Numerical Simulations of Airflow Effects on Dust Deposition around a Set of Parabolic Solar Dishes for the Design of Automatic Dust Removing Systems

Today, the parabolic solar collector set is one of the most effective technologies for generating electricity. The performance of a solar cell changes under the accumulation of dust particles on its surface. In this research a three-dimensional flow model and the Eulerian approach with SST k-w based turbulence modeling are used to study the flow field around a set of solar cells, and the Lagrangian approach is used to model the displacement of dust particles. The numerical method used in this simulation is the SIMPLE Algorithm, whilst the upstream second-order method and the Trapezoidal method are applied for the particle motion equation integration. The results show an increase in the drag coefficient with the pitch angle. Also, the lift coefficient has an absolute maximum value at an angle of 30 degrees and approaches zero at the angles of zero and 90 degrees. In addition, the pitch torque at the center of the cell rotation has a maximum value at 30 and 45 degree pitch angles and the lateral torque has its maximum value at 90 ° angle. The particle settling behavior indicates that compared to other cells, the cell that faces the prevailing wind flow has more particle accumulation on it. Also, at low-speed airflow and high pitch angle, the particle deposition increases. The research outcomes show less efficiency reduction with increasing speed, and approximately the same efficiency at the pitch angle of 45, 60, and 75 degrees.