Prediction of the Dust Accumulation Rate on a Parabolic Trough Mirror by CFD Method

Abstract

In Industry 4.0, the development of intelligent power systems will contribute to providing people with better quality of electrical energy. The power generation system with solar power plants in Industry 4.0 is also the focus of development. The areas with high irradiation density have suffered from a high concentration of aerosol particles and thus, these technologies have experienced losses due to soiling. So, in this study, the behavior of dust particles with a cylindro-parabolic mirror has been carried out. For wind flow analysis, we have used the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method, for the prediction in a 2D domaine, the simulation has been carried out based on the Shear Stress Transport k-w turbulence model and a discrete phase model for particle motion prediction. The results revealed that, unlike the large particle, the trajectory of the small ones creates vortices behind the heliostat, as the particle size increases, it can be noticed that the vortices start to dissipate. The maximum deposition rate due to gravity could be as high as 10% for 100 µm dust particles, which shows the important role played by gravity on the dust deposition rate for larger dust particles. The decrease in deposition after the size exceeds 100 µm is only because these particles do not reach the heliostat, they leave the area through the ground before reaching the mirror.