Numerical simulation of the effect of wind barrier openings on high-speed wind flow around a heliostat field

The application of heliostats for solar power tower plants has increased in recent years. Most of the solar power tower plants installed are on flat terrain, and they may be subjected to wind loads. In the present study, a two-dimensional numerical simulation of turbulent high-speed wind flow around a heliostat field was analyzed and the wind barrier effect on the flow was investigated with use of the computational fluid dynamics commercial code COMSOL (k-epsilon turbulence model). The calculation was performed for different configurations of wind barriers with opening sizes of 0 m, 0.2 m, 0.5 m, and 1 m, respectively, and four heliostat orientations in each case: 0 degrees, 30 degrees, 60 degrees, and 90 degrees. The results show that the use of wind barriers reduces wind velocity in a solar power tower plant. We found that wind barriers with small openings (0.2 m and 0.5 m) are effective in reducing wind speed below 10m from the ground and create, at the same time, less turbulence kinetic energy than the other configurations (0m and 1 m). (C) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.