Extreme Seeking For The Optimal Design Of The Thermal Energy Storage Tank In A Parabolic Solar Collector System

An extreme seeking (ES) method is given for the optimal design of the thermal energy storagetank in a parabolic solar thermal collector system, which the heat thermal fluid is oil. Through theestablishment of dynamic mathematical model of the thermal energy storage system, design the ESproblem, and then use the numerical optimization methods to solve the ES problem.Combined with the solar physics characteristics, the dynamic mathematical model of standardsolar radiation intensity is established. For the application of solar thermal, an experimentalplatform of a parabolic solar thermal collector system is designed. Firstly, design the basicframework of a parabolic solar thermal collector system, and the system is divided into fivemodules. Secondly, design the system in detail, which including the detection circuit of processparameters and the capacity of thermal energy storage tank. The thermal energy storage tank in sucha solar energy collector performs a filter which regulates the heat transfer in some applications. It isdesirable that the volume of the tank is optimized in terms of the best performance of heatregulation. The main idea is to construct a simulation scheme that emulates repeatedly thedynamical process and varies the key parameter of the tank at all iterations. The governingalgorithm is a convex optimization. It is shown in the numerical results that the volume of the TEStank is key variable that influences the performance of heat transfer; the proposed ES method iseffective to seek the optimal volume. Through the numerical optimization, using the golden sectionmethod and parabolic interpolation method based on continuous to solve the volume of the extremepoint.This paper takes an area of40m2in the parabolic solar thermal collector system as a casestudy, to search the extreme point when the output thermal energy temperature higher than100℃can be used longest. Using the golden section method and parabolic interpolation method based oncontinuous to solve the volume of the extreme point, combing the fminbnd method in the MATLABto obtain the optimal solution. Comparing the quickness, stability and reliability of two algorithms.Through the study of the extreme seeking on thermal energy storage tank volume, confirmed theextreme seeking can improve the utilization of solar thermal energy systems. The study has acertain economic value.