New Solar Setup With Acoustic Diagnostic Techniques For Csp Materials. Comparison Of The Proposed Behavior Model With The Experimental Results From The Developed Test Bed (original) (raw)
Related papers
Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 2017
A promising route toward affordable and efficient solar energy conversion lies in the development of the high temperature Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) tower. The extreme thermal stress conditions to which the tower receivers may be submitted raise the question of the ability of these components to efficiently perform over extended periods of time. Conventional methods commonly used to assess the mechanical stability and lifetime of these components involve laboratory testing, which suffers from the fundamental inability of these methods to effectively reproduce the real operating conditions. In this work, we suggest an original setup based upon the use of acoustic emission for in-situ thermo-mechanical investigation of receiver materials exposed to concentrated solar irradiation, named IMPACT (In-situ thermo-Mechanical Probe by ACoustic Tracking). The ability of this setup to precisely track the nature, the location and the dynamics of mechanical defects in the receiver material is assessed. Implications for future characterization tools aimed at obtaining an in-depth understanding of the thermo-mechanical behaviour of a wide range of materials in real-working operation is also discussed.
IMPACT: A new device for thermo-mechanical investigation on central receiver materials
AIP Conference Proceedings, 2018
An innovative experimental tool for in-situ investigation of thermo-mechanical damage in solar receiver materials is designed and tested. The major benefit of this technique lies in the possibility for the operator to locate and follow the real-time damage evolution of the sample during solar radiation cycling, and to classify the observed mechanisms. WHAT SETUP FOR A RELIABLE DAMAGE TRACKING IN RECEIVER MATERIALS? Measurement Technique Acoustic emission is the phenomenon associated with the generation of ultrasonic transient elastic waves due to the sudden release of energy from local micro-displacement within the microstructure of a material [16]. The emergence of micro-displacements can be induced by mechanical (plastic strain, fracture, delamination, interface sliding, leaks, etc.) or physical and chemical (corrosion, phase change, gassing and grain growth, etc.) events. The
Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 2019
Concentrated Solar Technology can produce process heat, power and fuels from solar energy in the temperature range 150-1500°C, bringing the question of the receiver ability to reliably perform over the expected lifetime. Conventional methods commonly used to assess the mechanical stability and lifetime involve indoor laboratory testing, which suffers from the fundamental inability to reproduce the real operating conditions. A previous work introduced an original experimental setup based on acoustic emission named IMPACT (In situ thermo-Mechanical Probe by ACoustic Tracking), designed for an in situ and passive characterization of receiver materials under harsh thermo-mechanical stresses. This paper proposes an original method, based on a modelling approach, to control the sample damage amplification with IMPACT, and assess its relevance through an experimental campaign on two selected materials (SiC and Inconel 625).
Applied Sciences, 2015
Concentrated Solar Plants (CSPs) are used in solar thermal industry for collecting and converting sunlight into electricity. Parabolic trough CSPs are the most widely used type of CSP and an absorber tube is an essential part of them. The hostile operating environment of the absorber tubes, such as high temperatures (400-550 °C), contraction/expansion, and vibrations, may lead them to suffer from creep, thermo-mechanical fatigue, and hot corrosion. Hence, their condition monitoring is of crucial importance and a very challenging task as well. Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducers (EMATs) are a promising, non-contact technology of transducers that has the potential to be used for the inspection of large structures at high temperatures by exciting Guided Waves. In this paper, a study regarding the potential use of EMATs in this application and their performance at high temperature is presented. A Periodic Permanent Magnet (PPM) EMAT with a racetrack coil, designed to excite Shear Horizontal waves (SH0), has been theoretically and experimentally evaluated at both room and high temperatures.
A Theory of Acoustics in Solar Energy
A novel theory of acoustics in solar energy supporting the principle of source and sink of solar energy is presented. The significance of the theory is in ascertaining the aftermaths of turning off solar energy. An amplifier constituting of a parallel plate photovoltaic device connected to a potentiometer is illustrated. It was constructed with a pair of glass coated photovoltaic modules and polystyrene filled plywood board as back panel with air ventilation through a parallel plate channel of amplifier. The sample results obtained from experiments and simulation model are presented to support hypothesis of acoustics for a parallel plate photovoltaic device connected to a potentiometer. A phenomenon of photo-voltaic amplification is formulated.
An acoustic measurement of boiling instabilities in a solar receiver
1980
An acoustic technique was developed and used to search for boiling instabilities in the protoype receiver for the Barstow 10 MW Solar Thermal Pilot Plant. Instabilities, consisting of movements of the transition zone between regions of nucleate and film boiling, were observed. The periods of these fluctuations ranged between three and fifteen seconds with no indications of preferred frequencies. The peak to peak amplitudes of the fluctuations averaged 0.4 meters under steady state conditions at absorbed power levels between 2.0 and 3.2 MW. Transient fluctuations with amplitudes up to 2.0 meters were also seen. These transients usually lasted between 30 and 300 seconds. It was not possible to pinpoint the causes of these transients.
Structural Health Monitoring, 2017
There is a significant rising in development of new concentrated solar plants due to global energy demands. Concentrated solar plant requires to improve the operational and maintainability in this industry. This article presents a new approach to identify defects in the solar receiver tubes and welds employing a simple electromagnetic acoustic transducer. The absorber tubes in normal working conditions must withstand high temperatures, which can cause the tubes to deteriorate in areas such as welding, or it can cause hot spots due to defects or corrosion. A proper predictive maintenance program for the absorber pipes is required to detect defects in the tubes at an early stage, reducing corrective maintenance costs and increasing the reliability, availability, and safety of the concentrated solar plant. This article presents a novel approach based on signal processing and pattern recognition for predictive maintenance employing electromagnetic acoustic transducers. Hilbert transform...
Monitoring thermal fatigue damage in nuclear power plant materials using acoustic emission
Proceedings of SPIE, 2012
Proactive aging management of nuclear power plant passive components requires technologies to enable monitoring and accurate quantification of material condition at early stages of degradation (i.e., pre-macrocrack). Acoustic emission (AE) is well-suited to continuous monitoring of component degradation and is proposed as a method to monitor degradation during accelerated thermal fatigue tests. A key consideration is the ability to separate degradation responses from external sources such as water spray induced during thermal fatigue testing. Water spray provides a significant background of acoustic signals, which can overwhelm AE signals caused by degradation. Analysis of AE signal frequency and energy is proposed in this work as a means for separating degradation signals from background sources. Encouraging results were obtained by applying both frequency and energy filters to preliminary data. The analysis of signals filtered using frequency and energy provides signatures exhibiting several characteristics that are consistent with degradation accumulation in materials. Future work is planned to enable verification of the efficacy of AE for thermal fatigue crack initiation detection. While the emphasis has been placed on the use of AE for crack initiation detection during accelerated aging tests, this work also has implications with respect to the use of AE as a primary tool for early degradation monitoring in nuclear power plant materials. The development of NDE tools for characterization of aging in materials can also benefit from the use of a technology such as AE which can continuously monitor and detect crack initiation during accelerated aging tests.
Mechanical Defects Detection on Solar Panel with Ultrasonic Guided Waves
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2022
In order to ensure a solar power system runs at its optimum efficiency throughout the lifecycle, proper structural health monitoring on photovoltaic module (PVM) should be performed as part predictive maintenance activities. Mechanical defects such as cracks may induce power loss, raise the risks of electrical failure, and compromise the PVM's structural integrity. Therefore, early detection of their existence is crucial. This research emphasizes the utilization of ultrasonic guided waves (UGW) to develop an efficient inspection technique. Since the waves can travel over large distances, they allow long-range defect detection, hence faster inspection process as compared to the conventional bulk wave scan. In this work, UGW experiments were done over areas with cracks of different severity. Dispersion characteristics of the propagating modes were evaluated through experiments and numerical simulations, where the obtained results were in agreement to each other. Time frequency analysis shows that certain modes have lower phase velocity in the area with cracks. In addition, the results demonstrate the capability of UGW to detect a crack that is invisible under visual inspection.