Torque Tube Coupler for Multi-Drive Solar Tracker Stiffness
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Single-drive sun-tracking solar power systems face limitations due to high wind loads that can twist torque tubes, requiring either reduced lengths to minimize twisting or increased sizes to enhance stiffness, which compromises energy collection and increases costs.
Innovation Solution
A multi-drive solar-tracking system with torque tube segments coupled by a torque tube coupler, where multiple drives input torque at longitudinally separated locations, reducing the span between driven supports to maintain system stiffness and allowing for thinner, lighter torque tubes, and enabling larger PV modules.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If torque tube length is reduced to minimize wind-induced twisting, then system stability improves, but energy collection capability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The torque tube is divided into multiple segments that are coupled together, allowing each segment to be shorter and stiffer while maintaining overall system length for energy collection. This segmentation resolves the contradiction by enabling short individual tubes (improving stability) while preserving total span (maintaining productivity).
Solution Approach 2:
The torque tube segments are nested within a common support structure, with each segment fitting into the framework formed by adjacent segments and supports. This nesting arrangement allows the system to achieve both compact segment lengths for stiffness and extended overall configuration for energy collection.
2Strength
If torque tube size is increased to enhance stiffness, then wind load resistance improves, but system cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using one large, expensive torque tube, the system uses multiple smaller, thinner-walled segments. Each segment requires less material and costs less to manufacture, while the segmented configuration maintains overall system stiffness through reduced span lengths between supports.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the parameter of torque tube wall thickness by using thinner-walled segments compared to a single thick-walled tube. This parameter change, combined with segmentation, achieves comparable or superior stiffness at reduced material cost and weight.
3Strength
If multiple drives are used to input torque at longitudinally separated locations, then system stiffness is maintained with thinner tubes, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The torque input mechanism is segmented into multiple drive locations along the torque tube assembly. Each drive operates independently on its segment, allowing the system to achieve high stiffness with thinner tubes while distributing the mechanical load across multiple points rather than requiring a single complex high-torque drive.
Data Source
AI summary
A solar-tracking photovoltaic (PV) system having several PV modules mounted on a torque tube is described. The torque tube may include several sections joined by a torque tube coupler. For example, the torque tube coupler may having a medial section and end sections to join to the torque tube sections. The medial section and the torque tube sections may have a same outer diameter.