TY - JOUR
T1 - Transient Characterization of Multiple Parabolic Trough Collector Loops in a 100 MW CSP Plant for Solar Energy Harvesting
AU - Almasabi, A.
AU - Alobaidli, A.
AU - Zhang, T. J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work is supported by the Cooperative Agreement between the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (Masdar Institute), UAE and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA. The authors would like to thank Mr. Alexander R. Higgo for his assistance to this work.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2015/5/1
Y1 - 2015/5/1
N2 - Parabolic trough solar collection technology has been widely deployed in concentrated solar power (CSP) generation plants all over the world. In a large-scale CSP plant, a solar field consists of hundreds of parabolic solar collector loops. Due to the parallel loop arrangement (Fig. 1) and non-unifoum solar collection, mal-distributions of heat-transfer-fluid flow (HTF, synthetic oil) among different loops commonly occur during transient operation. Many solar collector loops have to be pushed out of tracking phase to avoid oil overheating and degradation, which causes significant loss in solar energy collection and power generation. Such collector defocusing and refocusing operation results in large transient variation of HTF temperature, which further brings challenges to energy-efficient operation and maintenance of the coupled thermal power generation unit. Advanced transient analysis, control and fault diagnosis tools are desired to achieve safer CSP plant operation and transient solar power harvesting. In this paper, a distributed transient optical-thermal-fluid model of parabolic trough collector is developed and validated with field data from a 100MWth CSP plant. Transient model predictions are in fair agreement with experimental field data, which provide a quantitative tool for solar energy harvesting. Conceptual active flow control strategies are further introduced to regulate the HTF temperature and maintain high solar collection efficiency.
AB - Parabolic trough solar collection technology has been widely deployed in concentrated solar power (CSP) generation plants all over the world. In a large-scale CSP plant, a solar field consists of hundreds of parabolic solar collector loops. Due to the parallel loop arrangement (Fig. 1) and non-unifoum solar collection, mal-distributions of heat-transfer-fluid flow (HTF, synthetic oil) among different loops commonly occur during transient operation. Many solar collector loops have to be pushed out of tracking phase to avoid oil overheating and degradation, which causes significant loss in solar energy collection and power generation. Such collector defocusing and refocusing operation results in large transient variation of HTF temperature, which further brings challenges to energy-efficient operation and maintenance of the coupled thermal power generation unit. Advanced transient analysis, control and fault diagnosis tools are desired to achieve safer CSP plant operation and transient solar power harvesting. In this paper, a distributed transient optical-thermal-fluid model of parabolic trough collector is developed and validated with field data from a 100MWth CSP plant. Transient model predictions are in fair agreement with experimental field data, which provide a quantitative tool for solar energy harvesting. Conceptual active flow control strategies are further introduced to regulate the HTF temperature and maintain high solar collection efficiency.
KW - Distributed Modeling
KW - Parabolic Trough Collector
KW - Solar Energy Harvesting
KW - Transient
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84943639688
U2 - 10.1016/j.egypro.2015.03.004
DO - 10.1016/j.egypro.2015.03.004
M3 - Conference article
AN - SCOPUS:84943639688
SN - 1876-6102
VL - 69
SP - 24
EP - 33
JO - Energy Procedia
JF - Energy Procedia
T2 - International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems, SolarPACES 2014
Y2 - 16 September 2014 through 19 September 2014
ER -
