Introduction

This repository contains Python wrappers for running the Solstice ray-tracing software, which can be used for the simulation of concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP) systems. The repository also contains copies of the post-processing tools for Solstice, which are required by our Python wrappers. Finally, this repository contains code to generate an easy-to-use Windows installer for Solstice.

1. solsticepy

See the documentation for solsticepy at Read The Docs.

2. Install Solstice

2.1 Windows

• For Windows (Windows 10, 64-bit), use our 64-bit binary installer to install Solstice. The resulting files will be located in c:\Program Files\solstice-0.9.0 (with the appropriate version number). Note that the Windows installer also includes the post-processing tools.

2.2 Linux

• In Linux system (eg Ubuntu 18.04 64-bit), you need

(1) download the binary tarball from the Solstice homepage.

(2) set up the post-processing tools.

2.2.1 Install solstice

### download and extract:
cd ~
wget "https://www.meso-star.com/projects/solstice/downloads/Solstice-0.9.0-GNU-Linux64.tar.gz"
tar zxvf Solstice-0.9.0-GNU-Linux64.tar.gz
### add solstice to your PATHs:
export PATH=$PATH:~/Solstice-0.9.0-GNU-Linux64/bin
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LB_LIBRARY_PATH:~/Solstice-0.9.0-GNU-Linux64/lib
### check that it runs:
solstice --help

Note that you can add the two export commands to your ~/.profile file in order that solstice remains available next time you log in.

2.2.2 Install the post-processing program

Perform the following comments to clone the solsticepy package, and compile the post-processing program by scons

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/anustg/solstice-scripts.git
cd solstice-scripts/postproc
scons

To install the post-processing programs in a user-defined path, replace the last step by the following comment, and then add the /user/defined/path to system path if needed.

scons INSTALL_PREFIX=/user/defined/path install
export PATH=$PATH:/user/defined/path

3. Install solsticepy

The instructions below give easy instructions for end-users. If you are interested in hacking/developing/changing solsticepy code, see HACKING instead.

Windows

• First install Python if you have not done so already. Choose the latest "Windows x86-64 executable installer" of the latest Python 3 release for Windows.

• If you added Python to your PATH during installation you can just open a command prompt and type pip3 install solsticepy and that should download and install everything you need.

• If you didn't add Python to your PATH, you can do the following:

  • Create a text file install.py in your home directory with the following content:

# put this file in your home directory and name it install.py
import sys, subprocess
subprocess.check_call([sys.executable,"-m","pip","install","solsticepy"])

• Open a command prompt (type 'cmd' in the Start menu), then type

install.py

• You should see Python downloading and installing 'solsticepy' from the PyPI servers.

4. Install Paraview

Pavaview is a software to visualise Solstice simulation scene.

• Be sure to install a version 4 release of Paraview. Version 5 was not stable on Windows when we tested it (Apr 2020).

• On Windows:

  • Try downloading and installing ParaView-4.4.0-Qt4-Windows-64bit.exe.

• On Linux (Ubuntu 18.04):

  • sudo apt install paraview should be all you need.

5. Running an example:

• This section yet to be completed

• Download our Zip file from this page

• Extract the folder example to your home directory

• Open a command prompt, navigate to your example directory, then run the run.py script:

cd example
run.py

• You should see various output, followed by "Completed successfully". Also note the output what says "Case directory is...".

• In the case directory, you will file output files including .csv files that can be opened using Excel, and .vtk files that contain 3D graphics can be opened in Paraview.

References

• Solstice: https://www.meso-star.com/projects/solstice/solstice.html

• Wang, Y., Potter, D., Asselineau, C.-A., Corsi, C., Wagner, M., Caliot, C., Piaud, B., Blanco, M., Kim, J.-S., Pye, J., 2019. Verification of Optical Modeling on Sunshape and Surface Slope Error. Solar Energy 195. doi:10.1016/j.solener.2019.11.035