Análisis y compensación de oscilaciones en un actuador hidráulico

Abstract

Solar energy is one of the most widely used renewable sources because sunlight is an easily accessible, endless and clean energy source. Concentrated solar energy is more expensive than photovoltaics but allows the use of thermal storage to produce electricity during night hours or even uninterruptedly. In order to reduce the initial investment of such systems, testing all their processes and components is fundamental. Research centers such as the Plataforma Solar de Almería play a very important role for this purpose. Parabolic trough collectors are one of the most studied technologies there, and Rotary and Expansion Performing Assemblies (REPA) are one of their main components. REPA are tested within a collaboration framework with the German Aerospace Center in the REPA facility under actual operating conditions, simulating the number of cycles equivalent to the lifetime of the component in a few weeks. However, after the installation of a new counterweight, the oscillations of the facility main structure were amplified, making the test times unfeasible. The goal of this work is to compensate these oscillations, thereby reducing REPA test times as much as possible.