WO2005116535A1

WO2005116535A1 - Solar collectors with the reflex mirrors set apart and the application of solar collectors for air pre-heat

Info

Publication number: WO2005116535A1
Application number: PCT/YU2004/000016
Authority: WO
Inventors: Konstantin Spindler; Tamara Spindler; Aleksej Spindler
Original assignee: Konstantin Spindler; Tamara Spindler; Aleksej Spindler
Priority date: 2004-05-28
Filing date: 2004-06-16
Publication date: 2005-12-08
Also published as: RS20100474A

Abstract

The hindrance preventing the application of solar collectors in big energy consumers is their high price and the inconvenience involving the dependence of the energy produced on the weather. This invention in aimed at the alleviation of both the defects by making the basic construction very light and immobile. Turning a large number of separated mirrors is cheaper and more straighforward. If the mirrors are set apart, the sum of particular shadows is bigger than the shadow of the joined mirrors, which implies accumulation of more light per a 1 m2 of the mirror. This collectors are intended for autonomous consumers such as irrigation, desalination and so on. The special purpose of this collectors is preheating the air up to 10000 C. Investment in such collectors are very lucrative. Collectors parts are designed for industrial manufacture, and the assembling comes down to joining precisely manufactured parts. By assembling it is possible to get the collectors of unlimited dimensions.

Description

SOLAR COLLECTORS WITH THE REFLEX MIRRORS SET APART AND THE APPLICATION OF SOLAR COLLECTORS FOR AIR PRE - HEAT

TECHNICAL FIELD TO WHICH THE INVENTION RELATES

The invention belongs to energetic, i.e. to the branch concerned with big capacity solar collectors that operate on the principle of focusing sunlight.

TECHNICAL PROBLEM DEFINED

One of the major problems regarding the solar collectors operating on the principle of solar energy concentration is finding the reliable, cheap and accurate solution as to how to turn around the elements taking on the sunrays and redirect them towards the fixed line focus, whereby operation of all the reflectors is to be utterly synchronous.

Another significant problem regards matching the uneven provision of heat accumulation, which is inevitable in solar collectors, with the requirements of the consumers that cannot bear such unevenness.

TECHNICAL STATUS

There are various variants of the construction of solar collectors. However, all the existing solutions are predominantly meant for smaller consumers, notably for the group that can tolerate the unevenness typical of solar collectors.

Big capacity solar collectors have still not been designed in a satisfactory way, since the price of the energy obtained is to high. The high price is the result of big investments linked with the construction of big collectors. The big capacity solar collectors are still unprofitable for the time being. The extra problem related to big solar collectors is their hard adaptability for parallel work with some other energy producer.

THE PRESENTATION OF THE INVENTION CORE

The frame construction according to this invention is immobile, rather straightforward and light. The receiver is immobile, too. Redirection incoming sunrays towards the receiver is achieved by turning the relatively smaller and lighter mirrors around. The dimension of the mirrors of one of the possible variants is 0.5 x 2 m. Only the mirrors are turned around one axle.

The subject of this invention is a mechanism for turning the mirrors, designed in such a way that one mechanism turns around 360 mirrors. The dimensions and the number of the mirrors attached to the mechanism can be altered.

If the mirrors are placed at a distance approximately 40% bigger then the mirror's width, the shadow that the mirrors placed apart in such a way form together is bigger than the shadowing of the mirrors base when they are put together. This way makes better use of the mirrors, and the chance of reflected ray falling onto the back of the next mirror is reduced to a minimum.

The unevenness of the accumulated solar energy is an inevitable feature of all solar collectors. This defect in the provision of energy is regarded unacceptable by a large number of consumers.

For the consumers using the energy in the form of electricity it is necessary to foresee steam turbine, electrical generator and everything found in electrical power stations. A system so formed, though very well designed from the environmental point of view, is still not attractive for big consumers.

Solar collectors according to this patent are predominantly intended for pre- heating the air for burning. This type of application completely removes the need for steam turbine, electrical power generator, and a large number of supporting facilities and devices. The complex regulation is also excluded.

Attaching the solar collectors onto the existing energetic systems reduces their function to the economical use of fuel and the financial effects in that case are exceptionally good.

Since the solar energy concentration is enlarged by focusing 60 to 120 times, the expected temperature of the heated air is up to 1000° C. In such conditions the effect of fuel saving is, it is reasonable enough to expect, at a very high level.

The concept of subject collectors construction is on the basis of building units. This allows the mass production of elements in industrial conditions. Installation comes down to putting together accurately constructed segments. Since it is building units that are in question, the collector size completely ceases to be limited. SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Fig. 1 displays the general dispositions of the mirror, basic supporting construction and the receiver

Fig. 2 is a vertical projection of picture 1, which is of only one insertion of the whole system.

Fig. 3 is a constructive solution of the knotting point of the cross beams facing each other and supporting pillars.

Fig. 4 represents the geometry of incoming and reflected sunrays.

Fig. 5 represents the bearings of the mirror frames on the crossbeams.

Fig. 6 represents the system of rods for turning the mirror around and the mechanism for determining the starting inclination of the mirrors.

Fig. 7 represents the mechanism for determining the movement of turning levers.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE TECHNICAL SOLUTION The basic frame construction and the receiver are immobile. The prevailing feature of the frame construction is small weight, simplicity and low price. The frame construction is made up of cross beams 1 which are mostly horizontal, whereas the ends are under the rise of around 15 °. The length of an even part, i.e. of the one under the rise depends on the width of the collector. The narrowest collectors do not have inclined ends. The beams are arranged in a vertical plain east - west, and they are set on short, light pillars 4 that are lined up in rows. The distance between the rows is about 2 m. The distance between the bearing pillars 4 in the row is about 3 m. The bearing pillars 4 are attached to the base by small concrete steps 37. Such concept allows light and cheap frame construction. Somewhat heavier vertical suport beams 47 are meant for bearing the receiver 11. The pipe set in the receiver 11 is set in the direction north - south.

In the picture 2 you can see the mirrors 6, and also the distance between them. The same picture shows that the set of horizontal pipes 11 that the receiver is made up, at its beginning has the chamber 10, where are directed water, air, or some other incoming fluid 7 too, whereas at the opposite end of the receiver there is another chamber 12, from which either overheated steam, or hot water, or some other heated fluid 13 is taken out. Towards the receiver, only in one row, 60 mirrors redirect the light providing in that way light energy on the receiver 60 times larger in relation to what the unit surface of horizontal ground receives. Clearly, the number of the mirrors depending on the size of the construction can be bigger or smaller. This construction is used for even mirrors. For the case of concave -parabolic or polygonal mirrors that ratio is considerably larger and can reach as many as 120 times.

The knotting point where two beams 1 facing each other are attached and the vertical support beams 4 is shown in the picture 3. Beams 1 that need to be faced and rested on the vertical suppor pillar 4, have on their ends four side openings, whereas on the resting plateau 28, two hooks 3 have been formed. Upon installing the beams 1 they are attached to the hooks 3 by their openings, and behind that a wedgeshaped insert 54 is set. By applying a mild pressure the wedgeshaped insert 54 binds the beams 1 to the hooks 3 thus creating the tight connection between the beams 1 and the adjusting element 20. Since the vertical support beam 4 is tied to the ground by the procedure of concreting, its construction accuracy is certainly insufficient. Therefore it is predicted to vertically adjust the supporting plateau 28 with the help of the corrective element 20. By one end, the element 20 is twisted into the vertical support beam 4 and by the other it is screwed onto the threated spindle 55 that is welded to the base 28.

The coils on the thorn device and on the pipe are opposite, so by turning the element 20 it is not difficult to perform height adjustment of the whole knot point.

During the whole day, the reflected rays have the same direction for one mirror but are different for every other mirror. Incoming ray is of the same direction for all the mirrors, but changes during the day. The β angle is a specific angle for every mirror. It changes not only for every mirror, but also during the day. Different inclination of the mirrors is achieved by determining calculated angle α. The starting value of the angle must be very carefully adjusted during installation, which is allowed by the adjustable joint between the fork 17 and the element 16. It is this slope that makes the central requirement of the strict precision of the whole of the system. The figure of the geometry of the incoming and the reflective rays is shown in the picture 4.

Picture 5 shows the section of the cross beam 1 at the point where the frame of the mirror 14 has been adjusted. It has been constructively resolved in such a manner that into the cross beam 1 a steel cartridge 19 has been pressed, behind which a self-lubricating sinter cartridge 18 has been inserted on the other side. The fork 17 is placed in such a way with its legs so that an axle 13 is pulled through its openings. Next, the frames 14 are installed along with the mirrors 6.

In this way, after tightening the nuts 15, all elements of the bearing are uniformly positioned and only one degree of freedom of movement is left to them. On top of that, the possibility is retained for the frames 14 to be adjusted if necessary, even changed together with the mirrors 6. This is easy to be achieved after pulling out the axle 13.

In the picture 6 there are to be seen all the major elements participating in giving the necessary inclination to the mirrors. So as to determine the required starting inclination β in the beginning (early in the morning), which is by the way different for every mirror elements 16 have been anticipated. Elements are tied in a fixed way to the frames 14, but through the tightening screw 26 allow the fork 17 to gain any inclination in relation to the mirror's frame 14.

Pulling rods25 and 30, have openings for joining with the forks 17. Those openings have been positioned very precisely with the deviation of the coordinates not bigger than 0,1 mm. The openings on the beams 1 have been drilled with the same precision.

After setting the pulling rods 25 and 30, into their place and connecting on them forks 17, the forks automatically gain identical inclinations in relation to the belonging sections of the cross beam 1. The inclination of the fork in relation to the cross beam 1 (early in the morning) is 53°. Next, the calculated starting inclination is given for the mirrors. This is easily achieved by releasing the tightening screw 26.

If the pulling rods 25 and 30, in the place where the cross beam 1 passes from horizontal to inclined part, simply ran to the next rods, an unequal turning of one part of forks 17 would be obtained. The forks 17 on the horizontal beam part would have bigger or smaller turning than the one gained by the forks on the inclined part of the cross beam 1. The solution to this problem is provided by the compensation element 21. If the ataching points 22 and 27 of pulling rods 25 and 30 for turning forks 17, in places where the cross beam 1 change direction, were determined in such a way so that the parallelograms made up by two neighboring forks 17, belonging section of the cross beam 1 and pulling rods 25 and 30, are always identical, that would evade the occurrence of inequality of turning. In other words, all the forks 17, along with the mirrors 6 would always get the identical increment of the angle β. Fulfillment of this requirement is entirely allowed by inserting compensation element 21.

In order for all the forks 17 to have always the same inclination in relation to the belonging cross beam 1, the ataching points 22 and 27 of the pulling rods 25 and 30 need to be arranged in such a way so that the line joining these ataching points is to be under the same angle in relation to the cross beam 1 as the neighboring forks 17 (in this case right from the compensation element 21). So, the joining line of points 22 and 27 must be parallel to the forks right from the compensation element 21, whereas the ataching points 29 and 48 must define the line parallel to the forks left from the compensation element 21. To put it short, all the forks, wherever they may be, always have the same inclinations towards the beam onto which they are hanged.

The picture 7 clarifies turning the mirrors.

One driving lever 32 for moving the lower pulling rod 25 and top pulling rod 30 has been prolonged downwards and on the lower part it bears the part of the arc 46. Two steel strips 43 and 44, bind the arc 46 in such a way that the strip 44 joins the left arc part 46 to the right beam part 42. The strip 43 joins the right arc part 46 to the left beam part 42. In this way the arc 46 and the beam 42 are hitched as a rack and pinion pair. The connection between the strip 43 with the beam 42 runs through the element 41. Nuts 45 have been screwed to the threted spindle 40 and place in the grooved beam 39 that is through the girder 34 attached to the main structure through the resting plateau 28. At the point when the mirrors need to obtain the turning increment, electrical motor 35 is turned on, and through the reducer 36 the turning of the spindle 40 is performed. Reducer 36 and the electrical motor 35 are joined to the main structure through the girder 49. In that way, by turning the arc 46, and through it by turning the driving lever 32, movement of the pulling rods 25 and 30 is obtained. The joint 31 makes the connection of the lever 32 and the rod 25.

By this design the mirrors can have any required inclination, including the extreme one, marked by the calling mark 33. Relatively complex construction of this set is a result of the requirement to give very precise turnings to the mirrors. Otherwise, the reflected rays might partly miss the receiver. As there are up to as many as 60 mirrors in a row, and the minimal loading of the mirror due to the wind must be taken into account, on the pulling levers there may occur significant forces. So as not to undermine strict precision of the mirror positioning due to dilatation, the rods 25 and 30 are adopted with a rather large section (for example 4 x 20 mm).

THE MANNER OF THE INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION AND THE OTHER APPLICATIONS OF THE INVENTION

Application of solar collectors in practice is predominately linked to small consumers, notably those that do not have problems caused by unevenness of the provision of energy by solar collectors. Solar collectors that are at the heart of this invention have been intended and adjusted to medium and large energy consumers, in particular for preheating the air in fireboxes of greater capacity, without excluding other consumers of hot air and overheated steam. Such direction of application of a collector for air preheating for all kinds of fireboxes exceeds the disadvantage of unevenness of their power, since the maintenance of the power required is achieved by the simple regulation of fuel supply. By the way, the consumer already has this regulation built in, independent of the application of solar collectors. Possible night needs of the consumers are covered by the use of the facility without the air being preheated.

All the problems regarding the use of accumulated heat are excluded in this way also with the consumers that do not tolerate any varying in emergent supply.

Economical feature of all kinds of application of subject solar collectors, and in particular of those to work on preheating the air is very good.

Marked lucrative aspect in preheating the air, as well as using the heat without it turning into electricity is a consequence of reducing the investments to the collector only. Everything else (the turbine, generator and many other objects composing a power station) is excluded. The effect of fuel saving covers the investment costs excellently and makes such a process very lucrative. The costs of steam turbine and everything else, due to working only for some time, increase the price of the unit of the work obtained.

The application of the subject collector is possible on any point where there is steam boiler, even the firebox for burning itself without the steam boiler. Such places are for instance the industry of construction material (bricks, ceramics, lime, cement and other), agricultural green houses, desalination, drying places and a very large number of other heating energy consumers.

Application of solar collectors meets the strictest environmental requirements. The circumstance that the solar collectors cover relatively large surfaces makes them particularly predetermined for grounds hard to use for any other purpose, such as deserts, various wastelands, barren steppes and other.

On the other hand, solar collectors with the mirrors apart, since around 2 m above the ground, allow secondary use of the ground for pastures and other cultures that do not require extremely strong sunlight. Due to the distance between the mirrors, the part of the light during the day, reaches the base, the direct sunrays as well as the dispersed light. However, in shortened time spans, the whole of the base surface is illuminated by direct light.

Claims

CLAIMS 1. Solar collectors with the reflex mirrors set apart and the application of solar collectors for air pre-heat, with fixed and light support frame-structure, characterized in that on the vertical support beams (4), concreted into the separate concrete blocks (37), cross beams (1) are placed, that are lined up with spacing between them depending on the chosen mirror dimensions, whereby the beams run horizontally in the central part, with end portions pointing up at an angle dependig on the collector width, and the receiver is also placed on vertical support beams (47), being immobile like the basic support structure.

2. Solar collectors as claimed in Claim 1, for the purpose of focusing incoming sunrays towards receiver, characterized in that deflection of sunrays is performed by turning mirrors, whose bearings are placed in the fixed frame structure.

3. Solar collectors as claimed in Claims 1 and 2, on support structure beams (1), have built-in bearings (18), in which through the axles (13) the turning of the reflex mirrors (6) is performed, characterized in that the distance of those bearings is larger than the mirror width, whereby this distance can be bigger or smaller depending on the distance of the mirror from the central symmetry plain, with the mirror length equal to the spacing of cross beams (1).

4. Solar collectors as claimed in Claims 1 and 2, for the following of the incoming sunray with its mechanism for turning of all reflex mirrors (6), that gives each of them identical angle increment, characterized in that the driving lever (32) for movement determination of pulling rods (25) and (30), has on its end an arc segment (46) which is on the left end joined to the strip (44) and on the right end to the strip (43), both being crosswise joined with their other ends to the beam (42), assuring to the segment (46) and beam (42) the function analogous to the rack and pinion pair, so that the beam (42), being fixed to the nut (45), driven through the threaded spindle (40), reducer (36) and electric motor (35), gains successive movement.

5. Solar collector as claimed in Claims 2,3 and 4, must have its reflex mirrors inclined at different angles in relation to the horizontal line, conforming to the distance of reflex mirror from the collector central symmetry plain, characterized in that the element (16), with its narrower part bent with 90° in relation to the plate with arc slit, is attached to the mirror frame (14), remaining free for for rotation with the frame (14) around the axle (13), whereas the fork (17) is, through the arc slit with the tightening screw (26), simultaneously attached to the pulling rod (25) through the bolt and to the element (16) in a fixed way, where prior to the fixation of the fork (20) adjustment has been made, in a way ensuring that the reflected rays of all the mirrors are always focused towards the receiver (11).

6. Solar collectors as claimed in the Claims 1 and 4, in order to escape uneven reflex mirrors (6) turning angle during their operation, have in its mechanism compensation element (21) added, charkterized with that the pulling rods (25) and (30), in places where the beams (1) inclination is being altered, are interrelated through the compensation element (21) whose attaching points for the pulling rods are arranged in such a way, that the line connecting attaching points of the right-side placed pulling rods is always parallel to the forks placed to the right from the bending point, whereas the line connecting the attaching points (48) and (29) is always parallel to the fork battery placed to the left from the the place of beam's (1) direction alteration.

7. Solar collectors as claimed in Claims 1 and 2, for the purpose of providing vertical plateau (28) movement, characterized in that the corrective element (20) is, with its lower, right-threaded part, screwed into the support beam (4), and with its upper, left-threaded, nut-like part, screwed onto the threaded spindle (55), welded to the plateau (28).

8. Solar collectors as claimed in Claims 1, for the purpose of fastest possible installation, characterized in that cross beams (1) have on their ends square openings through which the hooks (3), formed on the plateau (28), are placed during installation, so that the complete knot, made of two beams (1), facing each other, and the plateau (28), is fixed by pressing in a wedge shaped insert (54).

9. Solar collectors as claimed in Claims 1 and 8, for the purpose of cheaper production, characterized in that the collector segments are standardized, thus allowing building the collector with practically unlimited dimensions.

10. Solar collectors as claimed in Claims 1 and 3, due to the mirrors being apart and to the partial illumination of the ground beneath the collector during the whole day, characterized in that the ground can be used for the cultivation of crops not requiring the whole day full intensity illumination.

11. Solar collectors, operating on the principle of deflecting the sunrays towards the focus in which there is a receiver (11) provide the increase in temperature of the fluid passing through it, characterized in that the blower (38), powered by a variable speed motor, circulates the air towards the pipe set (11), exposed to the focused sunrays, the air being after that directed to the firebox where any kind of fuel is burned, making thus the collector a device for preheating the air for burning purposes.