The energy consumption continues to increase as the use of electronics and energy consuming equipment increases. The use of fossil fuels has to be phased out for this to be sustainable in the long run while the use of renewable energy continues to increase. A renewable energy source is solar energy but the production of heat and electricity are today very expensive compared to other energy sources and an important task for the solar energy market to grow is therefore to minimize the production cost of the solar collectors while increasing its efficiency to produce heat and/or electricity. One way to convert solar energy into heat is by using solar collectors and electricity can be produced by utilizing the produced heat, or by applying solar cells. This thesis aims to recommend a reflective material for the next generation solar collectors from Absolicon and to recommend a commercially available coating for the receiver tube of the solar collector. A market study has been carried out to investigate the cost-related aspects along with the optical and durable aspects for the optical material of the solar collector. Experimental evaluations have been performed to ensure that the optical materials meet the requirements that the supplier promises. The optical properties have been evaluated with advanced measuring equipment at the Ångströmlaboratoriet at Uppsala University and with an infrared camera. The measured values from the infrared camera were in turn used to theoretically calculate the thermal losses of the receiver tubes. To investigate the materials durability the materials were subjected to different climates in a climate chamber and all the tests that has been conducted in this thesis have been carried out both before and after the climate chamber simulation to investigate the materials optical and physical durability. An important aspect of the laminated films is that they should have good adhesive properties even when subjected to high temperatures and high humidity and a method to evaluate this has been developed. The result of the thesis shows that aluminum reflectors obtain the best optical results for concentrated solar collectors, but since aluminum is not suitable for the Absolicon solar collector TC160 the recommended reflector material is SF2, which showed good optical, adherent and durable properties which is desirable for a good solar collector and a total reflectance of 92.4 % was obtained. The material that is recommended as a receiver tube is R2 with a measured absorptance of 95.9 %, an emissivity of 17.7 % and the thermal energy loss was calculated to 1055 W. R2 is durable in high humidity and temperatures of 85°C for over 300 hours without the optical characteristics deteriorated. Based on the recommended materials, the next generation solar collectors from Absolicon obtained a theoretical calculated optical efficiency of 76 %.

I samband med ett brandförsök i Australien ämnat att undersöka sprinklersystem, testades även några enklare värmestrålningssköldar av olika högreflekterande material. I försöket placerades tre obelastade pelare ut och utsattes för full brand. Två av pelarna avskärmades med förzinkad stålplåt respektive aluminiserad stålplåt och en pelare var helt oskyddad och användes som referens. Mätningar från brandförsöket visar att den maximala ståltemperaturen, i de tre olika pelarna, uppmättes till 580°C, 427°C respektive 1064°C. Även då resultaten var positiva har få vidare undersökningar utförts, vilket har motiverat denna rapport. Rapportens huvudmål har varit att med hjälp av teoretiska experiment påvisa att värmestrålningssköldar kan användas som brandskydd för stålkonstruktioner. Metoden för genomförandet av arbetet har varit att sätta sig in i den bakomliggande teorin och bygga upp ett enklare beräkningsprogram där, utifrån givna materialegenskaper, olika sorters sköldars förmåga att brandskydda ett ståltvärsnitt beräknas. De första kapitlen beskriver bakomliggande teori rörande brand och termofysik. Detta följs upp av några exempel på tänkbara värmestrålningssköldar, en enklare kostnadskalkyl där jämförelse av andra brandskyddsmetoder har gjorts och slutligen ett förslag på hur sköldar ska dimensioneras. För att skydda en VKR-profil 200x200x10 i 30 minuter måste en 1 millimeter tjock sköld med en luftspalt på 20 millimeter, mellan pelare och sköld, bestå av ett material som reflekterar minst 80 procent av all värmeenergi som strålar mot den under hela brandförloppet. Skölden ska även ha en hög densitet, specifik värmekapacitet och smältpunkt. Detta kan jämföras med aluminiumfolie som reflekterar omkring 95 procent, men varken har den densitet eller smältpunkt som krävs för att hantera de extrema förhållandena vid brand. Det visar sig även att i dagsläget är brandskydd med hjälp av värmestrålningssköldar relativt dyrt jämtemot traditionella brandskyddsmetoder. / In fire tests performed in Australia meant to examine the effectivity of sprinkler systems, a few simple heat radiation shields made of highly reflective materials were also tested. In the trials three identical steel columns were exposed to fire in an office building. One of those columns were shielded with a galvanized steel sheet, the second with an aluminized steel sheet while the third was left unprotected. Data from the trial shows that the temperature of the steel columns was measured to 580°C and 427°C for the protected columns and 1064°C for the unprotected. Despite the positive results hardly any further studies has been made on this subject, which have motivated this report. The main goal of this report is to, with the help of theoretical experiments, prove that heat radiation shields can be used as a fire protection system for steel profiles. By implementing the underlying theory of heat transfer into a program capable of calculating a certain material’s ability to protect a steel profile from radiant heat, the temperature of the profile could be estimated. Results show that in order to sufficiently protect a VKR 200x200x10 millimeter steel profile exposed to 30 minutes of fire, a 1 millimeter heat radiation shield made out of a material with no less than 80 percent heat reflectivity has to be used. The material must also contain its reflectivity during the entire period, have a high enough density and not melt at a temperature lower than 1000°C.

The objective of this study is to determine whether the accumulation of dirt on a battle dress garment affects the emissivity of said garment in the thermal radiation spectrum (8-12 μm). This is researched for the purpose of identifying whether there is a need for military units to spend time and resources on keeping battle dresses clean to minimize their thermal signature.To accomplish said objective, two experiments were conducted with the Swedish uniformssystem 90 (battle dress system) to determine change in emissivity due to dirt accumulation in relation to clean garments. Dirty garments were borrowed from active service personnel provided they had been used daily and not washed for over 6 months. Emissivity was gauged with a thermal camera from FLIR Systems.While differences could be identified in unison with the hypothesis, can no conclusion be drawn due to the low statistical significance of the results. This is due to the small sample sizes in relation to the difference observed.