5th International Congress on

Computational Mechanics and Simulation,

10-13 December 2014, India

SOLAR PLANT HELIOSTATS SPACING EFFECT ON TIME

DEPENDENT LIFT AND DRAG FORCES DUE TO WIND
LOADS
ABHILASH C.NAIR1, *, ESWARAN M2, +, G.R.REDDY2, and S.N.BANSODE1
1

K.J.Somaiya College of Engineering, Mumbai-77

* Student, Email: abhi.n16@gmail.com
2
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai-85
+
Email: Scientific Officer: eswarm21@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
This paper presents the effect of wind load on heliostat array used in the solar power plants. The
heliostats need to be placed in the field such that the field losses are at minimum. The heliostat field
in this paper has been designed by using the no blockage layout algorithm and analyzed for wind
load. The study is carried out by CFD analysis using the
turbulent model. The array consists
of three groups of heliostats with 14, 43 and 31 heliostats in first, second and third group
respectively. This study focuses on the Strouhal frequency, lift and drag forces acting on each
heliostat in the field. It is observed that the heliostats at the corners are subjected to high wind loads
compared to other heliostats. This abstract discusses about the effect of wind load on the first group
of heliostats.
Keywords: Heliostat; wind load; no blockage layout algorithm; CFD analysis.

Introduction

Heliostat shown in Fig. 1 is used in the solar power plants for tracking the suns position and to
collect and reflect suns rays to a receiver. The length of the heliostat panel (L) is 3m and the width
(W) is 1.5m. The position of the heliostat panel is defined by two angles namely pitch angle ( ) and
yaw angle ( ). This paper focuses on the wind loads acting on the heliostat array. There are various
field losses namely cosine loss, shadowing loss and blocking loss. The blocking loss is observed to
be the most dominant in a heliostat field. So the field design was done by using the no blockage
layout algorithm. Fig. 2 shows the 2D computational domain created for the study. Fig. 3 shows the
heliostat arrangement which has been developed for the study, where R is the radial spacing and
A is the azimuth spacing. The heliostats were arranged in a radial arrangement as the blocking
loss which is the most dominant field loss would be minimized [1]. This study has been conducted
by CFD analysis using the - turbulence model. Fig. 4 shows the grid generated for the study of
the first group of heliostats.
The height of the receiver tower is 25m and maximum field radius available is 92.5 m. The terrain
is flat i.e. slope of the terrain is 0 and the maximum angular direction was 40 .

2278
c
2014
ICCMS Organisers. Published by Research Publishing. All rights reserved.
ISBN:978-981-09-1139-3 || doi:10.3850/978-981-09-1139-3 277

Fig. 1: CAD model of a heliostat.

Fig. 2: Computational domain for the first group

of heliostat array.

Fig. 3: The arrangement of first group of

heliostats with each heliostat number
assigned.

Fig. 4: Grid generated for the first group of

heliostat array.

Methodology

The field in this study has been designed using the no blockage layout algorithm whose flowchart
has been shown in Fig. 5 [2]. This field has been analyzed using CFD analysis. According to the
Step 11 of the algorithm, a new group to be created if a certain condition which depends on the
mirror density ( ) is not satisfied. The first group contains fourteen heliostats in two essential rings
and one staggered ring. The essential rings contain five heliostats each while the staggered ring
contains four heliostats.

Boundary conditions and grid generation

For the study, the fluid is assumed as incompressible. As there is no free surface, the body forces
can be ignored. The boundary conditions applied here has been shown in Fig. 2. At the inlet, the
velocity boundary condition with a design wind velocity of 40 kmph (11.11 m/s) is considered with
5% turbulence intensity. At the outlet, the Neumann-type conditions are employed and free slip
conditions to the remaining boundaries of the domain. The grid generated has already been shown
in Fig. 4, where tetrahedral elements are used to discretize the region where the heliostat bodies are
placed and the remaining portion with fewer gradients were discretized using structured elements.

5th International Congress on Computational Mechanics and Simulation

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START

Input: length, width, height of heliostat. Height of tower, length of receiver tower,
maximum radius and ,maximum angular direction.

Step1: Find aspect ratio, net reflecting surface, min ring radius and radius of heliostat representing circle.

Step2: Calculate characteristic diameter and min radial spacing.

Step 3: Assign the ring numbers, calculate angular direction for unit group. The min radius
of the first ring is equal to tower height.
Step 4: Calculate radius of the next ring.

Step 5: Follow steps 6 to 11, while radius < maximum radius.

Step 6: Calculate the next ring radius,

Step 7: Find the no of heliostats in a ring.
Step 8: Find the mirror density ()for the current ring.
Step 9: Find the radius of the next ring

Step 10: Calculate the mirror density() of the latest ring.

Step 11: if >=

NO

YES
Add a new ring.

Add a new group

Step 12:If (new ring

in a group)
Add a new ring
in same group.

Add a new ring

in new group.

Step 13: Locate each heliostat.

STOP


Fig. 5: Flow chart for no blockage layout algorithm of heliostat field.

Results and Discussion


The force coefficients are defined as follows,



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5th International Congress on Computational Mechanics and Simulation


, C L 2 FL
UU 2 L
UU 2 L
where, FD and FL denote life and drag forces and CD and CL denote the drag and lift force
coefficients.
The Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 show the drag coefficient and lift coefficient for each heliostat on the field.
Fig. 8 shows the streamlines for the first group of heliostat array.
CD

2 FD

Fig. 6: Mean drag coefficient for each

heliostat of first group.

Fig. 7: Mean lift coefficient for each

heliostat of first group.

Fig. 8: Streamlines for the first group.

Conclusion

1. The CD and CL of each heliostat in the field (showed in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7) reveals that there is a
slight decrease in the force values of the heliostats in the staggered ring except for the one
which is farthest in the group i.e. heliostat number 8 and 14.
2. A similarity in nature of the force coefficient values are observed for heliostat no 2, 3, 4, 5, 7
and 8 with 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 due to their symmetrical arrangement.

References

1. Tang Ming Hui, Design and Optimization of heliostat field using spinning elevation suntracking method based on computational analysis. Department of Electrical and Electronic
Engineering, University of Tumku Abdul Rehman (2011).
2. F.M.F. Siala and M.E. Elayeb, Mathematical formulation of a graphical method for a noblocking field heliostat, Center for Solar Energy Studies, Tripoli, Libya (2001).

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