Optimization of Economic Solar Field Design of Stationary Thermal Collectors

2007 ◽  
Vol 129 (4) ◽  
pp. 363-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Weinstock ◽  
Joseph Appelbaum

The optimization of solar field designs of stationary thermal collectors, taking into account shading and masking effects, may be based on energy or economic criteria. Obtaining maximum energy from a given field size or determining the required minimum field area that produces a given amount of energy are examples of energy criteria. Designing a solar plant with a minimum cost or a plant that produces minimum cost of unit energy are examples of economic criteria. These design problems may be formulated as optimization problems with objective functions and sets of constraints (equality and inequality) for which mathematical optimization techniques may be applied. This paper deals with obtaining optimal field and collector design parameters (number of rows, distance between collector rows, collector height, and collector inclination angle) that result in minimum periodic cost of a solar plant producing a given amount of annual energy. A second problem is the determination of optimal field and collector design parameters resulting in minimum cost of unit energy for the solar plant. In both cases, the optimal deployment of the collectors in the solar field as a function of the daily energy demand—cost of land and collector efficiency as parameters—is presented.

2004 ◽  
Vol 126 (3) ◽  
pp. 898-905 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Weinstock ◽  
Joseph Appelbaum

The optimal design of stationary photovoltaic and thermal collectors in a solar field, taking into account shading and masking effects, may be based on several criteria: maximum incident energy on collector plane from a given field, minimum field area for given incident energy, minimum cost per unit energy, minimum plant cost, maximum energy per unit collector area or other objectives. These design problems may be formulated as optimization problems with objective functions and sets of constraints (equality and inequality) for which mathematical optimization techniques may be applied. This article deals with obtaining the field design parameters (optimal number of rows, distance between collector rows, collector height and collector inclination angle) that produce maximum annual energy from a given field. A second problem is determination of the minimum field area (length and width) and field design parameters that produce a given required annual energy. The third problem is determination of the optimal field design parameters for obtaining maximum energy per unit collector area from a given field. The results of these optimal designs are compared to a recommended approach of the Israeli Institute of Standards (IIS) in which the solar field design result in negligible shading. An increase in energy of about 20% for a fixed field area and a decrease in field area of about 15% for a given annual incident energy, respectively, may be obtained using the approach formulated in the present article compared to the IIS approach.


Unit Commitment problem (UC) is a large family of mathematical optimization problems usually either match the energy demand at minimum cost or maximize revenues from energy production. This paper proposes a new approach for solving Unit Commitment problem using the EADPSODV technique. In PSODV, the appropriate mutation factor is selected by applying Ant Colony search procedure in which internally a Genetic Algorithm (GA) is employed in order to develop the necessary Ant Colony parameters. In EADPSODV method the advantageous part is that, for determining the most feasible configuration of the control variables in the Unit Commitment. An initial observation and verification of the suggested process is carried on a 10-unit system which is extended to 40-unit system over a stipulated time horizon (24hr). The outcomes attained from the proposed EADPSODV approach indicate that EADPSODV provides effective and robust solution of Unit Commitment.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
ChaBum Lee

This paper presents a fast and rigorous design method for grating-based metal-free polarizing filter applications using two-step hybrid optimization techniques. Grating structures utilizing the total internal reflection in a lamellar configuration were used to achieve metal-free solution, which is a key technology in the chirped pulse amplification for high power laser system. Here two polarizing filters were designed: polarization sensitive and polarization insensitive. Those polarization performances were characterized by the rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA), and the design parameters of grating structures, pitch, depth, and filling factor were optimized by two-step hybrid optimization procedure because the diffraction characteristics of grating-based polarizing filters are highly sensitive to small changes in design parameters. The Taguchi method is incorporated into selection process in the genetic algorithm, which indicates that the Taguchi method optimizes the design parameters in a coarse manner, and then, coarsely optimized parameters are finely optimized using the genetic algorithm. Therefore the proposed method could solve global numerical optimization problems with continuous variables. The proposed two-step hybrid optimization algorithm could effectively optimize the grating structures for the purpose of polarization filter applications, and the optimized grating structures could selectively filter the incident light up to 99.8% as to TE or TM waves.


2021 ◽  
Vol 312 ◽  
pp. 08021
Author(s):  
Elisa Ghirardi ◽  
Giovanni Brumana ◽  
Giuseppe Franchini

The present work aims to investigate the load-following capability of a tower-based CSP plant assumed to cover a high fraction (90%) of the power demand of a mid-size remote community. The design of a CRS requires the determination of several variables (number of heliostats, layout arrangement, tower height, receiver dimensions) depending on the solar field size and the site location. In this paper, a two-step optimization procedure is presented. A preliminary optimization is carried out to define the solar field configurations minimizing the budget costs for a range of receiver thermal design powers (from 300 MWth to 1000 MWth). The second optimization, based on annual simulation, selects the storage tank volume, the steam turbine rated power, and the actual reflective area (number of mirrors) capable to cover 90% of the power demand at minimum cost. The analysis is carried out for two load profile and two locations in Egypt. The load profile, compared to the solar radiation availability, determines the relationship between tank capacity and turbine size. The level of radiation has the strongest impact on the oversizing of the solar field and levelized cost of electricity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osama Bedair

Background: Modular steel buildings (MSB) are extensively used in petrochemical plants and refineries. Limited guidelines are available in the industry for analysis and design of (MSB) subject to accidental vapor cloud explosions (VCEs). Objectives: The paper presents simplified engineering model for modular steel buildings (MSB) subject to accidental vapor cloud explosions (VCEs) that are extensively used in petrochemical plants and refineries. Method: A Single degree of freedom (SDOF) dynamic model is utilized to simulate the dynamic response of primary building components. Analytical expressions are then provided to compute the dynamic load factors (DLF) for critical building elements. Recommended foundation systems are also proposed to install the modular building with minimum cost. Results: Numerical results are presented to illustrate the dynamic response of (MSB) subject to blast loading. It is shown that (DLF)=1.6 is attained at (td/t)=0.4 for front wall (W1) with (td/T)=1.25. For side walls (DLF)=1.41 and is attained at (td/t)=0.6. Conclusions: The paper presented simplified tools for analysis and design of (MSB) subject accidental vapor cloud blast explosions (VCEs). The analytical expressions can be utilized by practitioners to compute the (MSB) response and identify the design parameters. They are simple to use compared to Finite Element Analysis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 426
Author(s):  
Tingting Lan ◽  
Danyang Qin ◽  
Guanyu Sun

In recent years, due to the strong mobility, easy deployment, and low cost of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), great interest has arisen in utilizing UAVs to assist in wireless communication, especially for on-demand deployment in emergency situations and temporary events. However, UAVs can only provide users with data transmission services through wireless backhaul links established with a ground base station, and the limited capacity of the wireless backhaul link would limit the transmission speed of UAVs. Therefore, this paper designed a UAV-assisted wireless communication system that used cache technology and realized the transmission of multi-user data by using the mobility of UAVs and wireless cache technology. Considering the limited storage space and energy of UAVs, the joint optimization problem of the UAV’s trajectory, cache placement, and transmission power was established to minimize the mission time of the UAV. Since this problem was a non-convex problem, it was decomposed into three sub-problems: trajectory optimization, cache placement optimization, and power allocation optimization. An iterative algorithm based on the successive convex approximation and alternate optimization techniques was proposed to solve these three optimization problems. Finally, in the power allocation optimization, the proposed algorithm was improved by changing the optimization objective function. Numerical results showed that the algorithm had good performance and could effectively reduce the task completion time of the UAV.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 2134
Author(s):  
Luka Boban ◽  
Dino Miše ◽  
Stjepan Herceg ◽  
Vladimir Soldo

With the constant increase in energy demand, using renewable energy has become a priority. Geothermal energy is a widely available, constant source of renewable energy that has shown great potential as an alternative source of energy in achieving global energy sustainability and environment protection. When exploiting geothermal energy, whether is for heating or cooling buildings or generating electricity, a ground heat exchanger (GHE) is the most important component, whose performance can be easily improved by following the latest design aspects. This article focuses on the application of different types of GHEs with attention directed to deep vertical borehole heat exchangers and direct expansion systems, which were not dealt with in detail in recent reviews. The article gives a review of the most recent advances in design aspects of GHE, namely pipe arrangement, materials, and working fluids. The influence of the main design parameters on the performance of horizontal, vertical, and shallow GHEs is discussed together with commonly used performance indicators for the evaluation of GHE. A survey of the available literature shows that thermal performance is mostly a point of interest, while hydraulic and/or economic performance is often not addressed, potentially resulting in non-optimal GHE design.


Author(s):  
Ihar Antonau ◽  
Majid Hojjat ◽  
Kai-Uwe Bletzinger

AbstractIn node-based shape optimization, there are a vast amount of design parameters, and the objectives, as well as the physical constraints, are non-linear in state and design. Robust optimization algorithms are required. The methods of feasible directions are widely used in practical optimization problems and know to be quite robust. A subclass of these methods is the gradient projection method. It is an active-set method, it can be used with equality and non-equality constraints, and it has gained significant popularity for its intuitive implementation. One significant issue around efficiency is that the algorithm may suffer from zigzagging behavior while it follows non-linear design boundaries. In this work, we propose a modification to Rosen’s gradient projection algorithm. It includes the efficient techniques to damp the zigzagging behavior of the original algorithm while following the non-linear design boundaries, thus improving the performance of the method.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Niraj Kumbhare ◽  
Reza Moheimani ◽  
Hamid Dalir

Identifying residual stresses and the distortions in composite structures during the curing process plays a vital role in coming up with necessary compensations in the dimensions of mold or prototypes and having precise and optimized parts for the manufacturing and assembly of composite structures. This paper presents an investigation into process-induced shape deformations in composite parts and structures, as well as a comparison of the analysis results to finalize design parameters with a minimum of deformation. A Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) method was used to generate the required random points of the input variables. These variables were then executed with the Ansys Composite Cure Simulation (ACCS) tool, which is an advanced tool used to find stress and distortion values using a three-step analysis, including Ansys Composite PrepPost, transient thermal analysis, and static structural analysis. The deformation results were further utilized to find an optimum design to manufacture a complex composite structure with the compensated dimensions. The simulation results of the ACCS tool are expected to be used by common optimization techniques to finalize a prototype design so that it can reduce common manufacturing errors like warpage, spring-in, and distortion.


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