Week 2: Preparing the Experimental System and Calibration Planning

Welcome back to my senior project blog, everyone! After spending my first week refining my research question and defining environmental ranges that will guide my experiments, I spent this week focusing on translating my plans into the physical setup required for my testing. Rather than continuing purely theoretical work, I began preparing the instrumentation and experimental framework that will allow me to start actual data collection.

A main part of my work this week was reviewing the technical requirements of the equipment I will use. My work requires a temperature-controlled environmental chamber, external LED lighting, thermocouples for temperature measurements, and infrared imaging for thermal mapping. Because these instruments need to work in sync precisely, I spent time outlining how each component will be used in the final setup. In particular, I focused on how the PV panel will be positioned within the chamber while the LED illumination remains positioned outside the chamber window. This setup is crucial because it prevents the light source from directly heating the panel, allowing ambient temperature inside the chamber to be varied independently.

Another main focus of my week was calibration. Accurate measurements are important for this experiment, especially due to the involvement of temperature-dependent electrical behavior. I started designing calibration procedures for the thermocouples, multimeter readings, and infrared camera. My thermocouples will be validated using known temperature references, such as ice and boiling water. The IR camera will be checked against known temperature surfaces to ensure that the thermal images will accurately represent the panel’s surface. Going through these steps in advance will greatly help in reducing uncertainty once my actual trials begin.

I also spent some time refining the structure of my experimental trials. This included going through stabilization times for each temperature condition, determining how long the panel should retain a given temperature before measurements are recorded, and deciding how many measurements should be taken to maximize reliability. In addition, I started planning my data logging process that will allow me to take voltage and temperature measurements simultaneously. This will be useful when analyzing the relationship between ambient temperature and electrical output.

While I spent Week 1 on defining my research problem more clearly and reviewing existing studies in depth, Week 2 focused on more engineering preparation. I am better understanding how the individual pieces of my experiment will work together, specifically the chamber, illumination system, sensors, and data acquisition tools. Although I haven’t started full testing, laying these procedures out will help with accurate and meaningful data collection.

Overall, this week was about shifting from theory to practical setup. I began organizing my setup, designing calibration procedures, and planning experimental structure. Next week, I hope to move into system setup and validate my equipment so the data collection can begin soon.