| Summary: | 碩士 === 中華大學 === 機械工程學系碩士在職專班 === 104 === Energy crisis is the most important issue in today’s world. Conventional energy
resources are not only limited but also the prime culprit for environmental pollution.
Renewable energy resources are getting priorities in the whole world to lessen the
dependency on conventional resources. Solar energy is rapidly gaining the focus as an
important means of expanding renewable energy uses. Solar cells those convert sun’s
energy into electrical energy are costly and inefficient. Solar tracking system is the
most appropriate technology to enhance the efficiency of the solar cells by tracking
the sun. Not only a microcontroller based design methodology of an automatic solar
tracker but also the deformation due to the loading, such as wind and gravity should
be considered. The finite element method based on the ANSYS is analyzed to
investigate the deformation to the setting angle of the solar tracker in this paper.
To enhance the efficiency of the analysis, the finite element models are classified
four models. There are Model A : 3-D solid element without solar module; Model B:
3-D solid element with solar module; Model C: 1-D three dimensional beam element
without solar module; Model D:1-D three dimensional beam element with solar
module.
In static analysis, it is found that the rigidity of model B is higher than that of
model A by 18.22 %. It is not suggested the model C due to the rigidity is smaller than
that of model D by 66 %. Model D can be replaced by Model B due to the rigidity is
higher than that of model D only by 3 %. The deformation is insignificant to the
setting angle in this type of solar tracker. The actual deformation is recommended by
experiment to adjust the stiffness in the finite element model.
In modal analysis, the first ten frequencies and modal shapes are obtained for
both modal B and modal D. The first three natural frequencies is out-of-plane
vibration that affects the solar module setting angle mostly. The slant beam has to be
further considered since there are four modal occurs in the slant beam. According to
numerical results, it is ascertain that model D can be considered as the best model in
terms of less elements, less time cost, especially in the transient dynamics analysis.
Only the model D performs in the transient analysis for a maximum push force 1200
Kg.
Keywords: Solar Tracker, Solar Module, Finite Element Method, Natural Frequency
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