Abstract
The paper demonstrates the feasibility of using nature-inspired spiral patterns in the design of solar tree. Analysis of properties of Fermat’s spiral has shown that due to its uniform packing density, it is optimal for designing a solar tree with all solar panels of equal size. Further, solar panels with arithmetically increasing size may be used for the design of solar tree using Archimedes spiral. For a given set of spiral parameters, the size of the solar panels and the corresponding divergence angles has been optimized. The results show that >99% energy extraction efficiencies can be obtained using optimized solar panels dimensions at divergence angles 157.5° and 99.5° for Archimedes and Fermat’s spiral, respectively. It is observed that, for the same scaling factor and number of panels, the total projected ground footprint area is ~60 times higher in case of Archimedes spiral. Due to the higher packing fraction, Archimedes spiral-based design offers higher energy density. However, Fermat’s spiral-based solar tree design provides higher energy density in cases where equal sized solar panels are used. Also, it is observed that, there are multiple divergence angles except the most commonly observed golden ratio (137.5°) that can offer optimal energy extraction.
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The authors acknowledge the funding support of CSIR through MLP-0113 grant. Author Sumon Dey thanks CSIR-SRF fellowship for the financial support.
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Dey, S., Lakshmanan, M.K., Pesala, B. (2021). Analysis of Nature-Inspired Spirals for Design of Solar Tree. In: Bose, M., Modi, A. (eds) Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Advances in Energy Research. Springer Proceedings in Energy. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5955-6_111
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