This crazy engineering structure is located in the Parkent district, in the foothills of the Tien Shan, about 45 km from Tashkent at an altitude of 1050 meters.
The construction of the Sun complex began back in 1981. On this moment there are only two such complex engineering facilities in the world: in France and here, in the former USSR. The engineering development of such a structure costs absolutely crazy money and was possible only under the Soviet Union, but the operation is almost free. Solar-powered ovens can generate controlled temperatures of up to 3,000 degrees Celsius throughout the day.
The main parabolic mirror measuring 54 by 54 meters forms a focused beam with a diameter of 1.2 meters. In the center, behind a mirrored canvas, there is a room research center from where the process of melting metals is monitored.
The total number of mirror elements on the hub is 10,700 pieces.
62 heliostats, located on a gentle slope in a checkerboard pattern, direct the rays of light to the concentrator. The size of each heliostat is 7.5 by 6.5 meters.
Heliostats operate in automatic mode, that is, following the sun, they distribute solar fluxes on the main concentrator in such a way that the desired temperature is created in the furnace: from 800 to 3000 degrees.
In the technological tower, opposite the concentrator, the furnace itself is located, as well as a special curtain-slit shutter, which allows you to get a beam of the desired shape and controls the duration of the temperature exposure.
First of all, such a solar furnace is needed, of course, not for simple remelting of metals, although it can also perform such a function. The main task of the complex is scientific research.
Let's say we need to know how the skin will behave spaceship with a sharp solar exposure and heating of the case to 2000 degrees for two seconds. Without such a complex, it will not be easy to conduct such studies.
The number of sunny days in this area is about 270.
The rarefied mountain air also contributes to the purity of the experiments.
This photo would not have been possible without our friend anton_ermachkov :)
And around this cosmic beauty - villages.
Grapes are grown here.
When leaving Uzbekistan, despite all official approvals and letters, as well as the very fact that this shooting took place, these photos were deleted from the flash drive at the request of the Uzbek KGB. According to them, this object is considered secret. For comparison: a similar complex in France is visited annually by 80 thousand tourists from different countries peace.
Ecology of consumption. Science and technology: A large solar oven is a complex optical-mechanical complex with automatic systems control, consisting of a heliostat field and a paraboloid concentrator
Research and synthesis of refractory materials under the influence of concentrated solar radiation were started at the Physical-Technical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan (PTI) in 1976 and became the main scientific direction Institute of Materials Science, organized in 1993 on the basis of several laboratories of the Physicotechnical Institute and BSP.
A large solar furnace is a complex optical-mechanical complex with automatic control systems, consisting of a heliostat field and a paraboloid concentrator, which form a radiant beam in the focal zone of the concentrator (technological tower). stationary flow high density.
The furnace is located 45 km from Tashkent, in the Parkent district, in the foothills of the Tien Shan. The height above sea level is 1050 m. The heliostat field is formed by 62 heliostats placed on the gentle slope of the mountain in a checkerboard pattern, which provide illumination of the entire mirror surface of the concentrator in the mode of continuous tracking of the Sun during the working day. All 62 heliostats of the complex have the same design and dimensions. The reflective surface of the heliostat measuring 7.5 x 6.5 m is flat, composite, and includes 195 mirror elements - bevels 0.5 x 0.5 m in size and 6 mm thick. The reflective layer of the facet is formed by vacuum deposition of aluminum on the back side and is protected acrylic paint brand EM AK-5164. The total number of facets is 12090 pieces, the area of the reflective surface is 3022.5 m 2 .
The heliostat mount is alt-azimuth. Drive type electromechanical. The kinematic schemes of elevation and azimuthal allow with an error of no more than 1 arc. min to move the heliostat in the Sun tracking mode.
The operation of the drives is controlled by the signals of the sensor of the tracking system, located in front of the central facet of the heliostat, the root-mean-square error of the surface of which does not exceed 30 arcsec. With.
A system of synchronous control of all heliostats located on one shelf is provided by one leading heliostat of the shelf. The error of such control does not exceed 3 arcsec. min. In addition, all 62 heliostats are in automatic temperature control (ATCS) mode, designed to provide various kinds distribution of the luminous flux, have the ability to track with a mismatch angle of up to +25 arc. min.
Management can also be done with automated system control of the heliostatic field (ASUG). The use of AGCS makes it possible to flexibly control the distribution of the radiant flux density in the focal zone of the furnace and opens up opportunities for conducting astrophysical research at night, using the BSP as a unique astrophysical instrument.
The formation of the required radiant flux density is carried out by removing individual heliostats from the tracking mode under the control of a radiometer with accompanying measurements of direct solar radiation on an actinometric stand using the AORT mode or programmatically (ACCS).
The reflecting surface of the concentrator is a rectangular-stepped cutout of a paraboloid of revolution with a focal length of 18 m. The height of the midsection of the concentrator is 42.5 m, the upper edge is located at a height of 54 m from the ground, the width of the midsection is 54 m. total area the midsection of the reflecting surface is 1840 m 2 , and the area of the surface itself is 2060 m 2 . Solar-powered ovens can generate controlled temperatures of up to 3,000 degrees Celsius throughout the day.
The concentrator is mounted from 214 blocks in the form of parallelograms, with side dimensions of 4.5 x 2.25 m each, but with different angles at the vertices, determined by the coordinates of the block. Each block has 50 reflective elements - rhombic facet. The total number of facets is 10700 pcs. The blocks are fastened to the frame by four nodal points, and the block attachment points allow compensating for the low accuracy of the concentrator frame metal structure and aligning the blocks into a single high-precision paraboloid surface. In addition, the installation and adjustment of individual facets on the block is carried out using special adjustment units. Such a system ensures the formation of a concentrating surface with an accuracy of no worse than 1 arcsec. min.
The facet mirror is glass, with a rear reflective layer formed by an aluminum film deposited by vacuum deposition. The dimensions of the mirror are 447 x 447 x 5. The reflective surfaces of the facets are formed by a deformation method and repeat the curvature of the corresponding zone of the paraboloid on which they are installed. Facets in form have 10 standard sizes.
The technological tower houses various equipment with the necessary engineering communications for melting materials and special studies in the focal zone of the BSP.
Curtain and rotary-slit shutters provide light pulses of various shapes with a duration of 1 s or more. An automatic system for recording pulses using a photometric meter makes it possible to measure the characteristics of the received pulses and examine samples up to 1 m in diameter. Samples can be subjected to complex effects of light fluxes, mechanical loads and blowing.
To carry out control and adjustment work on tuning individual elements of the BSP, measuring the energy and spectral characteristics of the focal spot, a focal spot analyzer, an automatic system for recording energy density using a radiometer, a television measuring system, and a vision system are used.
Observations of the change in direct solar radiation over many years at the location of the object "Sun" show that during the year the number of conditional sunny days is 250-270 days.
The specular reflection coefficient of the optical elements of the installation, the average value of which is close to 0.7, decreases over time due to the dustiness of the air and can drop to 0.5, so regular preventive maintenance is required. The accuracy of the reflecting elements, taking into account the surface errors of the mirrors, fluctuates in the range of 35 arcsec. min. The total furnace power is about 0.7 MW, the maximum focal spot diameter is 1.2 m. published
In fact, there are several such structures in the world. Let's start with Solar Furnace in France, i.e. from France.
The Solar Furnace in France is designed to generate and concentrate the high temperatures needed for various processes.
This is done by capturing the sun's rays and concentrating their energy in one place. The structure is covered with curved mirrors, their radiance is so great that it is impossible to look at them, to the point of pain in the eyes. In 1970, this structure was erected, as the most suitable place Eastern Pyrenees were chosen. And to this day, the Furnace remains the largest in the world.
The array of mirrors is assigned the functions of a parabolic reflector, and the high temperature regime at the focus itself can reach up to 3500 degrees. Moreover, you can regulate the temperature by changing the angles of the mirrors.
Solar Furnace, using a natural resource such as sunlight, is considered an indispensable method for obtaining high temperatures. And they, in turn, are used for various processes. So, the production of hydrogen requires a temperature of 1400 degrees. Test modes of materials, carried out in high-temperature conditions, provide for a temperature of 2500 degrees. So tested spacecraft and nuclear reactors.
So the Solar Furnace is not just an amazing building, but also a vital and efficient one, while it is considered an environmentally friendly and relatively cheap way to get high temperatures.
The array of mirrors acts as a parabolic reflector. The light is focused in one center. And the temperature there can reach temperatures at which steel can be melted.
But the temperature can be adjusted by setting the mirrors at different angles.
For example, temperatures around 1400 degrees are used to produce hydrogen. Temperature of 2500 degrees - for testing materials in extreme conditions. For example, this is how nuclear reactors and spacecraft are tested. But temperatures up to 3500 degrees are used for the manufacture of nanomaterials.
The Solar Furnace is an inexpensive, efficient and environmentally friendly way to produce high temperatures.
In the south-west of France, grapes take root remarkably and all kinds of fruits ripen - it's hot! Among other things, the sun shines here almost 300 days a year, and in terms of the number of clear days, these places are perhaps second only to the Côte d'Azur. If we characterize the valley near Odeio from the point of view of physics, then the power of light radiation here is 800 watts per 1 square meter. Eight powerful incandescent bulbs. A little? It is enough for a piece of basalt to spread into a puddle!
- The solar oven in Odeyo has a capacity of 1 megawatt, and this requires almost 3 thousand meters of mirror surface, says Serge Chauvin, curator of the local solar museum. — Moreover, you need to collect light from such a large surface at a focal point with a diameter of a dinner plate.
Opposite the parabolic mirror, heliostats are installed - special mirror plates. There are 63 of them with 180 sections. Each heliostat has its own "point of responsibility" - the sector of the parabola, on which the collected light is reflected. Already on a concave mirror, the rays of the sun are going to a focal point - that same stove. Depending on the intensity of the radiation (read - the clarity of the sky, time of day and season), temperatures can be very different. In theory - up to 3800 degrees Celsius, in reality it went up to 3600.
- Together with the movement of the sun, heliostats also move across the sky, Serge Chauvin begins his tour. — Each has an engine installed at the back, and all together they are centrally controlled. It is not necessary to install them in an ideal position - depending on the tasks of the laboratory, the degree at the focal point can vary.
The solar oven in Odeyo began to be built in the early 60s, and was put into operation in the 70s. For a long time it remained the only one of its kind on the planet, but in 1987 a copy was erected near Tashkent. Serge Chauvin smiles: "Yes, yes, exactly a copy."
The Soviet stove, by the way, also remains operational. True, not only experiments are carried out on it, but also some practical tasks are performed. True, the location of the furnace does not allow reaching the same high temperatures as in France - at the focal point, Uzbek scientists manage to get less than 3000 degrees.
The parabolic mirror consists of 9000 plates - facets. Each of them is polished, has an aluminum coating and is slightly concave for better focusing. After the furnace building was built, all bevels were installed and calibrated by hand - it took three years!
Serge Chauvin leads us to a site near the kiln building. Together with us - a group of tourists who arrived in Odeyo by bus - the flow of lovers of scientific exoticism does not dry out. The museum curator was about to demonstrate the hidden potential of solar energy.
Madame and Monsieur, your attention!- Serge, although he looks more like a scientist, is more like an actor. — The light emitted by our star makes it possible to instantly heat materials, ignite and melt them.
A solar oven worker picks up an ordinary branch and places it in a large vat with a mirrored interior. It takes Serge Chauvin a few seconds to find a focus point, and the stick instantly flares up. Miracles!
While the French grandparents are gasping and groaning, the museum worker moves to a free-standing heliostat and moves it exactly so that the reflected rays hit a small copy of the parabolic mirror installed right there. This is another illustrative experiment showing the possibilities of the sun.
— Madame and Monsieur, now we will melt the metal!
Serge Chauvin sets a piece of iron in the holder, moves the vise in search of a focus point and, having found it, moves away a short distance.
The sun is doing its job.
A piece of iron instantly heats up, begins to smoke and even spark, succumbing to hot rays. Literally in 10-15 seconds, a hole the size of a coin of 10 euro cents is burned in it.
— Voila! Serge exults.
While we return to the museum building, and the French tourists are seated in the cinema hall to watch a scientific film about the work of the solar furnace and laboratory, the caretaker tells us some interesting things.
- Most often people ask why all this is necessary, Serge Chauvin throws up his hands. — From the point of view of science, the possibilities of solar energy have been studied, applied where possible in everyday life. But there are tasks that, due to their scale and complexity of execution, require installations like this one. For example, how do we model the effect of the sun on the skin of a spaceship? Or the heating of the descent capsule returning from orbit to Earth?
In a special refractory container, installed at the focal point of the solar furnace, it is possible to recreate such, without exaggeration, unearthly conditions. It has been calculated, for example, that a skin element must withstand temperatures of 2500 degrees Celsius - and empirically it can be checked here in Odeyo.
The caretaker leads us through the museum, where various exhibits are installed - participants in numerous experiments carried out in the furnace. Our attention is drawn to the carbon brake disc…
- Oh, this thing is from the wheel of a Formula 1 car, Serge nods. — Its heating under certain conditions is comparable to what we can reproduce in the laboratory.
As mentioned above, the temperature at the focal point can be controlled using heliostats. Depending on the experiments carried out, it varies from 1400 to 3500 degrees. The lower limit is required for hydrogen production in the laboratory, the range from 2200 to 3000 is for testing various materials under extreme heat conditions. Finally, above 3000 is the area of work with nanomaterials, ceramics and the creation of new materials.
- The oven in Odeyo does not perform practical tasks, Serge Chauvin continues. — Unlike our Uzbek colleagues, we do not depend on our own economic activity and we do science only. Among our customers are not only scientists, but also a variety of departments, such as defense.
We are just stopping at a ceramic capsule, which turns out to be the hull of a drone ship.
“The War Department built a smaller diameter solar oven for their own practical needs here in the valley near Odeyo, Serge says. — It can be seen from some sections of the mountain road. But they still turn to us for scientific experiments.
The caretaker explains the advantage of solar energy over any other in the course of scientific tasks.
- First, the sun shines for free, He curls his fingers. — Secondly, mountain air contributes to conducting experiments in a "pure" form - without impurities. Thirdly, sunlight allows materials to be heated much faster than any other apparatus, which is extremely important for some experiments.
It is curious that the furnace can work practically all year round. According to Serge Chauvin, the best month for experiments is April.
- But if necessary, the sun will melt a piece of metal for tourists even in January, the caretaker smiles. — The main thing is that the sky is clear and cloudless.
One of the undeniable advantages of the very existence of this unique laboratory is its complete openness to tourists. Up to 80 thousand people come here every year, and this does much more to popularize science among adults and children than a school or university.
Font-Romeu-Odeillo is a typical French pastoral town. Its main difference from thousands of the same is the coexistence of the sacrament of everyday life and science. Against the background of a 54-meter mirror parabola - mountain dairy cows. And constant hot sun.
Now let's move on to another building.
Forty-five kilometers from Tashkent, in the Parkent district, in the foothills of the Tien Shan, at an altitude of 1050 meters above sea level, there is a unique structure - the so-called Big Solar Furnace (BSP) with a capacity of a thousand kilowatts. It is located on the territory of the Institute of Materials Science NPO "Physics-Sun" of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan. There are only two such furnaces in the world, the second is in France.
The BSP was put into operation back in the Soviet Union in 1987,” says the scientific secretary of the Institute of Materials Science of the NPO “Physics-Sun”, Candidate of Technical Sciences Mirzasultan Mamatkasymov. “Sufficient funds are allocated from the state budget to preserve this unique object. Two laboratories of the Institute are located here, four - in Tashkent, where the main scientific base where the study of chemical and physical properties new materials. We are in the process of synthesizing them. We experiment with these materials by observing the melting process at different temperatures.
BSP is a complex optical-mechanical complex with automatic control systems. The complex consists of a heliostat field located on a mountainside and directing the sun's rays into a paraboloid concentrator, which is a giant concave mirror. At the focus of this mirror, the highest temperature is created - 3000 degrees Celsius!
The heliostat field consists of sixty-two heliostats arranged in a checkerboard pattern. They provide the mirror surface of the concentrator with a light flux in the mode of continuous tracking of the Sun throughout the day. Each heliostat, measuring seven and a half by six and a half meters, consists of 195 flat mirror elements called "facets". The reflecting area of the heliostat field is 3022 square meters.
The concentrator, on which the heliostats direct the sun's rays, is a cyclopean structure forty-five meters high and fifty-four meters wide.
It should be noted that the advantage of solar ovens, compared with other types of ovens, is the instantaneous achievement of high temperature, which allows obtaining pure materials without impurities (due to the purity of the mountain air). They are used for oil and gas, textile and a number of other industries.
Mirrors have a certain service life and sooner or later fail. In our workshops, we manufacture new mirrors that we install to replace the old ones. There are 10700 of them only in the concentrator, and 12090 in heliostats. The process of manufacturing mirrors takes place in vacuum installations, where aluminum is deposited on the surface of used mirrors.
Ferghana.Ru:- How do you solve the problem of finding specialists, because after the collapse of the Union, there was an outflow of them abroad?
Mirzasultan Mamatkasymov:- At the time of the launch of the installation in 1987, specialists from Russia and Ukraine worked here, who trained ours. Thanks to our experience, we now have the opportunity to train specialists in this field on our own. Young people come to us from the Faculty of Physics of the National University of Uzbekistan. I myself have been working here since 1991 after graduating from university.
Ferghana.Ru:- When you look at this grandiose structure, at the openwork metal constructions, as if floating in the air and at the same time supporting the "armor" of the concentrator, frames of science fiction films pop up in my memory ...
Mirzasultan Mamatkasymov:- Well, in my lifetime to shoot science fiction, using these unique "decorations", no one has tried here yet. True, Uzbek pop stars came to shoot their videos.
Mirzasultan Mamatkasymov:- Today we will melt briquettes pressed from powdered aluminum oxide, the melting point of which is 2500 degrees Celsius. During the melting process, the material flows down an inclined plane and drips into a special pan, where granules are formed. They are sent to a ceramic workshop located near the BSP, where they are crushed and used to make various ceramic products, ranging from small thread guides for the textile industry to hollow ceramic balls that look like billiard balls. Balls are used in the oil and gas industry as floats. At the same time, evaporation from the surface of oil products stored in large containers at oil depots is reduced by 15-20 percent. In recent years, we have produced about six hundred thousand of these floats.
We manufacture insulators and other products for the electrical industry. They are characterized by increased wear resistance and strength. In addition to aluminum oxide, we also use a more refractory material - zirconium oxide with a melting point of 2700 degrees Celsius.
The melting process is controlled by the so-called "vision system", which is equipped with two special television cameras. One of them directly transmits the image to a separate monitor, the other - to a computer. The system allows both to observe the melting process and to carry out various measurements.
It should be added that the BSP is also used as a universal astrophysical instrument that opens up the possibility of conducting studies of the starry sky at night.
In addition to the above works at the institute great attention given to the production medical equipment based on functional ceramics (sterilizers), abrasive tools, dryers and much more. Such equipment has been successfully implemented in medical institutions our republic, as well as to similar institutions in Malaysia, Germany, Georgia and Russia.
In parallel, the institute developed solar installations low power. So, for example, scientists of the institute created solar furnaces with a capacity of one and a half kilowatts, which were installed on the territory of the Tabbe Institute of Metallurgy (Egypt) and at the International Metallurgical Center in Hyderabad (India).
Arriving in Uzbekistan, the first thing we decided to do was to go and look at one of the wonders of the world - the "Sun" complex. This crazy engineering structure is located in the Parkent district, in the foothills of the Tien Shan, about 45 km from Tashkent at an altitude of 1050 meters.
The construction of the "Solntse" complex began back in 1981. At the moment, there are only two such complex engineering facilities in the world: in France and here, in the former USSR. The engineering development of such a structure costs absolutely crazy money and was possible only under the Soviet Union, but the operation is almost free. Solar-powered ovens can generate controlled temperatures of up to 3,000 degrees Celsius throughout the day.
The main parabolic mirror measuring 54 by 54 meters forms a focused beam with a diameter of 1.2 meters. In the center, behind the mirror canvas, there is a research center, from where the process of melting metals is monitored.
The total number of mirror elements on the hub is 10,700 pieces.
62 heliostats, located on a gentle slope in a checkerboard pattern, direct the rays of light to the concentrator. The size of each heliostat is 7.5 by 6.5 meters.
Heliostats operate in automatic mode, that is, following the sun, they distribute solar fluxes on the main concentrator in such a way that the desired temperature is created in the furnace: from 800 to 3000 degrees.
In the technological tower, opposite the concentrator, the furnace itself is located, as well as a special curtain-slit shutter, which allows you to get a beam of the desired shape and controls the duration of the temperature exposure.
First of all, such a solar furnace is needed, of course, not for simple remelting of metals, although it can also perform such a function. The main task of the complex is scientific research.
Let's say we need to find out how the skin of the spacecraft will behave with a sharp solar impact and the body is heated to 2000 degrees for two seconds. Without such a complex, it will not be easy to conduct such studies.
The number of sunny days in this area is about 270.
The rarefied mountain air also contributes to the purity of the experiments.
This photo would not have been possible without our friend anton_ermachkov :)
And around this cosmic beauty are villages.
Grapes are grown here.
When leaving Uzbekistan, despite all official approvals and letters, as well as the very fact that this shooting took place, these photos were deleted from the flash drive at the request of the Uzbek KGB. According to them, this object is considered secret. For comparison: a similar complex in France is visited annually by 80 thousand tourists from around the world.
Thank you for your attention.
