Aim of this work is the design of a programmable electronic system for monitoring the environmental parameters and managing the electrical functions of a thermo-solar plant. The designed control unit detects data from temperature and light sensors, processes acquired information and commands external equipments (pumps, electric valves and power supplies) in order to optimize plant performances ...

To develop the organic Rankine-vapor compression ice maker driven by solar energy, a thermodynamic model was developed and the effects of generation temperature, condensation temperature, and working fluid types on the system performance were analyzed. The results show that the cooling power per square meter collector and ice production per square meter collector per day depend largely on gener...

The best operation strategies for open loop flat-plate solar collector systems are considered. A direct optimal control method (the TOMP algorithm) is implemented. A detailed collector model and realistic meteorological data from both cold and warm seasons are used in applications. The maximum exergetic efficiency is low (usually less than 3%), in good agreement with experimental measurements r...

This article presents the latest experimental results of the European DISS (DIrect Solar Steam) project. The experiments are subdivided into steady state and transient tests. The goal of the steady state tests is the investigation of the thermohydraulic phenomena of the occurring two phase flow, whereas the transient tests are needed for the controller design. The experimental results are compa...

The glass cover is often situated at the aperture of a cavity receiver in concentrating collectors to reduce heat dissipation. However, decrease optical efficiency due reflection loss on surface will directly thermal collector, especially for fixed-focus solar concentrator, whose axis generally not coincident with central receiver. To fundamentally evaluate effect Fresnel lens concentrator/coni...

The current study presents the concept of a stand-alone solar organic Rankine cycle (ORC) water pumping system for rural Nepalese areas. Experimental results for this technology are presented based on a prototype. The economic viability of the system was assessed based on solar radiation data of different Nepalese geographic locations. The mechanical power produced by the solar ORC is coupled w...

We present designs that enable a significant increase of solar absorption in ultra-thin (100–300 nm) layers of gallium arsenide. In the wavelength range from 400–860 nm, 90–99.5% solar absorption is demonstrated depending on the photonic crystal architecture used and the nature of the packaging. It is shown that using only two hundred nanometer equivalent bulk thickness of gallium arsenide, for...

This paper describes the application of a non-linear adaptive constrained model-based predictive control scheme to the distributed collector field of a solar power plant at the Plataforma Solar de Almería (Spain). This methodology exploits the intrinsic non-linear modelling capabilities of nonlinear state-space neural networks and their online training by means of an unscented Kalman filter. Te...

Abstract: This paper proposes the application of time and spatial partition heating to a solar water heating system. The heating effect and system performance were analyzed under the continuous and whole space heating and time and spatial partition heating using TRNSYS. The results were validated by comparing with the test results of the demonstration building. Compared to continuous and whole ...

This thesis documents my personal contribution to the development of a hydraulic-based actuation system for a solar trough collector. The goal of this project was to design the actuation system using hydraulic actuators for a four meter solar collector prototype in Pittsfield, New Hampshire. After considering several hydraulic system architectures and conducting in-depth analysis into two of th...