Absorber Alignment Measurement Tool for Solar Parabolic Trough Collectors: Preprint
As we pursue efforts to lower the capital and installation costs of parabolic trough solar collectors, it is essential to maintain high optical performance. While there are many optical tools available to measure the reflector slope errors of parabolic trough solar collectors, there are few tools to measure the absorber alignment. A new method is presented here to measure the absorber alignmentin two dimensions to within 0.5 cm. The absorber alignment is measured using a digital camera and four photogrammetric targets. Physical contact with the receiver absorber or glass is not necessary. The alignment of the absorber is measured along its full length so that sagging of the absorber can be quantified with this technique. The resulting absorber alignment measurement provides criticalinformation required to accurately determine the intercept factor of a collector.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 1040923
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/CP-5500-54214; TRN: US201211%%259
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: To be presented at the ASME 2012 6th International Conference on Energy Sustainability and 10th Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology Conference, 23-26 July 2012, San Diego, California
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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