Experimental Investigation on the Mechanical Behavior of an Innovative Parabolic Trough Collector
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Collector Design Overview
2.2. Experimental Activity
- Movement tests (Section 2.2.2), aimed at verifying that the trough can cover the desired operational angle range in an adequate time;
- Static tests (Section 2.2.3), aimed at evaluating that under severe loads the trough does not fail and does not present excessive deformations;
- Fatigue test (Section 2.2.4), aimed at evaluating that after a cyclic severe load, the structure integrity of the trough is still guaranteed.
2.2.1. Experimental Setup
- Uniaxial strain gauges, used to measure the strain on a single direction (37 linear SG LY11-6/120);
- Rosette strain gauge, composed of three strain gauges placed at different angles, two orthogonal and one at 45°, used to measure the full strain state on the surface of a part (1 rosette SG RY11-6/120);
- Torque strain gauges, used to measure the shear strain in order to obtain the torque applied to the trough (2 rosette SG XY21-6/120).
2.2.2. Movement Tests
- “Full rotation” test of the parabolic trough between the two limit values (±110°). This test was performed to assess the behavior of the collector through the full range of possible rotation angles.
- “Rotation from service to recovery” test. The capability to quickly move from a service to a safety condition was assessed (exploiting a larger rotation speed).
- “Tracking” test: The correct movement of the trough as it followed the sun trajectory was verified.
2.2.3. Static Tests
- “Differential torsion” test. The behavior under a torsional load, obtained by imposing a rotation of one side of the prototype and keeping the other side fixed, was checked (Figure 6a).
- Distributed bending test. The behavior under a bending load obtained by imposing an equal rotation of both the tips of the prototype and using a 4 m long auxiliary structure, which constrained the central part of the prototype, in order to provide a reaction force, was investigated. This is a partially distributed load that involves the two central ribs (Figure 6b).
- “Concentrated bending” test. The behavior under a very localized concentrated bending load (160 mm-long) applied to one rib of the prototype was verified by using an auxiliary structure as a constraint (Figure 6c).
- “Wind load” test. The behavior applying a weight of 30 kg on the extremities of each rib, in order to simulate a distributed load that mimics some of the effects of the loads due to winds acting on the collector (Figure 6d).
Differential Torsion Test
Distributed Bending Test
Concentrated Bending Test
Wind Load Test
2.2.4. Fatigue Test
3. Results
3.1. Differential Torsion Test
3.2. Distributed Bending Test
3.3. Concentrated Bending Test
3.4. Wind Load Test
4. Discussion
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
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Ranging Unit |
| |||
Ranging Noise @90% refl. @10% refl. | @10m 0.6 mm 1.2 mm | @10m noise compr. 0.3 mm 0.6 mm | @25m 0.95 mm 2.20 mm | @25m noise compr. 0.5 mm 1.1 mm |
Laser (Optical transmission) |
|
Position | Differential Torsion Test | Distributed Bending Test | Concentrated Bending Test | Wind Load Test |
---|---|---|---|---|
Cable—Left (A) | X | X | X | |
Cable—Middle (B) | X | |||
Cable—Right (C) | X | X | X | |
Laser—Left (D) | X | X | ||
Laser—Middle (E) | X | X | X | |
Laser—Right (F) | X | X | X |
Actuator Displacement (mm) | Reference Load (N) | |
---|---|---|
Maximum value | −80.5 | −3400 |
Minimum value | −53.3 | −1350 |
Average value | −66.9 | −2375 |
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Gilioli, A.; Abbiati, L.; Fossati, M.; Cadini, F.; Manes, A.; Giglio, M.; Carnelli, L.; Volpato, C.B.; Cardamone, S. Experimental Investigation on the Mechanical Behavior of an Innovative Parabolic Trough Collector. Energies 2019, 12, 4438. https://doi.org/10.3390/en12234438
Gilioli A, Abbiati L, Fossati M, Cadini F, Manes A, Giglio M, Carnelli L, Volpato CB, Cardamone S. Experimental Investigation on the Mechanical Behavior of an Innovative Parabolic Trough Collector. Energies. 2019; 12(23):4438. https://doi.org/10.3390/en12234438
Chicago/Turabian StyleGilioli, Andrea, Luca Abbiati, Massimo Fossati, Francesco Cadini, Andrea Manes, Marco Giglio, Lino Carnelli, Claudio Boris Volpato, and Stefano Cardamone. 2019. "Experimental Investigation on the Mechanical Behavior of an Innovative Parabolic Trough Collector" Energies 12, no. 23: 4438. https://doi.org/10.3390/en12234438