Nicole Janotte

Influence of Measurement Equipment on the Uncertainty of Performance Data from Test Loops for Concentrating Solar Collectors

Parabolic trough concentrating collectors play a major role in the energy efficiency and economics of concentrating solar power plants. Therefore, existing collector systems are constantly enhanced and new types were developed. Thermal performance testing is one step generally required in the course of their testing and qualification. For outdoor tests of prototypes, a heat transfer fluid loop (single collector or entire loop) needs to be equipped with measurement sensors for inlet, outlet, and ambient temperature as well as irradiance, wind speed, and mass or volumetric flow rate to evaluate the heat balance. Assessing the individual measurement uncertainties and their impact on the combined uncertainty of the desired measurement quantity one obtains the significance of the testing results. The method has been applied to a set of EuroTrough collector tests performed at Plataforma Solar de Almeria, Spain. Test results include the uncertainty range of the resulting modeling function and exemplify the effects of sensors and their specifications on the parameters leading to an uncertainty of ±1.7% points for the optical collector efficiency. The measurement uncertainties of direct normal irradiance and mass flow rate are identified as determining uncertainty contributions and indicate room for improvement. Extended multiple sensor deployment and improved calibration procedures are the key to further reducing measurement uncertainty and hence increasing testing significance.

State of the art of performance evaluation methods for concentrating solar collectors

For the development and establishment of concentrating solar thermal collectors a reliable and comparable performance testing and evaluation is of great importance. To ensure a consistent performance testing in the area of low- temperature collectors a widely accepted and commonly used international testing standard (ISO 9806:2013) is already available. In contrast to this, the standard ISO 9806:2013 has not completely penetrated the testing sector of concentrating collectors yet. On that account a detailed literature review has been performed on published testing procedures and evaluation methodologies as well as existing testing standards. The review summarizes characteristics of the different steady-state, quasi-dynamic and fully dynamic testing methods and presents current advancements, assets and drawbacks as well as limitations of the evaluation procedures. Little research is published in the area of (quasi-) dynamic testing of large solar collectors and fields. As a complementary a survey has been ...

Principles of CSP performance assessment

The performance of a concentrated solar power component of Systems describes ist capacity to accomplish ist design purpose in concentrating and(or converting solar irradiance to useful energy. Generally, this can be quantified by ist Efficiency relating the useful Output of the System or component to the nergy Input or effort. In Addition, for some Standard components, key performance indicators such as specific heat loss for parabolic trough Receivers and Focus Deviation for mirrors have been established in the past decade. The assessment of the performance of a component or System is necessarily based on the measurement of ist operational characteristics, typically involving the Evaluation of energy balances of the System itsefl and/or its heat Transfer fluid (HTF) under specific well-known operating conditions. The Information on prevailing or resulting conditions can be obtained using appropriate measurement Equipment. The key measurement challenges in concentrating solar power applications are presented by high temperature and pressure, concentrated solar Radiation, as well as Special HTF´s such as thermal oil or molten salts.

Full parabolic trough qualification from prototype to demonstration loop

On the example of the HelioTrough® collector development the full accompanying and supporting qualification program for large-scale parabolic trough collectors for solar thermal power plants is described from prototype to demonstration loop scale. In the evaluation process the actual state and the optimization potential are assessed. This includes the optical and geometrical performance determined by concentrator shape, deformation, assembly quality and local intercept factor values. Furthermore, its mechanical performance in terms of tracking accuracy and torsional stiffness and its thermal system performance on the basis of the overall thermal output and heat loss are evaluated. Demonstration loop tests deliver results of collector modules statistical slope deviation of 1.9 to 2.6 mrad, intercept factor above 98%, peak optical performance of 81.6% and heat loss coefficients from field tests. The benefit of such a closely monitored development lies in prompt feedback on strengths, weaknesses and potentia...

Characterization and corrections for clamp-on fluid temperature measurements in turbulent flows

A clamp-on measurement system for flexible and accurate fluid temperature measurements for turbulent flows with Reynolds numbers higher than 30,000 is presented in this paper. This noninvasive system can be deployed without interference with the fluid flow while delivering the high accuracies necessary for performance and acceptance testing for power plants in terms of measurement accuracy and position. The system is experimentally validated in the fluid flow of a solar thermal parabolic trough collector test bench, equipped with built-in sensors as reference. Its applicability under industrial conditions is demonstrated at the 50 MWel AndaSol-3 parabolic trough solar power plant in Spain. A function based on large experimental data correcting the temperature Gradient between the measured clamp-on sensor and actual fluid temperature is developed, achieving an uncertainty below 60.7 K (2r) for fluid temperatures up to 400 C. In addition, the experimental results are used to validate a numerical model. Based on the results of this model, a general dimensionless correction function for a wider range of application scenarios is derived. The clamp-on system, together with the dimensionless correction function, supports numerous combinations of fluids, pipe materials, insulations, geometries, and operation conditions and should be useful in a variety of industrial applications of the power and chemical industry where temporal noninvasive fluid temperature measurement is needed with good accuracy. The comparison of the general dimensionless correction function with measurement data indicates a measurement uncertainty below 1 K (2r).