TY - CHAP A1 - Schulte, Jonas A1 - Schwager, Christian A1 - Noureldin, Kareem A1 - May, Martin A1 - Teixeira Boura, Cristiano José A1 - Herrmann, Ulf T1 - Gradient controlled startup procedure of a molten-salt power-to-heat energy storage plant based on dynamic process simulation T2 - SolarPACES: Solar Power & Chemical Energy Systems N2 - The integration of high temperature thermal energy storages into existing conventional power plants can help to reduce the CO2 emissions of those plants and lead to lower capital expenditures for building energy storage systems, due to the use of synergy effects [1]. One possibility to implement that, is a molten salt storage system with a powerful power-to-heat unit. This paper presents two possible control concepts for the startup of the charging system of such a facility. The procedures are implemented in a detailed dynamic process model. The performance and safety regarding the film temperatures at heat transmitting surfaces are investigated in the process simulations. To improve the accuracy in predicting the film temperatures, CFD simulations of the electrical heater are carried out and the results are merged with the dynamic model. The results show that both investigated control concepts are safe regarding the temperature limits. The gradient controlled startup performed better than the temperature-controlled startup. Nevertheless, there are several uncertainties that need to be investigated further. KW - Power plants KW - Energy storage KW - Associated liquids Y1 - 2023 SN - 978-0-7354-4623-6 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0148741 SN - 1551-7616 (online) SN - 0094-243X (print) N1 - 27th International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems 27 September–1 October 2021 Online IS - 2815 / 1 PB - AIP conference proceedings / American Institute of Physics CY - Melville, NY ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Lahrs, Lennart A1 - Krisam, Pierre A1 - Herrmann, Ulf T1 - Envisioning a collaborative energy system planning platform for the energy transition at the district level T2 - The 36th International Conference on Efficiency, Cost, Optimization, Simulation and Environmental Impact of Energy Systems N2 - Residential and commercial buildings account for more than one-third of global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. Integrated multi-energy systems at the district level are a promising way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by exploiting economies of scale and synergies between energy sources. Planning district energy systems comes with many challenges in an ever-changing environment. Computational modelling established itself as the state-of-the-art method for district energy system planning. Unfortunately, it is still cumbersome to combine standalone models to generate insights that surpass their original purpose. Ideally, planning processes could be solved by using modular tools that easily incorporate the variety of competing and complementing computational models. Our contribution is a vision for a collaborative development and application platform for multi-energy system planning tools at the district level. We present challenges of district energy system planning identified in the literature and evaluate whether this platform can help to overcome these challenges. Further, we propose a toolkit that represents the core technical elements of the platform. Lastly, we discuss community management and its relevance for the success of projects with collaboration and knowledge sharing at their core. KW - Energy system planning KW - District energy planning platform KW - District data model KW - Renewable energy integration Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.52202/069564-0284 N1 - 25-30 JUNE, 2023, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain SP - 3163 EP - 3170 PB - Procedings of ECOS 2023 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Schulte, Jonas A1 - Schwager, Christian A1 - Frantz, Cathy A1 - Schloms, Felix A1 - Teixeira Boura, Cristiano José A1 - Herrmann, Ulf T1 - Control concept for a molten salt receiver in star design: Development, optimization and testing with cloud passage scenarios T2 - SolarPACES conference proceedings N2 - A promising approach to reduce the system costs of molten salt solar receivers is to enable the irradiation of the absorber tubes on both sides. The star design is an innovative receiver design, pursuing this approach. The unconventional design leads to new challenges in controlling the system. This paper presents a control concept for a molten salt receiver system in star design. The control parameters are optimized in a defined test cycle by minimizing a cost function. The control concept is tested in realistic cloud passage scenarios based on real weather data. During these tests, the control system showed no sign of unstable behavior, but to perform sufficiently in every scenario further research and development like integrating Model Predictive Controls (MPCs) need to be done. The presented concept is a starting point to do so. KW - Molten salt receiver KW - Star design KW - Control optimization KW - Cloud passages Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.52825/solarpaces.v1i.693 SN - 2751-9899 (online) N1 - 28th International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems, 27-30 September, Albuquerque, NM, USA IS - Vol. 1 PB - TIB Open Publishing CY - Hannover ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Schwager, Christian A1 - Angele, Florian A1 - Nouri, Bijan A1 - Schwarzbözl, Peter A1 - Teixeira Boura, Cristiano José A1 - Herrmann, Ulf T1 - Impact of DNI forecast quality on performance prediction for a commercial scale solar tower: Application of nowcasting DNI maps to dynamic solar tower simulation T2 - SolarPACES conference proceedings N2 - Concerning current efforts to improve operational efficiency and to lower overall costs of concentrating solar power (CSP) plants with prediction-based algorithms, this study investigates the quality and uncertainty of nowcasting data regarding the implications for process predictions. DNI (direct normal irradiation) maps from an all-sky imager-based nowcasting system are applied to a dynamic prediction model coupled with ray tracing. The results underline the need for high-resolution DNI maps in order to predict net yield and receiver outlet temperature realistically. Furthermore, based on a statistical uncertainty analysis, a correlation is developed, which allows for predicting the uncertainty of the net power prediction based on the corresponding DNI forecast uncertainty. However, the study reveals significant prediction errors and the demand for further improvement in the accuracy at which local shadings are forecasted. KW - Process prediction KW - DNI forecasting KW - Nowcasting KW - Uncertainty analysis KW - Molten salt receiver system, Y1 - 2024 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.52825/solarpaces.v1i.675 SN - 2751-9899 (online) N1 - 28th International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems, 27-30 September, Albuquerque, NM, USA IS - Vol. 1 PB - TIB Open Publishing CY - Hannover ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Sattler, Johannes Christoph A1 - Atti, Vikrama A1 - Alexopoulos, Spiros A1 - Teixeira Boura, Cristiano José A1 - Herrmann, Ulf A1 - Dutta, Siddharth A1 - Kioutsioukis, Ioannis T1 - DNI forecast tool for the smart operation of a parabolic trough collector system with concrete thermal energy storage: Theory, results and outlook T2 - SolarPACES conference proceedings N2 - This work presents a basic forecast tool for predicting direct normal irradiance (DNI) in hourly resolution, which the Solar-Institut Jülich (SIJ) is developing within a research project. The DNI forecast data shall be used for a parabolic trough collector (PTC) system with a concrete thermal energy storage (C-TES) located at the company KEAN Soft Drinks Ltd in Limassol, Cyprus. On a daily basis, 24-hour DNI prediction data in hourly resolution shall be automatically produced using free or very low-cost weather forecast data as input. The purpose of the DNI forecast tool is to automatically transfer the DNI forecast data on a daily basis to a main control unit (MCU). The MCU automatically makes a smart decision on the operation mode of the PTC system such as steam production mode and/or C-TES charging mode. The DNI forecast tool was evaluated using historical data of measured DNI from an on-site weather station, which was compared to the DNI forecast data. The DNI forecast tool was tested using data from 56 days between January and March 2022, which included days with a strong variation in DNI due to cloud passages. For the evaluation of the DNI forecast reliability, three categories were created and the forecast data was sorted accordingly. The result was that the DNI forecast tool has a reliability of 71.4 % based on the tested days. The result fulfils SIJ’s aim to achieve a reliability of around 70 %, but SIJ aims to still improve the DNI forecast quality. KW - Direct normal irradiance forecast KW - DNI forecast KW - Parabolic trough collector KW - PTC KW - Thermal Energy Storage Y1 - 2024 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.52825/solarpaces.v1i.731 SN - 2751-9899 (online) N1 - 28th International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems, 27-30 September, Albuquerque, NM, USA IS - VOL. 1 PB - TIB Open Publishing CY - Hannover ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Sattler, Johannes Christoph A1 - Schneider, Iesse Peer A1 - Angele, Florian A1 - Atti, Vikrama A1 - Teixeira Boura, Cristiano José A1 - Herrmann, Ulf T1 - Development of heliostat field calibration methods: Theory and experimental test results T2 - SolarPACES conference proceedings N2 - In this work, three patent pending calibration methods for heliostat fields of central receiver systems (CRS) developed by the Solar-Institut Jülich (SIJ) of the FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences are presented. The calibration methods can either operate in a combined mode or in stand-alone mode. The first calibration method, method A, foresees that a camera matrix is placed into the receiver plane where it is subjected to concentrated solar irradiance during a measurement process. The second calibration method, method B, uses an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) such as a quadrocopter to automatically fly into the reflected solar irradiance cross-section of one or more heliostats (two variants of method B were tested). The third calibration method, method C, foresees a stereo central camera or multiple stereo cameras installed e.g. on the solar tower whereby the orientations of the heliostats are calculated from the location detection of spherical red markers attached to the heliostats. The most accurate method is method A which has a mean accuracy of 0.17 mrad. The mean accuracy of method B variant 1 is 1.36 mrad and of variant 2 is 1.73 mrad. Method C has a mean accuracy of 15.07 mrad. For method B there is great potential regarding improving the measurement accuracy. For method C the collected data was not sufficient for determining whether or not there is potential for improving the accuracy. KW - Heliostat Field Calibration KW - Unmanned aerial vehicle KW - UAV KW - Quadrocopter KW - Camera system Y1 - 2024 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.52825/solarpaces.v1i.678 SN - 2751-9899 (online) N1 - 28th International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems, 27-30 September, Albuquerque, NM, USA IS - Vol. 1 PB - TIB Open Publishing CY - Hannover ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Grund, Raphael M. A1 - Altherr, Lena ED - Reiff-Stephan, Jörg ED - Jäkel, Jens ED - Schwarz, André T1 - Development of an open source energy disaggregation tool for the home automation platform Home Assistant T2 - Tagungsband AALE 2023 : mit Automatisierung gegen den Klimawandel N2 - In order to reduce energy consumption of homes, it is important to make transparent which devices consume how much energy. However, power consumption is often only monitored aggregated at the house energy meter. Disaggregating this power consumption into the contributions of individual devices can be achieved using Machine Learning. Our work aims at making state of the art disaggregation algorithms accessibe for users of the open source home automation platform Home Assistant. KW - Home Automation Platform KW - Home Assistant KW - Open Source KW - Machine Learning KW - Energy Disaggregation Y1 - 2023 SN - 978-3-910103-01-6 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.33968/2023.02 N1 - 19. AALE-Konferenz. Luxemburg, 08.03.-10.03.2023. BTS Connected Buildings & Cities Luxemburg (Tagungsband unter https://doi.org/10.33968/2023.01) SP - 11 EP - 20 PB - le-tex publishing services GmbH CY - Leipzig ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Thomessen, Karolin A1 - Thoma, Andreas A1 - Braun, Carsten T1 - Bio-inspired altitude changing extension to the 3DVFH* local obstacle avoidance algorithm JF - CEAS Aeronautical Journal N2 - Obstacle avoidance is critical for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operating autonomously. Obstacle avoidance algorithms either rely on global environment data or local sensor data. Local path planners react to unforeseen objects and plan purely on local sensor information. Similarly, animals need to find feasible paths based on local information about their surroundings. Therefore, their behavior is a valuable source of inspiration for path planning. Bumblebees tend to fly vertically over far-away obstacles and horizontally around close ones, implying two zones for different flight strategies depending on the distance to obstacles. This work enhances the local path planner 3DVFH* with this bio-inspired strategy. The algorithm alters the goal-driven function of the 3DVFH* to climb-preferring if obstacles are far away. Prior experiments with bumblebees led to two definitions of flight zone limits depending on the distance to obstacles, leading to two algorithm variants. Both variants reduce the probability of not reaching the goal of a 3DVFH* implementation in Matlab/Simulink. The best variant, 3DVFH*b-b, reduces this probability from 70.7 to 18.6% in city-like worlds using a strong vertical evasion strategy. Energy consumption is higher, and flight paths are longer compared to the algorithm version with pronounced horizontal evasion tendency. A parameter study analyzes the effect of different weighting factors in the cost function. The best parameter combination shows a failure probability of 6.9% in city-like worlds and reduces energy consumption by 28%. Our findings demonstrate the potential of bio-inspired approaches for improving the performance of local path planning algorithms for UAV. KW - UAV KW - Obstacle avoidance KW - Autonomy KW - Local path planning Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13272-023-00691-w SN - 1869-5590 (Online) SN - 1869-5582 (Print) N1 - Corresponding author: Karolin Thomessen PB - Springer CY - Wien ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Duran Paredes, Ludwin A1 - Mottaghy, Darius A1 - Herrmann, Ulf A1 - Groß, Rolf Fritz T1 - Online ground temperature and soil moisture monitoring of a shallow geothermal system with non-conventional components T2 - EGU General Assembly 2020 N2 - We present first results from a newly developed monitoring station for a closed loop geothermal heat pump test installation at our campus, consisting of helix coils and plate heat exchangers, as well as an ice-store system. There are more than 40 temperature sensors and several soil moisture content sensors distributed around the system, allowing a detailed monitoring under different operating conditions.In the view of the modern development of renewable energies along with the newly concepts known as Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 (high-tech strategy from the German government), we created a user-friendly web application, which will connect the things (sensors) with the open network (www). Besides other advantages, this allows a continuous remote monitoring of the data from the numerous sensors at an arbitrary sampling rate.Based on the recorded data, we will also present first results from numerical simulations, taking into account all relevant heat transport processes.The aim is to improve the understanding of these processes and their influence on the thermal behavior of shallow geothermal systems in the unsaturated zone. This will in turn facilitate the prediction of the performance of these systems and therefore yield an improvement in their dimensioning when designing a specific shallow geothermal installation. Y1 - 2020 N1 - Online 4–8 May 2020 [Session ERE2.8] EGU2020-19052 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pfaff, Raphael T1 - Braking distance prediction for vehicle consist in low-speed on-sight operation: a Monte Carlo approach JF - Railway Engineering Science N2 - The first and last mile of a railway journey, in both freight and transit applications, constitutes a high effort and is either non-productive (e.g. in the case of depot operations) or highly inefficient (e.g. in industrial railways). These parts are typically managed on-sight, i.e. with no signalling and train protection systems ensuring the freedom of movement. This is possible due to the rather short braking distances of individual vehicles and shunting consists. The present article analyses the braking behaviour of such shunting units. For this purpose, a dedicated model is developed. It is calibrated on published results of brake tests and validated against a high-definition model for low-speed applications. Based on this model, multiple simulations are executed to obtain a Monte Carlo simulation of the resulting braking distances. Based on the distribution properties and established safety levels, the risk of exceeding certain braking distances is evaluated and maximum braking distances are derived. Together with certain parameters of the system, these can serve in the design and safety assessment of driver assistance systems and automation of these processes. KW - Freight rail KW - Shunting KW - Braking curves KW - Brake set-up KW - Driver assistance system Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40534-023-00303-7 SN - 2662-4753 (eISSN) SN - 2662-4745 (Print) VL - 31 IS - 2 SP - 135 EP - 144 PB - SpringerOpen ER -