A CFD-Based Approach to Selecting a Concentrating Solar Thermal Plant Site Location Around a Ferromanganese Smelter

This paper outlines the initial phase of an investigation into the soiling effects of industrial dust on mirrors, and therefore heliostats, as a part of a larger EU Horizons 2020 project that is aiming to successfully demonstrate the integration of solar thermal heat into an industrial ferromanganese process. In addition to the need for a medium-term (2 years) soiling study, the need to be able to model and predict where dust will flow and deposit has been identified. It is foreseen that a generally applicable approach to modelling and predicting dust deposition ‘hot spots’ around an industrial processing plant, such as a smelter, will be useful in future where designers would want to be able to determine the best location, in terms of dust, to situate a concentrating solar thermal (CST) plant. The approach is based on micro-climate scale computational fluid dynamics (CFD) coupled with experimental validation work for dust deposition, mirror soiling and atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) flow characteristics