code (Fortran 90 source
code, sample input files, and executable binary files) available for general
use. The files contained on this page are copyrighted by Colorado State
University. They can be distributed freely as long as they are distributed
completely including any copyright message.
Version
3.0 is the latest version of the IAM Monte Carlo computer code.
The following are links to text files. To view the files, simply click the
link. If you would like to save these files to your own computer, after
clicking on the link, choose "Save As" from your browser's "File" menu.
The next three links are the executable files. If you click on the link, your
browser will download the file to your own computer. Read the manual to learn
more about executing the program.
Version
2.2 is a previous version of the IAM Monte Carlo code.
Version 2.2 incorporates a number of bug fixes from version 2.1. The most
significant was a correction in the way semi-specular surface reflection
routine works. The semi-specular option should not be used in Version 2.1.
The following are links to text files. To view the files, simply click the
link. If you would like to save these files to your own computer, after
clicking on the link, choose "Save As" from your browser's "File" menu.
The next three links are the executable files. If you click on the link, your
browser will download the file to your own computer. Read the manual to learn
more about executing the program.
If you run
into problems with this program, either downloading the files or executing the
program, please e-mail to either Jeff Miller at:jm568432@engr.colostate.edu
or Joe Ryan at:jryan@k12.colostate.edu
This page was last updated on June 26, 1998