Projeto e previsão de desempenho de um concentrador solar do tipo prato parabólico para a geração de energia térmica

Abstract

The recurring climate changes and their effects predicted by the scientific community, according to technical studies carried out over decades, combined with the monitoring of control indicators of ecological and socioeconomic systems, confirm the catastrophic impacts on the environment and human life in several regions of several countries on the five continents of the globe. According to data from WMO, the average global temperature (up to October 2023) near the Earth’s surface was about 1.40 ± 0.12°C above the 1850–1900 (pre-industrial) average, with 2023 being the warmest year in the observational record of the last 174 years. In this context, in the spectrum of renewable energies, solar energy is an abundant resource in nature, being an conomically accessible source with an energy potential that exceeds the sum of the energy generation capacity of all non-renewable fuel reserves on planet Earth, without producing greenhouse gases (GHG) that cause global warming and consequently climate change. This research was developed based on the design and performance analysis of a parabolic dish solar concentrator for the generation of thermal energy with computer simulations to collect data on the deformations and displacements of the parabolic dish support assembly in the tilt positions of 0º, 30º, 45º, 60º, 90º, 120º, 135º, 150º and 180º and the optical efficiencies considering deviations of the solar rays of 0.25º, 0.5º, 0.75º and 1º in the receiver cavity. The largest vertical deformation of the support assembly was 1.48189 mm; and the horizontal deformation was 0.29476 mm; the focal displacement was 8.94549 mm and the minimum required opening of the receiver cavity was 18.01248 mm, at the 30º inclination of the solar concentrator, which a priori met the design requirements. As for optical efficiencies, a deviation of the solar rays by 0.5º decreases the efficiency to 65.3%.