Modeling study of particle settling characteristics based on trough mirror dust in alpine areas

The alpine areas in the northwest of China offer favorable conditions for the development of solar energy due to its abundant optical and land resources, while the presence of dust particles on the surface of solar energy utilization devices drastically diminishes its performance during operation. In this article, a simulation study of the deposition performance of dust particles and the factors affecting them was carried out using CFD-EDEM coupling based on a trough concentrator system. Focusing on the physical parameters of the dust particles and carrying out together with the environmental elements, the mirror was equally divided into four regions from left to right, which specifically revealed the deposition distribution of the dust on the surface under the influence of the particle size, ambient wind speed and direction. Through the research, we found that higher wind speeds increase initial particle kinetic energy upon collision with the mirror, and when detaching along the direction of gravitational acceleration after the collision with the mirror, the average kinetic energy with the change of time as a whole firstly shows an upward trend, and gradually close to 0 J after reaching the maximum value; Lower wind speeds were more favorable for the deposition of large-size particles, with a maximum decrease of 92.2% in the deposition rate of particles with increasing wind speed; Overall, particles tend to be deposited in regions II and III under the influence of environmental factors, except in the case at 1 m/s of 30 μm at 30°, where particles tend to move in the direction of the gravitational acceleration after collision, conversely in the direction of the drag force at low wind speeds. The conclusions of this research can provide theoretical guidance for the development of high-efficiency de-dusting in trough systems in alpine regions.