The improvements of the mechanical structure of the current rim drive heliostat generation with chain drive system and monolithic sandwich structure is described. The improvements of the mechanical structure result in increased torsional stiffness of the pylon, reduced manufacturing effort, increased life time of the chain gears, and better access to the drives. Dynamic wind loads were determined by loading a transient finite element model with pressure distribution time series gained by wind tunnel tests. Due to the rims, the heliostat shows significantly better dynamic behavior than conventional heliostats without rims.

Topics
Heliostats, Aerodynamics, Composite materials, Finite-element analysis, Educational assessment
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