The DEWA plant design

Creating heliostat fields of any type and size can be easily created automatically using the scripting editor of Tonatiuh++. In the example shown in the Figure below, the Dewa heliostat field, tower and receiver is designed by reading a .csv file exported by SolarPilot.

The .csv file contains information about the spatial positioning of each heliostat as shown in Figure below.

The above example is included in the examples folder of the Tonatiuh++ installation directory. A how to video in shown below on how to recreate the above. The .csv file needed for the creation of the field can be also found in the relevant examples folder.

Script

var file = DataObject(); file.read("layout.csv"); var nStep = 1; var nSplit = 1000;

function makeHeliostat(parent, name, position, aiming, focus) { var nm = parent.createNode(name); nm.setParameter("translation", position);

var t = nm.createTracker(); t.setPart("armature", azel); var tt = t.getPart("target"); tt.setParameter("aimingPoint", aiming);

var n = nm.createNode("primary"); n = n.createNode("secondary"); n = n.createNode("facet"); var s = n.createShape();

var q = s.insertSurface("Parabolic"); q.setParameter("fX", focus); q.setParameter("fY", focus);

var p = s.insertProfile("Box"); p.setParameter("uSize", 6.00); p.setParameter("vSize", 4.28);

var m = s.insertMaterial("Specular"); m.setParameter("reflectivity", "1"); m.setParameter("slope", "0.002"); }

var node = NodeObject(); var t = node.createTracker(); var azel = t.insertArmature("two-axes"); azel.setParameter("primaryShift", "0 0 0"); azel.setParameter("primaryAxis", "0 0 -1"); azel.setParameter("primaryAngles", "-360 360"); azel.setParameter("secondaryShift", "0 0 0"); azel.setParameter("secondaryAxis", "1 0 0"); azel.setParameter("secondaryAngles", "-180 180"); azel.setParameter("facetShift", "0 0 0"); azel.setParameter("facetNormal", "0 0 1");

function makeTower(parent, zReceiver, dReceiver, hReceiver) { var rReceiver = dReceiver/2;

var n = parent.createNode("Base"); n.setParameter("translation", "0 0 0"); n.setParameter("scale", "" + rReceiver + " " + rReceiver + " 1"); var s = n.createShape(); var q = s.insertSurface("Cylinder"); var p = s.insertProfile("Rectangular"); p.setParameter("vMin", 0.); p.setParameter("vMax", zReceiver - hReceiver/2); var mG = s.getPart("material"); mG.setParameter("ambientColor", "0.5 0.5 0.5"); mG.setParameter("diffuseColor", "0.2 0.2 0.2");

n = parent.createNode("Receiver"); n.setParameter("translation", "0 0 " + zReceiver); n.setParameter("scale", "" + rReceiver + " " + rReceiver + " 1"); s = n.createShape(); s.setName("Shape"); q = s.insertSurface("Cylinder"); p = s.insertProfile("Box"); p.setParameter("vSize", hReceiver); mG = s.getPart("material"); mG.setParameter("ambientColor", "0.7 0.7 0.7"); mG.setParameter("diffuseColor", "0.2 0.2 0.2");

n = parent.createNode("Cap"); n.setParameter("translation", "0 0 " + (zReceiver + hReceiver/2)); s = n.createShape(); q = s.insertSurface("Planar"); p = s.insertProfile("Circular"); p.setParameter("rMax", rReceiver); mG = s.getPart("material"); mG.setParameter("ambientColor", "0.5 0.5 0.5"); mG.setParameter("diffuseColor", "0.2 0.2 0.2"); }

function findFocalDistance(x, y, z) { d = Math.sqrt(x*x + y*y + z*z); return 5*Math.round(d/5); }

function makeField() { var nodeRoot = NodeObject(); nodeRoot.setName("Script");

var nodeHeliostats = nodeRoot.createNode("Heliostats"); var zHeliostats = 3.; nodeRoot.setParameter("translation", "0 0 " + zHeliostats);

var nMax = file.rows(); var counter = 0; for (var ng = 2; ng < nMax; ng += nSplit) { var nodeGroup = nodeHeliostats.createNode("H" + (ng - 1) + "-H" + (ng + nSplit - 2)); for (var n = ng; n < ng + nSplit; n += nStep) { name = "H" + (n - 1); posX = file.array(n)[1]; posY = file.array(n)[2]; posZ = file.array(n)[3]; pos = "" + posX + " " + posY + " " + posZ; aimX = file.array(n)[9]; aimY = file.array(n)[10]; aimZ = Number(file.array(n)[11]) + zHeliostats; aim = "" + aimX + " " + aimY + " " + aimZ; focus = findFocalDistance(aimX - posX, aimY - posY, aimZ - posZ); makeHeliostat(nodeGroup, name, pos, aim, focus);

counter++; if (counter % 1000 == 0) printTimed("Heliostats: " + counter); } }

var nodeTower = nodeRoot.createNode("Tower"); makeTower(nodeTower, zHeliostats + 240., 30., 40.);

tn.InsertScene(nodeRoot); }

tn.Clear(); makeField();

var scene = NodeObject().getScene();

var sun = scene.getPart("world.sun"); //sun.setParameter("shape", "Buie");

var sp = sun.getPart("position"); sp.setParameter("azimuth", 180.); sp.setParameter("elevation", 60.);

var sa = sun.getPart("aperture"); sa.setParameter("disabledNodes", "");

var air = scene.getPart("world.air"); air.setParameter("transmission", "Polynomial");

var at = scene.getPart("world.air.transmission"); at.setParameter("a0", 1.); at.setParameter("a1", -0.237672); at.setParameter("a2", 5.75826e-2); at.setParameter("a3", -4.87596e-3);

var cm = scene.getPart("world.camera"); cm.setParameter("position", "-1375.85 -1663.44 1429.88"); cm.setParameter("rotation", "33.9011 -31.417");

var tg = scene.getPart("world.terrain.grid"); tg.setParameter("steps", "100 100 1"); tg.setParameter("divisions", "10 10 10"); tg.setParameter("min", "-2100 -2100 0"); tg.setParameter("max", "2100 2300 0");