Fruitloop50
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If anyone is visiting Tashkent, Uzbekistan, you can do an interesting half day side trip to visit a Solar Furnace. It is located just past the town of Parkent, an hour and a quarter drive from Tashkent.
The furnace is a gigantic 54 meter high solar oven with a parabolic mirror/concentrator that can concentrate the sun's rays at one point and create temperatures of over 3,000° C in a matter of seconds.
It uses 62 heliostats (huge flat mirrors) to reflect sunlight onto the concentrator, which focuses all the rays into one point inside a technological tower. Inside the technological tower is a special chamber in which unique conditions can be created, as well as special protective doors that regulate the amount of incoming light. The furnace is estimated to have a power of 1 megawatt (one million watts).
The concentrator with the technological tower in front of it (the rectangular building at the top of the stairs)
The rear of the concentrator
The heliostats each contain 195 small mirrors apiece and are also equipped with sensors that allow the positioning system to direct a beam of light to a specific point on the concentrator.
There is only one other solar furnace of this capacity and design in the world, the Odeillo Solar Furnace in France.
The guide used a small heliostat to show us how effective they are. In a few seconds he burnt a hole in a coin, and in less than a minute he burnt holes in a metal pipe and in bricks. He even cooked some corn on the cob for us.
The furnace is a gigantic 54 meter high solar oven with a parabolic mirror/concentrator that can concentrate the sun's rays at one point and create temperatures of over 3,000° C in a matter of seconds.
It uses 62 heliostats (huge flat mirrors) to reflect sunlight onto the concentrator, which focuses all the rays into one point inside a technological tower. Inside the technological tower is a special chamber in which unique conditions can be created, as well as special protective doors that regulate the amount of incoming light. The furnace is estimated to have a power of 1 megawatt (one million watts).
The concentrator with the technological tower in front of it (the rectangular building at the top of the stairs)
The rear of the concentrator
The heliostats each contain 195 small mirrors apiece and are also equipped with sensors that allow the positioning system to direct a beam of light to a specific point on the concentrator.
During Soviet times it was used to test refractory materials in the aerospace industry in order to create aeroshells for spacecraft. Various conditions could be created in the furnace, including a vacuum to simulate space and low pressure similar to the atmosphere of Mars.
Today it's used to research the effects of high temperatures on various materials, and to conduct scientific experiments.
Today it's used to research the effects of high temperatures on various materials, and to conduct scientific experiments.
There is only one other solar furnace of this capacity and design in the world, the Odeillo Solar Furnace in France.
The guide used a small heliostat to show us how effective they are. In a few seconds he burnt a hole in a coin, and in less than a minute he burnt holes in a metal pipe and in bricks. He even cooked some corn on the cob for us.
