Article
An effective, low-cost mechanism for direct drag force measurement on solar concentrators
Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics
(2011)
Abstract
An effective technique for measuring the drag force on a solar concentrator in a subsonic wind tunnel with a simply-fabricated, low-cost force sensing mechanism is described. The measurement uncertainty was reduced by ensuring operation near full scale of the load sensor employed, and by averaging a large number of samples to reduce chance variations due to turbulent fluctuations in the system. The resulting drag coefficients from our apparatus successfully duplicated previously published experimental data from a geometrically-similar, parabolic trough style solar collector.
Keywords
- low cost mechanism,
- solar concentrators
Disciplines
Publication Date
May, 2011
Publisher Statement
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Citation Information
Jinny Rhee, Chung Nguyen, Michael Grace and Aung Thu. "An effective, low-cost mechanism for direct drag force measurement on solar concentrators" Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics Vol. 99 Iss. 5 (2011) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jinny_rhee/6/