Simulation of the effect of dust barriers on the reduction of mirror soiling in CSP plants

This paper describes the development and validation of computational fluid dynamics modelling of dust barriers for parabolic trough plants. Two differently shaped porous barriers were simulated with a parabolic trough field of up to 25 rows. Sand and dust were introduced into the simulation and the amount that collects on each mirror row was calculated. This was done for different mirror tracking angles and also for the case of no barrier present. The effectiveness of the barriers was evaluated by comparing the reduction in the amount of soiling present on the mirror surfaces. An additional simulation of the Cranfield University wind tunnel was done, with the results compared with experimental data for validation. It has been found that the dust barriers can lead to up to 45% reduction in the soiling in the outer row, with some effect seen as far as 25 rows into the plant.