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Analysis of the Light Concentration Loss of a Fresnel CPV/T System after Dust Accumulation

  • Special column: Built Thermal Environment
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Abstract

Dust accumulation is one of the reasons for the performance degradation of concentrating photovoltaic and thermal (CPV/T) systems due to the deposition of dust particles with different compositions, shapes, sizes, and masses. In this work, an optical model was developed to investigate the influence of the particle size, diameter, shape, and deposition density on the light concentration efficiency, using the Monte Carlo raytracing (MCRT) method in the Tracepro software. The triangular particles had a larger influence on the light ray deflection and energy flux degradation than the circular and square particles. An average increase in the dust density of 1 g/m2 decreased the light concentration efficiency of particles with sizes smaller than 50 µm and 60 µm by 3.31% and 3.26%, respectively. Furthermore, the effect of the incidence angle on the light concentration efficiency was considered at an angle less than 2°.

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Abbreviations

CFD:

Computational fluid dynamics

CPV:

Concentrating photovoltaic

CPV/T:

Concentrating photovoltaic and thermal

CSP:

Concentrating solar power

EDS:

Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy

MCRT:

Monte Carlo ray-tracing

MS:

Markov regime-switching

PMMA:

Polymethyl methacrylate

PV:

Photovoltaic

PVC:

Polyvinyl chloride

PV/T:

Photovoltaic and thermal

RMSE:

Root mean square error

SEM:

Scanning Electron Microscopy

SOG:

Silicon on glass

XRD:

X-ray powder diffraction

η c :

light concentration efficiency before dust accumulation/%

η d :

light concentration efficiency after dust accumulation/%

η loss :

the loss rate of the light concentration efficiency/%

η r :

dust coefficient/%

ρ ave :

average dust density/g·m−2

ω :

density of dust particles/g·m−3

Eave :

average irradiance/W·m−2

E max :

maximum irradiance/W·m−2

E min :

minimum irradiance/W·m−2

m :

the mass of the dust/g

n :

total number of experiments

S :

the area of the Fresnel lens/m2

T avg :

mean transmittance value/%

T e :

experimental transmittance value/%

V :

volume of the accumulated dust/m3

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.51766012), the Natural Science Foundation of Inner Mongolia (No. 2019MS05025), the Inner Mongolia Science and Technology Major Project (No. 2019ZD014) and the Key Project of the ESI Discipline Development of Wuhan University of Technology (WUT Grant No. 2017001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Energy and Power Engineering, Inner Mongolia University of Technology, Hohhot, 010051, China

    Ning Zhao, Suying Yan, Xiaodong Ma, Ze Wu & Xiaoyan Zhao

  2. School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Tingzhen Ming

  3. Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Na Zhang

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  1. Ning Zhao
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Correspondence to Suying Yan.

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Special issue: Built Thermal Environment

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Zhao, N., Yan, S., Ma, X. et al. Analysis of the Light Concentration Loss of a Fresnel CPV/T System after Dust Accumulation. J. Therm. Sci. 31, 1868–1880 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-021-1466-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-021-1466-8

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