Three guys of solar air heat sink

At the end of 2012, when the sun rising early in the morning revealed her round smiling face on the horizon, the slender figure of three young men from the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences had been integrated into a dish like a satellite dish. In the huge figure.

It is a solar-powered dish condenser that stands on the edge of the desert. The parabolic mirror composed of 33 high-end mirrors is at this moment just like a magnificent sunflower that slowly greets the sun. The center of the mirror is a 10-meter-long steel frame. The top is a focus point on the surface of the dish. A cylindrical object on the top of the mirror is the result of the hard work of three young men. Its scientific name is solar air heat absorption. Device.

Solar air heat absorber

The results of the hard work of three young men

Although it was already the 30th day of the experiment, the three people clearly remembered the first day. The first problem faced by the three people is to repair the solar condenser surface.

They climbed over a large condenser and cleaned the sand and stones, removing debris on the mirror. Because the experimental site was originally deserted, winds often carried along with fine sand, cold wind mixed with sand, harsh glare reflected by high-reflection mirrors, and clean water icing caused by low temperatures all aggravated. The difficulty of repair work.

Often after three or a half days of hard work to clean the mirror, it was found that because people stepped on the mirror, or when the force was slightly greater when cleaning, the condenser spot of the mirror surface was dispersed, and only the condenser spot had to be adjusted repeatedly. 33 spotlights with a total area of 55 square meters have finally been exposed to cleanliness after nearly a week of cleaning and repair work.

This pilot work is one of the projects of the Institute Innovation Fund and is headed by expert Lin Feng of the “Thousand Talents Program”. The full name of the project is "Concentrator solar thermal power turbine development," and its basic working principle is to use the high temperature generated by the focus of the disc solar condenser, heat the compressed air to about 800 degrees Celsius, and then promote the high-speed rotation of the air turbine to generate electricity. Convert solar energy to electricity.

One morning's intense debugging work quickly passed. Near noon, three young boys ate in the cafeteria of the nearby ecological park. The teachers and students of the task force were very concerned and concerned about their situation. Through the exchanges on the Internet, everyone was informed about the progress and status of their work.

Although the working environment is arduous, they have not heard any of their complaints. The hard work attitude of the three individuals and the optimism that they are not afraid of bitterness touched the employees of the local ecological parks. The hospitable managers were infected by three positive and optimistic students, and they were given discounted accommodation at the inside, allowing them to eat canteens with their staff, eliminating the hardships of the three people and saving them more time to work.

The work in the afternoon is to continue the focus adjustment of the solar condenser. The purpose is to focus the sunlight's energy to a point and concentrate more than 50 square meters of direct solar energy into the 200mm diameter circular hole through parabolic mirror reflection. In this focus, which is only 200mm in diameter, the solar energy density is very large and can reach the order of MW/m2.

The difficulty of debugging is that each of the 33 mirrors needs to be accurately focused, so precise adjustments must be made block by block. In order to rule out the interference of other specularly reflected light when adjusting a mirror, the three think about the brain and hand-made shielding devices that match each mirror. Due to the need to track the position of the sun from time to time during the commissioning, the wind is strong at an altitude of approximately 12 meters above the ground. The trio can only fine-tune the specular reflection focus with a safety rope clinging to the mirror stand.

The adjustment work lasted nearly a week, and they can finally come to an end. Looking at the bright spot in focus, everyone’s face has a smile of victory.

The sun is going down. The preparation for the round of field trials will be over. Subsequently, they will return to Beijing for a new round of theoretical calculations and design work. The cold winds can not stop them from fighting in the frontline of scientific research. Despite difficulties, but in the process of solving problems and challenging difficulties, the optimistic young men found a source of happiness.

Research is not only about boring theoretical deductions and procedural modeling, but also the joy and happiness of putting your ideas into practice, challenging nature, and realizing self-worth. The three handsome guys are: Wang Dunjin, Ji Chuanliang and Paul Weigl. Among them, Paul is from the University of Hannover in Germany and is the first German PhD student to come to China to study.