Wind effect on full-scale design of heliostat with torque tube

Despite the importance of designing support structures for solar collectors, very little reliable work has been done to investigate the forces of the wind on heliostats of solar tower at real scale. Wind loads on heliostats are usually determined at low-speed wind tunnels scale, where the design full-scale Reynolds number cannot be reached. In the present study, measured data are used to validate the simulations at wind tunnel scale. Thereafter, by using the same method, three-dimensional numerical simulations of turbulent wind flow around a big heliostat of solar tower are performed. The obtained numerical results are presented for several elevation angles at normal operation and stow position. The results revealed that the known stow position (when the backside of the heliostat is facing the ground) is not the optimum position (other optimum elevation angles are discovered) especially with high wind speed, and the effect of torque tube is significant on heliostat mean wind loads.