Research on Optimization Design of Heliostat Field Based on Ray Tracing

Abstract

In tower-type solar thermal power generation systems, the optical efficiency of the mirror field is the primary factor determining the overall system's power generation efficiency. In order to meet the requirement of a rated power of 60MW with different heliostat sizes and installation heights, optimize the various parameters of the heliostat field, establish a tower-type solar thermal power generation system model, and evaluate the model. Taking the maximum annual average output power per unit mirror area as the optimization objective, through simulation, it is found that the heliostat with a side length of 6 meters, a gradient design of installation height, a regular triangular layout, and the use of ray tracing technology can efficiently capture solar energy. The average optical efficiency, average cosine efficiency, average shadow blocking efficiency, average truncation efficiency, and average thermal power factor per unit area mirror are analyzed. The research results show that there is an optimal combination of absorber northward movement, heliostat size, equilateral triangle arrangement, installation height gradient design, and solar trajectory, which enables the annual average output thermal power to reach or even exceed the rated power of 60MW.This model and algorithm compared and analyzed genetic, greedy, and simulated annealing algorithms on the same dataset. The runtime is approximately 8-10 minutes, with CPU utilization around 60%.