FEA study of innovative solutions for parabolic trough collector design

Abstract

Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants utilize mirrors to reflect the incoming solar energy to focus them to a receiver. However, in this process there are several sources of errors including the ones due to mirrors′ shape, which reduce the efficiency of the process. Not only technical solution, but also environmental conditions (wind, temperature) influence the performance. The purpose of the present work is to study the impact of environmental conditions and technical solutions that contribute to parabolic trough cost reduction and improve performance under operation. To do so, Finite Element Analysis simulations are performed considering different kind of technical solutions that are compared to a reference case in order to assess the change of some relevant factors studied such as deformation, slope deviation (SDx) and focus deviation (FDx). The results obtained show that the reference case presents similar values for SDx, FDx and displacement as the ones shown in available literature, which validates the model. Additionally, it is found large deformation and stress values in the supporting pads of the mirrors that affect considerably the shape of the mirrors. Besides, according to the model, the thicker glass mirror and the large aperture trough are able to reduce the SDx and FDx values of the mirrors, therefore they might have a potential to increase the efficiency of the troughs.Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants utilize mirrors to reflect the incoming solar energy to focus them to a receiver. However, in this process there are several sources of errors including the ones due to mirrors′ shape, which reduce the efficiency of the process. Not only technical solution, but also environmental conditions (wind, temperature) influence the performance. The purpose of the present work is to study the impact of environmental conditions and technical solutions that contribute to parabolic trough cost reduction and improve performance under operation. To do so, Finite Element Analysis simulations are performed considering different kind of technical solutions that are compared to a reference case in order to assess the change of some relevant factors studied such as deformation, slope deviation (SDx) and focus deviation (FDx). The results obtained show that the reference case presents similar values for SDx, FDx and displacement as the ones shown in available literature, which validates ...