CSP Parabolic Trough - Physical Model Simulation

Hello!

I am currently working on a problem in finding the optimal parameters of a small-scale CSP plant. I plan to vary the following: Solar Multiple, Field HTF, Tilt, Design Irradiance, TES Hours, and TES HTF.

Upon setting a random value for each, I encountered the problem stating, "Simulation trough_physical failed :The calculated field design mass flow rate of 88.48 kg/s is greater than the maximum defined by the max single loop flow rate and number of loops (84.00 kg/s). The design mass flow rate is reset to the latter."

Do you know which parameter is caused this failure? Thank you so much for helping!

Hi Austin,

The videos on the CSP Videos page at sam.nrel.gov/concentrating-solar-power/csp-videos are recordings of demonstrations that provide guidance on what inputs to focus on when you make these kinds of changes to the CSP models (I am not sure what kind of system you are modeling). The demonstrations are based on older versions of SAM, but the concepts are still valid.

SAM's CSP models are designed for larger systems (on the order of 100s of MW), so some of the internal algorithms for very small systems.

Best regards,
Paul.