Thermally stabilized heliostat

Patent · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1983

OSTI ID:864493

Anderson, Alfred J ^[1]

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1. Littleton, CO

An improvement in a heliostat having a main support structure and pivoting and tilting motors and gears and a mirror module for reflecting solar energy onto a collector, the improvement being characterized by an internal support structure within each mirror module and front and back sheets attached to the internal support structure, the front and back sheets having the same coefficient of thermal expansion such that no curvature is induced by temperature change, and a layer of adhesive adhering the mirror to the front sheet. The adhesive is water repellent and has adequate set strength to support the mirror but has sufficient shear tolerance to permit the differential expansion of the mirror and the front sheet without inducing stresses or currature effect. The adhesive also serves to dampen fluttering of the mirror and to protect the mirror backside against the adverse effects of weather. Also disclosed are specific details of the preferred embodiment.

• Assignee: Atlantic Richfield Company (Los Angeles, CA)
• Patent Number(s): US 4373783
• OSTI ID: 864493
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

/359/126/
adequate
adhering
adhesive
adverse
adverse effects
attached
backside
change
characterized
coefficient
collector
currature
curvature
dampen
details
differential
differential expansion
disclosed
effect
effects
embodiment
energy
expansion
fluttering
front
gears
heliostat
improvement
induced
inducing
internal
internal support
layer
main
main support
mirror
mirror module
module
motors
permit
pivoting
preferred
preferred embodiment
protect
reflecting
reflecting solar
repellent
serves
set
shear
sheet
sheets
solar
solar energy
specific
stabilized
strength
stresses
structure
sufficient
support
support structure
temperature
temperature change
thermal
thermal expansion
thermally
thermally stabilized
tilting
tilting motors
tolerance
water
weather