Wind actions on large-aperture parabolic trough solar collectors: Wind tunnel tests and structural analysis

Ulf Winkelmann, Christoph Kämper, Rüdiger Höffer, Patrick Forman, Mark Alexander Ahrens and Peter Mark

Renewable Energy, 2020, vol. 146, issue C, 2390-2407

Abstract: Green energy structures are subject of on-going optimization, which involves the shape contours and the wind sensitivity of the structure. Current developments of parabolic troughs show that the aperture width increases to save assembling and operating costs to be more competitive on market compared to conventional power plantsis increased. Alternative structural concepts based on thin-walled, high-performance concrete shells combine structural stiffness and low self-weights despite large apertures to high-potential technologies. This paper presents wind tunnel tests on 3D-printed shell-like parabolic trough collector modules with an aperture width of 10 m and a module length of 30 m. Experimental investigations are performed on solitary modules (1:75 and 1:150) and on modules arranged in arrays (1:150). Pressure, pitching moment and force coefficients are determined for various pitch angles and wind directions. The coefficients are applicable to full-scale large-aperture collector modules. Subsequent numerical analysis shows trends towards effects of e.g. scaling, shadowing in solar fields regarding maximum internal forces for operation and stow mode. Results reveal that wind directions of 0°/30°/150°/180° and pitch angles of 0°/45°/60° are most significant. By means of the numerically determined internal forces and identified shadowing effects the solar field can be categorized into four characteristic sectors in which trough modules are mainly equally stressed.

Keywords: Parabolic trough; Wind tunnel tests; Pressure coefficient; Large-aperture collector; Structural analysis; Concrete shell (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:146:y:2020:i:c:p:2390-2407

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2019.08.057

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