• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.375-381
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• 2024

In this report, we present the design, fabrication, and experiment of a static solar system for electric vehicle (EV) applications. The static concentration component is composed of compound parabolic concentrators (CPCs) couplings with multi-junction solar cells, where a flat silicon panel is added to the bottom of the CPV structure to maximize power generation. This design allows the system to collect both direct sunlight and diffused sunlight. The CPCs were fabricated with acrylic with a geometric concentration ratio of 4×. We built a prototype with a (3 × 3) cell array of CPCs with a thickness of 25 mm, which is as thin as conventional flat photovoltaic panels, and performed an outdoor experiment that showed that after six hours of operation, the system had an acceptance angle of approximately 43° and an average daily efficiency of 22.85%.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.41-57
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• 2018

Concentrated Solar Photovoltaic (CPV) is a promising alternative to conventional solar structures. These solar tracking structures need to be optimized to be competitive against other types of energy production. In particular, the selection of the structural parameters needs to be optimized with regards to the dynamic wind response. This study aims to evaluate the effect of the main structural parameters, as selected in the preliminary design phase, on the wind response and then on the weight of the steel support structure. A parametric study has been performed where parameters influencing dynamic wind response are varied. The study is performed using a semi-deterministic time-domain wind analysis method. Unsteady aerodynamic model is applied for the shape of the CPV structure collector at different configurations in conjunction with a consistent mass-spring-damper model with the corresponding degrees of freedom to describe the dynamic response of the system. It is shown that, unlike the static response analysis, the variation of the peak wind response with many structural parameters is highly nonlinear because of the dynamic wind action. A steel structural optimization process reveals that close attention to structural and site wind parameters could lead to optimal design of CPV steel support structure.