PTGen/DELSOL3 intermediate results for CSP Power Tower model

Hi,
For verification purposes it would be very useful to be able to access the intermediate files that PTGen produces for the heliostat field and central receiver TRNSYS Types. Specifically, the plant_summary.txt, eff_array.dat, and fluxmap.csv files. I've been searching for them but I can't find them. Does SAM write these files in any directory?
Is the executable version and source code of DELSOL3 used by PTGem available? And is there any stand alone verion of PTGen available?
Thanks

As a follow up, could you point me to an 'oficial' executable and source version of DELSOL3?
I've been using several executable versions and they lead to different optimization results with a common INPUT file. SO I am affraid that modifications introduced by the people that compiled these executable versions do affect the optimization result, and therefore I would be interested in comparing with an 'official' DELSOL3 version.
Thanks,

Hello,

The intermediate files are available in the temporary simulation folder that SAM creates when you run simulations. To find the folder, press Shift-F9 after running simulations.

The PTGen executable for each version of SAM is available in the SAM installation folder, which by default for the current version in Windows is c:\SAM\2012.6.19\exelib\tools.

Best regards,
Paul.

Thanks Paul. I was searching but coudn't find this temporary folder.

Regarding PTGen,I had seen it, but I asked for some additional files to run. The *.inc file from the temporary folder helps to overcome the first problem, but still it seems that PTGen is asking for another file, and gives no clues about it: 'The program called for a user-specified field. The file containing this information could not be found.'. Do you know what else is looking for?

Regarding DELSOL3, can you point me to an 'oficial' version of the program?. I've tried 3 different executable versions and all of them crash when evaluating the optical efficiency matrix from a field defined by coordinates when there are more than 2500 heliostats. Since SAM seems not to crash, I wonder about whether there is a problem in the Delsol3 versions I've tried or whether the optical matrix that SAM uses for these causes is a default one to avoid the program to crash.

Thanks,

Hi, Xavier and Paul,

I always thought DELSOL3 is only available for staffs of NREL and Sandia, since I have not found a download source online. Could I have a copy of the program?

Thanks a lot!

Jingpeng Wang

Hello everyone,
There are a couple of questions here, and I'll try to address them in order.
1. To reiterate Paul's earlier response, some of the intermediate files are available after executing a SAM run by pressing Shift+F9 while in SAM. This opens a temporary working folder which should contain a folder with the same name as your SAM project name. Open this folder, then the "BASE" folder, and you'll find the intermediate files. Not all of the input and output used by DELSOL is available here, so I've created a copy of PTGen (the program that executes and processes data for DELSOL) that optionally saves all of the DELSOL output.
We'll follow up shortly with instructions on how to get a copy of this version of PTGen.
Follow these steps to view all of the DELSOL3 output that SAM uses: [update 7/7/2014: Please use the steps below for SAM 2014.1.14 instead of these steps to generate the DELSOL3 output files.]
1) Run a simulation in SAM normally.

2) Navigate to the temporary working directory (as described above).

3) Copy the PTGen executable into the working directory.

4) Open the file "SAM_Tower_DELSOL.inc" with a text editor, and add a line after the "Rec_d_spec" variable at the end (and before the "/") that reads exactly "save_files = 1."

5) Run PTGen.exe by double clicking This will re-run PTGen normally, but will save the output from all of the DELSOL runs.
You should see a single file with information from the solar azimuth/elevation parametric run (DELSOL3_eff_mat.txt), and a series of files with receiver flux map information (DELSOL3_Flux__.txt). You will also see the consolidated data that the SAM hourly simulation tool uses with the "array_view.csv" and "fluxmap.csv" files.
2. Since NREL does not own DELSOL, we aren't at liberty to distribute it at this time. The code was originally developed by Sandia National Lab. 3. DELSOL is not well-suited for modeling heliostats by user-specified coordinates. Although this option is available, I would recommend not using DELSOL for this purpose without some other type of validation. The more correct use of DELSOL with user-specified fields would be to convert your design into the "heliostats per zone" table format on the Heliostat Page and running the simulation that way. DELSOL uses analytical approximations that are much different than modeling each heliostat individually, so the program regularly fails with user-specified coordinates.
Thanks,

Mike Wagner (NREL)