Inverse identification and experimental measurement for characterizing the flux and intensity distributions of high-flux solar simulators

Accurate characterization of radiative flux and intensity distributions in high-flux solar simulators (HFSS) is critical for solar receiver design, yet conventional methods remain constrained by structural dependency and simulation-based validation. This study addresses these limitations through an experimentally validated inverse methodology that reconstructs both flux and directional intensity distributions without prior knowledge of concentrator configurations. By reformulating the heat transfer inverse problem, we develop a hybrid framework combining particle swarm optimization (PSO) with transient infrared thermographic data to progressively reconstruct non-uniform rational B-spline flux profiles. Xenon lamp radiation intensity constraints are further integrated to resolve directional information, enabling an experimental demonstration absent in prior simulation-dependent approaches. The methodology achieves normalized mean square errors below 3.62 × 10−2 (flux) and 4.21 × 10−3 (intensity) under 5 K measurement uncertainty, with extrapolated flux predictions at arbitrary planes maintaining NMSE <2.3 × 10−3. A deviation less than 30.2 % is shown in the experimental validation. This work provides an effective method for measuring flux distribution and radiation intensity distribution of complex solar energy systems.