Global Methods for Calculating Shading and Blocking Efficiency in Central Receiver Systems

Guillermo Ortega (), Rubén Barbero and Antonio Rovira
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Guillermo Ortega: E.T.S. Ingeniería, Universidad de Huelva (UHU), Campus El Carmen, Avd. Tres de Marzo, s/n, 21071 Huelva, Spain
Rubén Barbero: E.T.S. Ingenieros Industriales, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), C/Juan del Rosal, 12, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Antonio Rovira: E.T.S. Ingenieros Industriales, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), C/Juan del Rosal, 12, 28040 Madrid, Spain

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 6, 1-18

Abstract: This paper presents three new methods for calculating the shading and blocking efficiency in Central Receiver Systems (CRSs). All of them are characterized by the calculation of multiple useful and total reflecting areas without the need to resort to parallel calculation in the CPU or GPU, and by low computation times and minimum errors. They are being specially designed for implementation in codes focused on heliostat field design and optimization in CRSs. The proposed methods have been compared against two outstanding “individual” methods ( homology and Boolean operations ), in addition to a reference case based on the Monte Carlo ray-tracing (MCRT) technique. The results indicate that one of the proposed methods presents reduced error values and high computational speed, even relaxing the restrictions on candidate filtering. At the same error level, the global method is up to 7.80 times faster than the fastest individual method ( homology ) and up to 194 times faster than the method based on the MCRT technique. The causes of the main errors of each method are also analyzed.

Keywords: concentrated solar power; central receiver; heliostat field design; shading and blocking calculation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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