International Journal of Management, Technology And Engineering ISSN NO : 2249-7455

Performance Analysis of Pneumatic based Solar PV Tracking

System
Jacob1, L.karikalan2, S. Baskar3, P. Prakesh4
1,2,3
Department of Automobile Engineering, VELS Institute of Science,
Technology & Advanced Studies (VISTAS), Tamil Nadu, India.
4
Department of Mechanical Engineering, VELS Institute of Science, Technology
& Advanced Studies (VISTAS), Tamil Nadu, India.

1*
Corresponding Author Email: [email protected], [email protected],
3
[email protected]

Abstract
Renewable energy particularly, solar energy has been receiving increased focus because
it’s believed that solar energy is the viable option to satisfy the increasing energy demand
in environmentally friendly way. One of the key is use of harvesting solar energy is an
efficient use of tracking unit. In conventional solar PV tracking system the electricity is
used as source medium for operation. In this project an attempt has been made to use
solar energy for tracking, with the help of mechanical system. The development of
pneumatic based solar PV tracking primary system consists of refrigerant tank,
pneumatic actuator, PV panel and shading plate. The refrigerant stored in the tank starts
evaporating with temperature difference based on various incident solar radiation
intensity over a period of time which tends to actuate the pneumatic piston and this panel
follows the direction of sun. Testing of the feasibility of newly developed tracking unit.
System at various solar radiation intensity and finding the operating pressure and
temperature are the major objectives of the present project. In this work, a pneumatic
based solar PV tracking was developed through proper dynamic analysis of the unit.

Keywords: Solar energy, Sun tracking system, RTD

1. Introduction
The main motivation of the system is to optimize the system components for a given
panel size , evaluated the performance of the newly developed tracking unit and
Comparison of PV panel output with non-tracking solar PV panel for energy analysis. For
the future generation the sufficient of clean energy demand is most challenges one. The
Alternative renewable energy sources such as solar energy can be utilized for our energy
needs El-Adawi et al. (2007). Among these renewable energy resources is solar power,
which when harvested can be used to generate electric power. The 0.16 % of the land on
earth will provide 20 TW of power by using efficient solar conversion systems, nearly
twice the world’s consumption rate of fossil energy. When implementing this technology,
one can either rely on fixed or tracking panel installations Singh et al. (2014). The
spectrum related to sunlight passing through the atmosphere when the sun is at a 42
degree elevation from the horizon (defined as air mass 1.5; i.e., when the path through the
atmosphere is 1.5 times than that when the sun is at high noon).Because of day/night and
time-of-day variations in insolation and cloud cover, the average electrical power
produced by a solar cell over a year is about 20% of its Wp rating Cipriani et al.
(2013).1.1 Methodology
The following methodology can be adopted as follows.
• Identification of system components
• Procurement of system components

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• Integration of system components

• Conducting experiment
• Results and discussion
A detailed literature review has been carried out for the performance of various tracking
methods based on active and passive tracking ,optimum tilt angles, axis of rotation
,cloudy condition etc. have been well studied.
2. Identification of System Components
The pneumatic based solar PV tracking system consists of the following solar components
1. PV panel 2. Pneumatic actuator 3. Flow control valve 4. Refrigerant transfer hoses 5.
Refrigerant (R134a) 6.Supporting Frame 7.Plummer block 8. Refrigerant tank
9.Temperature sensor 10.pressure gauge
2.1 Properties of Refrigerants (R134a)
The working fluid for tracking unit considered for the present work is considered for the
present work is R134a. The reason for the selection of R134a, it is environmentally
friendly refrigerant. The properties of the refrigerant is given below
Molecular Weight: 101.04 g/mole
Critical pressure: 40.5 bar
Critical density: 513 kg/m3
Critical temperature: 100.95 °C
Triple point: -102.4 °C
Specific volume: 0.235 m3/kg
Heat capacity at constant pressure, Cp: 0.08754 kJ/ (mol.K)
3. Dynamic Design Analysis
In this analysis, the arriving of important design parameters of tracking unit is explained
in details. The early design of the project is analyzed by using ADAMS (Automated
Dynamics Analysis of Mechanical Systems) software. This software generally used for
analysis of experimental setup like vibration analysis, flexible links, building customized
modules, complex nonlinear behavior of car tires. In this project vibration analysis and
pressure withstanding capacity of refrigerant tank has been performed using ADAMS
software.
3.1 PV Panel
The following rating was found sufficient and optimal for the testing phase of this project
keeping in mind the cost and size. Figure 1 indicates the ADAMS design model, the
following dimensions are
Panel Rating: 40W
Dimensions: 600*550 mm
Weight: 5 kg
3.2 Solar Panel Mounted Shaft Design
Solar panel mounted Shaft is coupled to the crank rod which transmits the linear motion
given by piston rod of into rotational motion. The shaft connected to panel will rotate the
assembly depending upon the magnitude and direction of force acting on the pneumatic
actuator. The assumption is Point Loading of 5kgf equally spaced from mid plane of the
shaft.

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The Shaft Material is C40 Steel considered here because it is more appropriate for Low
power transmissions.
Length of shaft = 800 mm
Yield strength of the shaft Syt = 330 N/mm2
Ultimate strength of the shaft Sut = 630 N/mm2
The above values are collected from Ref 11 for C40 steel material
τmax = 0.18*Syt = 0.18*330 = 99 N/mm2
3.3 Pneumatic Actuator

Figure 1.ADAMS Simulation Model

Pressure Range: 20 bar
3.4 Refrigerant Tanks
The refrigerant tank is used to store R134a refrigerant and the tank is made up of Copper
material which is non-corrosive and inert to R134a apart from having high thermal
conductivity.M Type copper was chosen because it’s best suited for heating applications
especially solar heating. The dimension of the tank is given as Dimensions: ϕ 25.4 mm,
Length: 550 mm and Material: M Type Copper Tube.
4. Experimental setup and readings
The most crucial element of the system is the Refrigerant tank which is mounted on either
side of the solar panel. The fabricated part refrigerant tank is shown Figure. It is
analogous to a boiler which upon receiving heat, generates high temperature high pressure
steam (gas in this case)

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Figure 2. Refrigerant tank

The tanks were constructed from 110 cm. The end caps are soldered to either side and
flow control valves provide into each pipe near one end and it is shown in Figure.The
refrigerant temperature in tank is measured tank is measured by using RTD (Resistive
Temperature Difference). Two RTD’s kept inside the tank and the surface temperature of
the tank is measured by another RTD. This totally six RTD’s were fixed to measure the
refrigerant temperature and tank surface temperature. The pressure of the refrigerant is
measured by using two pressure gauge inserted in two refrigerant ranks. From this
measuring system to find the operating pressure and temperature and measure the tilt
angle with respect to the force acting on the pneumatic cylinder.

Figure 3. Flow control valve

The refrigerant tank connected with 3 RTDs where, 2 RTDs are used to measure the fluid
temperature and RTD to measure the tank surface temperature. The pressure of the
refrigerant is measured using pressure gauge connected to the refrigerant tank. Same setup
of RTDs and pressure gauge is installed on the refrigerant tank present on the other side of
the panel.
The ambient temperature, refrigerant temperature, pressure and solar intensity are taken at
a time interval of 15 min to measure the tilt of angle of the solar panel. The volume of
refrigerant is varied by 60%, 70%, 80% and 90%.
For 60% of refrigerant mass, the panel tilt was 30-72 degree. In this system requires for
actuation the pressure range was 7-12.5 bar and temperature of the refrigerant reaches up
to 43⁰C. The panel tilt is with respect to when the high temperature at the time only it
tilted suddenly. So the movement of tilt was non uniform. The tilting time was in between

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the range of 12.00pm to 2.30pm when this time the solar intensity range was optimum
i.e., (1050 - 1150 W/m2)
The experimental readings were taken by varying mass of refrigerant.

Table 1.Experimental readings

Volume of Existing Angle of
Refrigerant Range (bar) Panel
(%) (Degree)
60 7 - 12 30 - 74
70 9 - 14 30 - 76
80 10 - 16 30 - 80
90 12 - 17 30 - 80

Finally the setup was assembled all the individual components together meticulously. The
system components fabricated based on the design criteria is finally assembled for
performance evaluation. The solar PV panel having the rated capacity of 20 watts is taken
from solar lab and mounted on the supporting frame using supporting shaft. The
refrigerant tank is fully coated with black paint for more solar heat absorption. The
refrigerant charged tanks are placed top and bottom of the PV panel. The expansion hose
is used to connect refrigerant tank and pneumatic cylinder. The assembled view of
experimental setup is shown in Figure.4.

Figure 4.Assembly View of experimental setup

The principle of tracking of PV panel is based on actuation of pneumatic cylinder by the
pressure gradient. The difference in pressure of refrigerant is due to difference of isolation
falling on two refrigerant tanks. The refrigerant tanks are placed on the longitudinal ends
of the panel and it is filled with the refrigerant (R134a). When the panel is not facing the
Sun at right angles then the two tanks will be illuminated by varying degree of Sunlight.

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Therefore the temperature in one tank will be higher when compared to the other, causing
a pressure gradient in the two tanks. The refrigerant in the tank gets heated up and absorbs
the latent heat of vaporization and changes from liquid phase to vapor phase. The
refrigerant vapors being lighter than the liquid particles, rise above the liquid level.
Therefore the vapor pressure increases steadily thereafter.
The Refrigerant hose connects the Refrigerant tanks with the Double acting pneumatic
cylinder. The hose being connected to the bottom of the tank so that only the heavier
liquid refrigerant will flow through the pipes and not the vapors. Therefore the high
pressure vapor pushes the liquid refrigerant through the hoses to act on the piston.
Similarly the refrigerant from the other tank acts on the rod side of the piston. The
unbalanced forces actuate the cylinder such that to balance the forces. The piston of the
actuating cylinder is connected to the crank which rotates the panel accordingly. The two
shades on either side of the panel are crucial because they control the variation in the
amount of sunlight each tank receives. Varying the shade height influences the sensitivity
of the system. The hydraulic actuator is mounted onto the support frame using swivel
mounting arrangement.
5. Results and discussion

Figure 5. Open circuit voltage Vs Time

Figure 5 shows that the Open circuit voltage Vs Time. Based on variation of time the
open circuit voltage is higher for pneumatic tracking than the fixed solar panel.

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Figure 6. Open circuit voltage Vs temperature

Figure 6 shows that the Open circuit voltage Vs Time. Based on variation of time in hour
basis, the open circuit voltage (voc) is increasing. Here Y axis taken Open circuit voltage
and X axis taken time in hour.

Figure 7.Time Vs Angle of panel

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Figure 8.Time Vs Refrigerant pressure

Figure 7 shows that the refrigerant pressure Vs Time. Based on variation of time the
refrigerant pressure also increasing.Here Y axis taken refrigerant pressure in bar and X
axis taken time in hour.
5.1 Total output Voltage Comparison

Figure 9.Open circuit voltage Vs Days

Figure 9 shows that the Open circuit voltage Vs Days. Based on number of days
increasing the open circuit voltage also fluctuating. Here Y axis taken Open circuit
voltage and X axis taken days.
6. Conclusion
The passive type of pneumatic based solar tracking system was designed and fabricated.
The design procedure was followed by manual calculation as well as software
calculations. In order to find the optimized system components the ADAMS Software was
used which gave the satisfactory results. From this software simulation, the refrigerant
tank withstands capacity in terms of pressure (111-191 psi) and temperature (30 0C -50
0
C) was calculated. Then the refrigerating tank is inserted with three temperature sensor
and one pressure gauge on each side. Then from these measuring arrangements, the
pressure and temperature variation of refrigerant tested with relate to the change in solar
radiation intensity. The solar PV panel is capable to track the sun path satisfactorily.
Abbreviations
PV photovoltaic

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ADAMS Automated Dynamics Analysis of Mechanical Systems

RTD Resistance Temperature Detector
Acknowledgments
I thank to Mr. P. Renganathan for gave more support towards work.

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