Hariri Nasir Ghazi, Nayel Kamal Mohamed, Alyoubi Emad Khalid, Almadani Ibrahim Khalil, Osman Ibrahim Sufian, Al-Qahtani Badr Ahmed
Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, College of Engineering, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, Dammam 31441, Saudi Arabia.
Materials (Basel). 2022 Oct 13;15(20):7110. doi: 10.3390/ma15207110.
One of the modern methods for enhancing the efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) systems is implementing a solar tracking mechanism in order to redirect PV modules toward the sun throughout the day. However, the use of solar trackers increases the system's electrical consumption, hindering its net generated energy. In this study, a novel self-tracking solar-driven PV system is proposed. The smart solar-driven thermomechanical actuator takes advantage of a solar heat collector (SHC) device, in the form of a parabolic trough solar concentrator (PTC), and smart shape memory alloy (SMA) to produce effective mechanical energy for solar tracking applications from sun rays. Furthermore, a thermal-optical analysis is presented to evaluate the performance of the solar concentrator for the simulated weather condition of Dammam City, Saudi Arabia. The numerical results of the thermal and optical analyses show the promising feasibility of the proposed system in which SMA springs with an activation temperature between 31.09 °C and 45.15 °C can be utilized for the self-tracking operations. The work presented adds to the body of knowledge an advanced SMA-based SHC device for solar-based self-actuation systems, which enables further expansions within modern and advanced solar thermal applications.
提高光伏（PV）系统效率的现代方法之一是采用太阳能跟踪机制，以便在一整天内将光伏组件朝向太阳重新定向。然而，使用太阳能跟踪器会增加系统的电力消耗，从而阻碍其净发电量。在本研究中，提出了一种新型的自跟踪太阳能驱动光伏系统。智能太阳能驱动热机械致动器利用抛物槽式太阳能聚光器（PTC）形式的太阳能集热器（SHC）装置和智能形状记忆合金（SMA），从太阳光中产生有效的机械能用于太阳能跟踪应用。此外，还进行了热光学分析，以评估沙特阿拉伯达曼市模拟天气条件下太阳能聚光器的性能。热分析和光学分析的数值结果表明，所提出系统具有良好的可行性，其中激活温度在31.09℃至45.15℃之间的SMA弹簧可用于自跟踪操作。所展示的工作为基于SMA的先进SHC装置的太阳能自驱动系统增添了知识体系，这使得在现代和先进的太阳能热应用中能够进一步扩展。
