Diseño y Construcción de Un Prototipo de Colector Solar Parabólico Tipo Disco Con Sistema de Seguimiento Solar
Diseño y Construcción de Un Prototipo de Colector Solar Parabólico Tipo Disco Con Sistema de Seguimiento Solar
Diseño y Construcción de Un Prototipo de Colector Solar Parabólico Tipo Disco Con Sistema de Seguimiento Solar
By: M.Sc. Alarcón Alexander, E.E López Andrea, E.E Hortúa Jairo, and E.E Zámbrano Álvaro
Summary - This paper summarizes the process of Durante este proceso se realizaron los cálculos,
designing and building of a parabolic solar simulaciones, construcción y pruebas de
collector type disk, which will be used in future verificación de cada uno de los componentes
research to study the behaviour - features - the - construidos. Una vez ensamblados, se realizaron
effectiveness of this technology in the production pruebas para evaluar el funcionamiento del
of heat and electricity, for radiation conditions in sistema en conjunto, para las condiciones de
Colombia. Includes the analysis and verification radiación solar de la ciudad de Bogotá.
of disk geometric aspects, design and Los resultados demostraron que el sistema es
construction of a system of two-axis solar capaz de obtener hasta 5.42 kWh en un día, para
tracking and also building a data acquisition condiciones de radiación adecuadas.
system for recording and storing measurements
related to atmospheric variables. Key words: Solar thermal systems, solar collector,
direct radiation, solar tracker, thermal efficiency,
During this process, calculations, simulations, focus. Microcontroller.
construction and verification tests of each one of
the constructed components were performed. Palabras clave: Sistemas térmicos solares, colector
Once assembled, tests were conducted to evaluate solar, radiación solar directa, seguidor solar,
the performance of the overall system, for solar eficiencia térmica, foco, microcontrolador.
radiation conditions of Bogotá.
2f
er = = 0.75 mts
1 + cos∅
1.76 m2
C= = 4555
0,00038 m2
Ar = 2πah of = 0,416 m
Equation 5: Area of the receiver Table II presents the obtained results from the
geometric calculations of the hub.
With the values a and h, applying equation 5 we have:
Ar = 0.000388 m ^ 2 = 388mm ^ 2
TABLE II The simulation is done throwing 500,000 lines
GEOMETRIC RESULTS OF CALCULATIONS representing the sun lights; (the program allows
launching more than 15,000,000 ray), due to make
Φ Opening angle (rad) 1,46 viewing them in the focus of the collector. Figures 5
Opening angle and 6 show the behavior of the rays incident on the
𝜙 (degrees ) 83,52 collector and are reflected on the receiver:
Re radius edge (m) 0,75
Contact Surface
Stirling ( theoretical )
h (m ) 4,12E-03
Receiver area ( m2)
Ra (m2) 3,88E-04
Opening area ( m2)
Oa (m2) 1,76
concentration ratio
Cmax (theoretical) 4.555,67
concentration ratio
Cmaxr (real) 4.475,97 Figure 5: Behaviour of the parabolic solar
optimal focal distance collector type disc to the launching of the sun
Fo (m) 0,42 lights.
The optical efficiency of the collector indicates the Equation 6: Optical Efficiency
percentage of penetration of sunlight on the collector
The average temperature obtained in the receiver in
cover and the percentage to be absorbed, which
the solar collector is calculated with this.
depends on the geometry of the system, the
concentration factor and the materials selected for the Thermal calculations
construction. To calculate the optical characteristics
of the selected material (AISI 430T -BA), are used. Knowing the optical efficiency and the characteristics
They are presented in Table III. of the material collector efficiency the thermal
efficiency of the collector is calculated; including
TABLE III maximum temperature expected [11], [12], [13], [16],
FEATURES OF THE MATERIAL USED IN THE and [17].
CONSTRUCTION OF THE DISC HUB AND From the parameters in Table IV, the collector
CALCULATION OF OPTICAL EFFICIENCY thermal calculations were made, obtaining as a result
the values in Table V.
0.85 Absorptance receptor
TABLE IV
1 Transmittance of glass that covers PARAMETERS USED IN CALCULATING
the receiver (if any). In this case THERMAL COLLECTOR IN ACCORDANCE
does not exist, then it is equal to 1 WITH THE MATERIAL USED IN THE
0.572 concentrator reflectivity CONSTRUCTION OF THE DISC COLLECTOR
S 0.999 Shape factor calculated Symbol Value Description
The design criteria used are defined taking into The method used to track the sun's path is tracked by
account that the system must have low power means of equations, because it allows predicting the
consumption and should capture as much radiation as specific position of the sun and not dependent on
possible, defining duty cycles where the collector climatic variation such as cloud cover, which can
orientation is corrected with respect to the position of affect the detection system when positioning blocks
the sun every 15 minutes. This indicates that there is optical sensors.
an error in the angle of incidence of the rays with
respect to the concentrator, because the sun will In the method of positioning with equations the zenith
continue its tracking while the collector will maintain and azimuth angles of the sun are calculated through
a fixed position in these 15 minutes. the declination angle of the earth throughout the year,
the latitude of the place, date and time of day. With
Aspects required for solar tracker are: the previous, the process to follow was as shown in
the diagram below.
• Ease of construction.
II. Identification circuit elements
• Accuracy of movement
III. Design of the plant control and electronic circuit
• Reduction of mechanical stress of the engines: Figure 10: Routine employed in the design of the
Due to avoid overexertion (mechanical and solar tracker
electrical) of the engines.
• Stability of the structure before the movement:
The system must be hardy enough to maintain
position and support the weight of the disk.
• Electronic Circuit Protection: Inside the C. Control System of the solar tracker
electronic circuit a system of protection against
overcurrent and overvoltage should be included. Based on the above methodology, a routine was
programmed in a microcontroller using PIC C
• Control of the collector position: The system software to execute the movement of the system
must have an item to know the collector position according to the zenith and azimuth angles , and using
and adjust it according to the schedule of a control the information obtained from a real-time clock, an
system. accelerometer and a magnetic compass , the two
• Speed control of engines: The movement of the engines are controlled and the collector is positioned
solar concentrator should be slow. correctly. In this routine the microcontroller reads the
date, time clock real time, and other variables with a
sampling rate of 64ms. With these data and calculated Auto Mode: The disk rotates based on the position
information from the zenith and azimuth angles, the control.
order to the engines is given to move to a suitable These modes of operation are displayed on a Liquid
angle. Crystal Display (LCD). In the LCD menu is also
possible to observe the time and angle values
Since the motors are moving faster than is required, a presented when manually calibrate the accelerometer.
system of pulse-width modulation (PWM ) was
implemented ,which operates at a frequency of 5 kHz
, with a variable duty cycle , which enables switching V. CONSTRUCTION OF SOLAR TRACKER
of the engines, decreasing the rotational speed . After
placing the collector in the correct angle, the The mechanical positioning system comprises a
accelerometer and magnetic compass indicate that the pulley ratio (1 to 10 in the "y" axis and 1 to 14 in the
proper position was reached, hence the collector "x" axis), achieving a smooth movement of the
stops. The positioning of the collector will take place engine, and reducing mechanical stress on the same.
every 15 minutes, with an angle of 3 º.
The mechanisms of horizontal and vertical motion of
the solar tracker are presented below:
Figure 11 shows the control diagram where the Figure 3: Parts of Solar tracker
performance of the positioning system is shown in
which logic programming PIC is defined. The basis
for the positioning control of the collector is zenith
A. Verification and Performance Tests
and azimuth angles of the sun. From these angles a
proportional integral control [21] was implemented From the tests conducted in solar tracking system, it
[19], due to a quick response from the system, was observed that the average consumption of the
reducing the steady-state error, overshoot and noise moto- redactor of the cimutal movement is 1.5 A (33
[21], [22]. W) and the azimuthal motion 1 A (22 W). Similarly,
With the input angle, the microcontroller executes the to verify position control during the morning, it was
programmed routine, allowing movement of the plant observed that between 10 am to 2 pm the solar
by the H Bridge and engines. To observe the position collector moved in an average of 37 °, which
of the plant (collector), the system is fed by means of corresponds to the programmed into the
the signals from the accelerometer and magnetic microcontroller for these movements. Power
compass. consumption in this time slot was 59.19 Wh.
The solar tracker was designed to operate in two
ways: The following graph shows the behavior of the solar
• Manual mode: In this option you can move the puck tracking system:
collector by pushbuttons.
The data acquisition system consists of three
elements, a system that reads and conditions the
sensor signals, a communication system that sends
information to the computer and a computational tool
to visualize and evaluate the recorded information.
• USB communication.
• Application programming language C #
Figure 4: Theoretical and practical behavior of the • Sampling rate of 200ms.
solar tracking system • User- friendly Interface
• Storing data using an Excel file.
VI. DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION Once identified using sensors, simulation and
DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM assembly of signal conditioning system was made
according to the recommended circuits in datasheet to
In the design of the data acquisition system the major check the operation.
variables involved in the operation of the prototype, Similarly, the operation of the pic was simulated.
such as temperature and disk position (x, y -axis) Based on the work routine and scheduled task
were determined. sequence
Design Criteria data acquisition system C. Construction of the data acquisition system
After having clear these design criteria , the Visual
Studio 2008 software was selected with the
complement of Measurement Studio Plug ( National
Instruments software tool ) to make the application,
because it allows to program in the C# language, has
a friendly graphical interface , contains different
types of libraries, tools and test and measurement
applications.
Also, in this process the USB communication with
the microcontroller was established by the HID
protocol, which takes advantage of modern operating
systems, because it does not require the installation of Figure 15: Location of the elements of the
drivers for USB communication with the prototype
microcontroller.
Finally the design of the graphical interface was made
and the application was programmed in C #
programming language, considering conversions and
equations required for the application (temperature,
position angles, brightness, etc.).
This application allows displaying in real time of the
temperature (internal and external) and the angle
position of the collector as shown in Figure 14. Figure 16: Developed electronic cards for the
power stages and control of the prototype
However, the variation of the slope with respect to the IX. CONCLUSIONS
useful energy (Figure 21) is not significant was - The theoretical thermal efficiency calculated
verified by analyzing results, the instantaneous instantaneous solar concentrator is 48.5 % and the
thermal efficiency of the system is proportional to the optical efficiency is 49 %, which allows
useful energy delivered. contemplating the conversion of thermal energy into
electricity by means of this system.
- With the highest temperature recorded during the
test (144.8°C) in the prototype, the proper geometrical
design and proper selection of materials, which
together allow to obtain a suitable concentration factor
and a significant temperature, close to the values was
verified expected (161.97 °C) .
- During testing, comparative verifying theoretical
calculations were performed with respect to the
expected values recorded, resulting in a 10.6 % error
Figure 21: Instantaneous thermal efficiency in temperature with an approximate average of 826.68
depending on the temperature in the focus W/m2 direct radiations.
D. Thermal energy estimated from the records of - The instant system thermal efficiency is proportional
solar radiation to the useful energy delivered, but the variation of the
slope relative to the useful power is not significant.
In order to estimate the amount of energy that could
- The positioning system disc collector by means of
be harnessed in a day, records of direct radiation equations is appropriate because it provides a good
between 8 am and 3:20 pm were used. The energy in system performance and no significant deviations.
this time interval is equivalent to the area under the
curve of the graph of sunlight (Figure 22). - With peak temperature (114.8 ° C) and the steam
produced, it is possible the coupling of a steam turbine
for converting thermal energy to electricity.
REFERENCES
http://datos.bancomundial.org/indicador/EG.USE.EL
EC.KH . PC.