Wind patterns over a heliostat field

摘要

Heliostats constitute a major portion of the direct costs of a concentrating solar power tower plant. As a result, a significant amount of effort is being focused on designing and developing cheaper heliostats. The optical and structural performance of these new and existing heliostats under dynamic wind loads must be characterized and understood in order to meet both cost and performance objectives. This paper presents the second phase of a U.S. DOE-sponsored program at Sandia National Laboratories' National Solar Thermal Test Facility (NSTTF) that includes dynamic testing and analysis of multiple full-scale heliostats. The objectives of these tests and analyses are to characterize and understand some differences in the impacts of dynamic wind loads on heliostat strain and cyclic fatigue between perimeter and inner-field heliostats.