Experimental validation of heat transport modeling in large solar thermal plant.

Solar thermal plants are often considered as a convenient and environmental-friendly way to supply heat to buildings or low temperature industrial processes. Some modelling techniques are required to assess the dynamic behaviour of solar thermal plants in order to control them correctly. This aspect is reinforced while large plants are considered. Indeed some atmospheric conditions as local clouds could have significant influence on the outlet temperature of the solar field. A common modelling approach to assess the heat transport in pipes is the one-dimensional finite volume method. However previous work shows limitations in the assessment of the temperatures and in the computational time require simulating large pipe networks. In this contribution, a previous alternative method developed and validated in a district heating network is used and extended to a solar thermal plant considering the thermal solar gain and the inertia of the pipes. The present contribution intends to experimentally validate this model on an existing solar plant facility available at the Plataforma Solar de Almeria in Spain.