Verification of optical modelling of sunshape and surface slope error for concentrating solar power systems

Wang, Ye; Potter, Daniel; Asselineau, Charles-Alexis; Corsi, Clotilde; Wagner, Michael J.; Caliot, Cyril; Piaud, Benjamin; Blanco, Manuel; Kim, Jin-Soo; Pye, John

doi:10.1016/j.solener.2019.11.035

Cited by 50 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…The receiver performance is evaluated using a combination of detailed ray-tracing with the Solstice software from the French CNRS PROMES 10 and codes developed at ANU to solve the energy, mass and momentum balance [63]. These codes have been verified against other widely adopted tools both within this project and independently by ASTRI [65]. The sodium thermophysical properties are obtained from literature data [66].…”

Section: Receiver Pipe Coating Thermal Wavelengths Emittance 91%mentioning

confidence: 99%

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CSP Gen3: Liquid-Phase Pathway to SunShot

Turchi

Gage

Martinek

et al. 2021

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Section: Receiver Pipe Coating Thermal Wavelengths Emittance 91%mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…NSTTF heliostat field model. The heliostat field optics are simulated using the Monte Carlo ray tracing model implemented in Heliosim, which has been validated against other models including Tonatiuh and SolTrace [65]. The layout for the NSTTF heliostats is presented in Figure 51.…”

Section: Pilot-scale Performance Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

CSP Gen3: Liquid-Phase Pathway to SunShot

Turchi

Gage

Martinek

et al. 2021

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“…The goal was to model the main features of the heliostat field and tower as close as possible to the actual features of the original PS10 plant as discussed in [2]. It is worth mentioning here that Tonatiuh++ is essentially the evolution of Tonatiuh [23], the de facto standard of open source Monte Carlo ray tracers for the modeling of solar concentrating systems [24]. Tonatiuh++ is currently being developed by The Cyprus Institute (CyI), and its development aims to provide a ray tracing tool with enhanced functionalities and advanced features, to be much faster, easier to use, and more flexible than is predecessor.…”

Section: Tonatiuh++ Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Minimizing the Computational Effort to Optimize Solar Concentrators with the Open-Source Tools SunPATH and Tonatiuh++

et al. 2021

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Integrals that are of interest in the analysis, design, and optimization of concentrating solar thermal systems (CST), such as the annual optical efficiency of the light collection and concentration (LCC) subsystem, can be accurately computed or estimated in two distinct ways: on the time domain and on the spatial domain. This article explores these two ways, using a case study that is highly representative of the commercial CST systems being deployed worldwide. In the time domain, the computation of these integrals are explored using 1-min, 10-min, and 1-h solar DNI input data and using The Cyprus Institute (CyI)’s High-Performance Computing (HPC) system and an open-source ray tracer, Tonatiuh++, being actively developed at CyI. In the spatial domain, the computation of these integrals is explored using SunPATH, another open-source software tool being actively developed at CyI, in tandem with Tonatiuh++. The comparison between the time and spatial domain approach clearly indicate that the spatial domain approach using SunPATH is dramatically more computationally efficient than the time domain approach. According to the results obtained, at least for the case study analyzed in this article, to compute the annual energy delivered by the LCC subsystem with a relative error less than 0.1%, it is enough to provide SunPATH with 1-h DNI data as input, request from SunPATH the sun position and weights of just 30 points in the celestial sphere, and run Tonatiuh++ to simulate these 30 points using 15 million rays per run. As the test case is highly representative, it is expected that this approach will yield similar results for most CST systems of interest.

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“…It is defined as the angle between the ideal, reflected beam, and the actual normal vector from the surface. [49] The local slope deviations are generally measured in terms of milliradians. These slope deviations are treated using statistical distribution such as root-mean-square (RMS) because these errors are truly random, and their average value is approximately zero.…”

Section: Slope Errormentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance Benchmarking of Large Aperture Parabolic Trough Solar Collector for Various Optical Errors and Geometrical Concentration Ratio

Malan

Kumar

2021

Energy Tech

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Clean energy and a pollution-free environment are becoming the necessity of life along with food, drinkable water, and shelter. Across the world, governments are taking the initiative to promote renewable energy and sustainable development. Solar energy is one of the potential renewable energy sources to achieve these objectives. Solar energy can be harnessed in different ways as per end-use requirements such as electricity or heat using appropriate solar energy technologies. [1] This manuscript is focused on one of the most proven and commercially available solar thermal technology, i.e., parabolic trough solar collector (PTSC), which consists of a concentrator, receiver, support structure, and a tracking system. [2] The technology has been commercially available for more than four decades, and since then, researchers have made efforts to improve its performance and reduce its cost. The performance analysis of the PTSC can be categorized into optical, thermal, and structural analysis. [3] The performance investigation of PTSC is indicated by performing the optical analysis followed by the thermal and structural analysis. The optical analysis has been performed by various approaches such as analytical formulation, [4][5][6][7][8][9] measurement techniques [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] and by modeling software using the Monte Carlo ray tracking approach. [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] The errors and imperfections in the PTSC have a significant effect on the optical performance of the concentrator. The potential optical errors associated with the PTSC are apparent changes in Sun subtended angle, slope errors, tracking errors, misalignment of the receiver tube, and misalignment of the concentrator, etc. Among these errors, subtended angle, slope errors, and tracking errors are classified as random errors that can be addressed statistically. Misalignment of the concentrator and receiver tube is classified as nonrandom errors for which the provision has to be made in the optical model. [34] The analysis of the errors is very important to determine the performance of the PTSC, as the precise manufacturing of the subcomponents and installations are very difficult and expensive. [35] It has been found that the PTSC field's performance does not match the expected performance at the design point. One of the reasons behind that is the inclusion of the optical errors in the system during the manufacturing and the erection of the collector. [35][36][37] Various researchers have analyzed the influence of these errors on optical performance, and a review of the same is provided in Table 1.As highlighted in Table 1, studies are performed to evaluate the effect of these optical errors, such as an error in reflector curvature precision, tracking error, and the alignment error. The

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Verification of optical modelling of sunshape and surface slope error for concentrating solar power systems

Cited by 50 publications

References 17 publications

CSP Gen3: Liquid-Phase Pathway to SunShot

CSP Gen3: Liquid-Phase Pathway to SunShot

Minimizing the Computational Effort to Optimize Solar Concentrators with the Open-Source Tools SunPATH and Tonatiuh++

Performance Benchmarking of Large Aperture Parabolic Trough Solar Collector for Various Optical Errors and Geometrical Concentration Ratio

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