CAD Forum

I am designing tunnel for growing crops. I've already done a statical analysis and found a design that is both practically and structurally sound.

I'd also like to make an analysis of a transmitted light through the greenhouse poly of the tunnel. The plastic is both reflecting and diffusing the incoming light. The angle of sun is also changing over the same day and also over a span on a year. Light reflection of a poly surface is a function of incoming light angle.

The goal of the analysis is to determine the total amount of light energy that has fallen on the surface under the tunnel each day of the year. That is, the total amount of energy emitted by sun, minus reflected and possibly some diffused light. I expect the amount reflected will vary drastically with different orientations and shapes of the tunnel.

I've clicked around the simulation tab but didn't found an option for such simulation. Is solidworks even the program for this kind of study? Where do I start? Thank you for guiding me.

wwwworker

I dont think SW has any OOB feature for ray tracing or "light simulation"

You might want to look at:
https://www.solidworks.com/partner-prod ... solidworks

https://www.ansys.com/products/optics-vr/ansys-speos

Another option for analytical results could be using zemax. Depending on the complexity of the tunnel geometry, you might be able to approximate the light transmission/reflection using basic geometric optics equations. Even for complex geometry, you might be able to divide curved or planar sections to simplify the math, then calculate the transmission/reflection for a certain area (1 m^2) and then integrate that across the whole surface (since the sun is essentially infinitely far away).