Simulation of microscale particle interactions for optimization of an electrodynamic dust shield to clean desert dust from solar panels

Chesnutt, Jennifer K.W.; Ashkanani, Husain E.; Guo, Bing; Wu, Chang Yu

doi:10.1016/j.solener.2017.07.064

Cited by 46 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…The settling of dust on these surfaces degrade the device performance in terms of efficiency and power output 1 , and additional effort is required to remove the dust. Several methods have been proposed to remove dust from surfaces, including sonic and mechanical excitation of the dust particles 2 , mechanical brushing 3 , air jet blowing 4 , and water cleaning 5 , among others. Most of these methods require sophisticated devices or external effort, such as excess energy, to operate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water Droplet Dynamics on a Hydrophobic Surface in Relation to the Self-Cleaning of Environmental Dust

Yilbaş

Hassan

Al‐Sharafi

et al. 2018

Sci Rep

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The dynamic motion of a water droplet on an inclined hydrophobic surface is analyzed with and without environmental dust particles on the surface. Solution crystallization of a polycarbonate surface is carried out to generate a hydrophobic surface with hierarchical texture composed of micro/nanosize spheroids and fibrils. Functionalized nanosize silica particles are deposited on the textured surface to reduce contact angle hysteresis. Environmental dust particles are collected and characterized using analytical tools prior to the experiments. The droplet motion on the hydrophobic surface is assessed using high-speed camera data, and then, the motion characteristics are compared with the corresponding analytical results. The influence of dust particles on the water droplet motion and the amount of dust particles picked up from the hydrophobic surface by the moving droplet is evaluated experimentally. A 40 μL droplet was observed to roll on the hydrophobic surface with and without dust particles, and the droplet slip velocity was lower than the rotational velocity. The rolling droplet removes almost all dust particles from the surface, and the mechanism for the removal of dust particles from the surface was determined to be water cloaking of the dust particles.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water Droplet Dynamics on a Hydrophobic Surface in Relation to the Self-Cleaning of Environmental Dust

Yilbaş

Hassan

Al‐Sharafi

et al. 2018

Sci Rep

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“…Dust removal from surface of energy harvesting devices, such as photovoltaics and solar concentrated troughs, remains vital for sustainable operation, particularly in close regions of the desert environment. Several methods have been proposed for dust removal from surfaces 3–12 and some of these include mechanical brushing 3–5 , air jet blowing 6 , electrostatic repelling 7,8 , water film washing and splashing 9,10 , water droplet cleaning 11,12 . Some of these surface cleaning methods are involved with energy intensive processes and required external cleaning resources such as compressed air and clean water.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-cleaning of a hydrophobic surface by a rolling water droplet

Hassan

Yilbaş

Al‐Sharafi

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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A water droplet behavior on a hydrophobic surface is examined relevant to the dust particles removal from the surface. Surface crystallization of polycarbonate is realized in acetone bath and the resulting surface is coated by the functionalized nano-size silica particles towards reducing contact angle hysteresis. This arrangement provides droplet rolling/sliding on the hydrophobic surface. Droplet translational velocity is formulated and predictions are compared with those resulted from the high speed recorded data. Influence of surface inclination angle on droplet dynamics is investigated and the dust removal mechanism on the inclined surface is analyzed. It is found that predictions of droplet translational velocity agree well with those obtained from the experiment. Droplet rolling dominates over sliding on the inclined surface and droplet sliding velocity remains almost 10% of the droplet translational velocity. The main mechanism for the dust particles removal is associated with the droplet fluid cloaking of the dust particles during its transition on the hydrophobic surface. Droplet acceleration, due to increased surface inclination angle, has effect on the rate of dust particles removal from the surface, which is more apparent for large droplet volumes. Increasing droplet acceleration improves the coverage area of the clean surface.

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“…In case of three or more electrodes, a traveling wave can be generated and can move the particles even on horizontal surface (see Figure ) . Modeling of EDS for better understanding and optimization of the design and process was already done by different institutes …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…4 Modeling of EDS for better understanding and optimization of the design and process was already done by different institutes. [9][10][11]16,17 The electrode design can vary from standard interdigitated electrical line (in particular for standing wave) 4 to spiral design 15 (Figure 2A).…”

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confidence: 99%

Field test and electrode optimization of electrodynamic cleaning systems for solar panels

Faes

Petri

Champliaud

et al. 2019

Progress in Photovoltaics

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Soiling is the major cause of power loss of photovoltaics (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) in desert areas. Electrodynamic cleaning system (EDS) is an automatic and water‐free integrated cleaning system for mirrors or solar panels, which uses pulsed electric fields to remove dust off their surface. The first EDS field test over a long period on PV modules is reported here and shows a clear effect on soiling reduction in real conditions in Saudi Arabia. A total of 458 days of measurements is analyzed, and depending on the considered periods, performance losses due to soiling (soiling rate) can vary from −0.06%/day to −0.41%/day for a reference module, while the relative soiling rate reduction using an EDS can be up to 95.7% with an average of 32.1%. Cost calculations demonstrate an added value of the modules equipped with the EDS between 2.6 and 5.2 ¢/Wp compared with usual cleaning system, which is nearly between 10% and 20% of the module price. In addition, extended indoor tests of various electrode designs of EDS for heliostat dedicated to CSP or PV applications show a high cleaning efficiency of up to 98% with front glass thickness of more than 1 mm. A good specular reflectivity, only 4% lower than the bare reference mirror, is obtained with patterned sputtered silver in a spiral electrode design. High reliability of two types of electrode deposition is demonstrated after 200 cycles between −40°C and +85°C.

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Simulation of microscale particle interactions for optimization of an electrodynamic dust shield to clean desert dust from solar panels

Abstract: 2017-08-25T16:31:35

Cited by 46 publications

References 32 publications

Water Droplet Dynamics on a Hydrophobic Surface in Relation to the Self-Cleaning of Environmental Dust

Water Droplet Dynamics on a Hydrophobic Surface in Relation to the Self-Cleaning of Environmental Dust

Self-cleaning of a hydrophobic surface by a rolling water droplet

Field test and electrode optimization of electrodynamic cleaning systems for solar panels

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