Thermal characteristics of a classical solar telescope primary mirror
Abstract
We present a detailed thermal and structural analysis of a 2m class solar telescope mirror which is subjected to a varying heat load at an observatory site. A 3-dimensional heat transfer model of the mirror takes into account the heating caused by a smooth and gradual increase of the solar flux during the day-time observations and cooling resulting from the exponentially decaying ambient temperature at night. The thermal and structural response of two competing materials for optical telescopes, namely Silicon Carbide -best known for excellent heat conductivity and Zerodur -preferred for its extremely low coefficient of thermal expansion, is investigated in detail. The insight gained from these simulations will provide a valuable input for devising an efficient and stable thermal control system for the primary mirror.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1102.0111,
title = {Thermal characteristics of a classical solar telescope primary mirror},
author = {Ravinder K Banyal and B. Ravindra},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1102.0111},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
14 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in New Astronomy