Heliostat aiming point optimization for external tower receiver

Astolfi, Marco; Binotti, Marco; Mazzola, Simone; Zanellato, Luca

doi:10.1016/j.solener.2016.03.042

Cited by 47 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 24 publications

(21 reference statements)

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“…Astolfi et al [11] focus on avoiding flux peaks, and the field is divided into circular sectors to adjust the aim point height of each zone. The continuous optimization problem faced focuses on the vertical aim point and grouping results.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ray-tracing offers higher accuracy and flexibility than analytical methods at the expense of higher computational requirements. Considering potential time constraints and the fact that analytical errors attenuate according to the central limit theorem [14], the analytical approach is generally preferred [11,13,16]. The work in [25] is an exception example because the authors use ray-tracing and reduce its time impact by storing partial results.…”

Section: On Predicting the Behavior Of The Target Fieldmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The work in [25] is an exception example because the authors use ray-tracing and reduce its time impact by storing partial results. Regardless, creating databases with pre-computed information is also an option with analytical strategies [10,11,14,24]. This work relies on an analytical model of the target field.…”

Section: On Predicting the Behavior Of The Target Fieldmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The interested reader can find more information about SPT plants in [8,9]. Despite its conceptual simplicity, the radiation receiver of a SPT plant is a sophisticated, expensive and fragile component, that needs special care to reduce the production costs [10] and maximize throughput [11]. The solar flux distribution that the heliostat field reflects on its receiver may cause thermal stress, premature aging, and deformation [10][11][12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite its conceptual simplicity, the radiation receiver of a SPT plant is a sophisticated, expensive and fragile component, that needs special care to reduce the production costs [10] and maximize throughput [11]. The solar flux distribution that the heliostat field reflects on its receiver may cause thermal stress, premature aging, and deformation [10][11][12]. It is also directly related to the production efficiency of the plant as the interception factor, i.e., the ratio of nonprofited radiation [10,13,14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

A Simple and Effective Heuristic Control System for the Heliostat Field of Solar Power Tower Plants

Cruz¹,

Álvarez²,

Redondo³

et al. 2020

ACTA POLYTECH HUNG

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Solar power tower plants use large arrays of mirrors, known as heliostats, to concentrate solar radiation on their receiver and heat the working fluid inside them. However, receivers must not be under thermal stress. Otherwise, their life expectancy is reduced, which affects the cost and viability of production plant. Controlling the flux distributions on receivers requires selecting the active heliostats and their target points. It is a challenging task that should not be under the responsibility and expertise of human operators only. This work defines a closed-loop controller to keep the setpoint or desired flux map under certain conditions. It combines real measurements and an ad-hoc analytical model of the target field with a set of heuristic rules that covers how to activate, deactivate, and re-aim heliostats. The proposed system has been applied to a model of the CESA-I field at the Solar Platform of Almería. The open-source ray-tracer Tonatiuh represents the reality. The initial operation point has been determined with a theoretical flux distribution optimizer. According to the experimentation, the controller improves the initial and modelbased flux distribution by raising its power from 708.4 to 736.4 kW (with a setpoint of 739.6 kW).

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%