Title: Numerical study of wind load on heliostat

Authors: Zhiyong Wu, Zhifeng Wang

Addresses: Laboratory of Solar Thermal Power, Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 6 Beiertiao, Zhongguancun, Beijing, 100080, China. ' Laboratory of Solar Thermal Power, Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 6 Beiertiao, Zhongguancun, Beijing, 100080, China

Abstract: The Heliostat array accounts for about 40% of the Solar Power Tower plant|s total costs. Reducing of wind loads on the heliostat is of great significance. The purpose of this study was to develop an effective way of evaluating the wind load on a heliostat by numerical simulation. Comparison of the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) result with the wind tunnel experiment data were carried out which showed they matched not very well. Detailed checking of the experimental report showed there were some errors with the wind tunnel testing. The conclusion is that CFD is a useful tool in heliostat design.

Keywords: wind loads; heliostat array; numerical simulation; solar energy; solar power; CFD; computational fluid dynamics; heliostat design.

DOI: 10.1504/PCFD.2008.021328

Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, An International Journal, 2008 Vol.8 No.7/8, pp.503 - 509

Published online: 19 Nov 2008 *

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