Development of structure model of hollow slab for solar pavement based on light-guide concrete

Abstract

To develop a reasonable structure type of solar pavement, a kind of structure model of hollow slab was proposed for solar pavement based on light-guide concrete in this paper. It is composed of two parts: a rectangular hollow slab of light-guide concrete with an arch chamber as well as a solar panel which is installed in the arch chamber. Each light-guide body is compounded of a convex lens, a prism and a light-guide fiber. Through building a three-dimensional finite element model for the pavement structure of hollow slab, the mechanical responses of hollow slab were numerically simulated, thus the geometric sizes of arch chamber were optimized according to the requirements of bearing capacity. By establishing a simulation analysis model of light path for the light-guide body, the total solar energy of single day transmission for the light-guide body were numerically simulated, then the geometric sizes and optical parameters of light-guide body were optimized according to the condensing and light-guide performances. Accordingly, the steel shaping die was designed and manufactured, and the hollow slab model of light-guide concrete was prepared by taking self-compacting concrete as slab matrix. The mechanical properties and the power generation efficiencies were tested for the model. The results show that the developed hollow slab of solar pavement based on light-guide concrete has high strength, and its working voltage and maximum output power increase with the increase of the number of light-guide bodies. Therefore, the model can meet the dual function requirements of safe driving and clean power generation.