The solar complex "Sun" - a mirror furnace of the USSR

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Looking at the photo of a unique building, it is difficult to imagine that this is not a scenery for a fantastic film, but a completely terrestrial object. Its history began in the 1980s, when the construction of the world's largest solar oven began in the vastness of the Land of the Soviets (in Uzbekistan).

Moreover, the greatness and power of the "Sun" solar complex is not so much in the futuristic forms of the structure, but in the functionality, because its installation is capable of raising the temperature in the furnace to 3500 ° C in a matter of seconds, using only the energy of the luminary.

The unusual construction began in 1981 in the foothills of the Tien Shan at an altitude of 1100 m above sea level. The territory of Uzbekistan, which was then part of the USSR, was not chosen by chance, for this kind of complex special conditions were required and here they corresponded to the basic scientific requirements.

Firstly, the entire object must be located on an integral rock mass in order to avoid destruction during earthquakes, and any tremors of the earth's crust did not lose the established direction of the heliostats to the concentrator.

Secondly, in this area during the year more than 270 days the quality of directed sunlight corresponds to the required parameters.

And most importantly, there is very little dust in the atmosphere at this altitude, because this complex is designed to work with ultrapure materials.

Interesting fact:A prototype of such a solar object exists only in Font-Rome-Odeillo, on the slopes of the Eastern Pyrenees, in France. Since 1970, a research center for the study of materials at ultrahigh temperatures has been conducting its research on the basis of the complex.

The engineering development of this complex cost the country's treasury fabulous money, but the result exceeded even the most daring expectations. Not only is the operation practically free, but the scientists have received a unique base for research. For the "Institute of the Sun" to work in full, a lot of efforts and enthusiasm had to be made by the scientists who worked under the supervision of Academician S. Azimov, because the calculation and development of experimental installations required special knowledge.

The complex design of the solar oven required precise calculations, given that it is a complex optical-mechanical complex equipped with automatic control systems. It consists of 4 structural units, one of them is a heliostat field located on a gentle slope, on which 62 heliostats assembled from 195 flat mirror elements are installed in a checkerboard pattern.

Opposite the automatically controlled mirrors of the heliostat field is a paraboloid (concave) concentrator, created from 10700 mirrors distributed over an area of 1840 m². It is this structure that is capable of forming a stationary high-density energy flow in the focal zone of the concentrator, which is redirected to the central tower, in which a temperature of over 3500 ° C is created, which is the equivalent of the energy of “10 thousand suns”.

Interesting: The diameter of the parabolic mirror in the "Sun" solar complex is 47 m, and in the Odeilia solar oven - 54 m.

Naturally, no one uses such superpowers for the sake of banal remelting of metals, they are used for scientific purposes, since testing of equipment and materials that are involved in the aviation and aerospace industries cannot be carried out under normal conditions.

For example, to create the skin of a spacecraft or orbital station, you need to know exactly how the body of the object tolerates heat under constant exposure to sunlight and how it reacts to a sharp drop in temperature. It is clear to everyone that such studies will not be possible without the solar complex. Although such installations can easily be used for various purposes, for example, for generating electricity, hydrogen fuel or creating nanomaterials, as well as melting steel and other high-strength materials.

Benefits of a solar oven:

- thanks to the system of mirrors and concentrators, it became possible to raise the temperature over 3500 ° literally in a matter of seconds, which makes it possible to obtain pure materials without impurities at the output;

- the solar system is capable of providing an instantaneous temperature change, which makes it possible to thoroughly investigate the effect of thermal shocks on materials;

- environmental safety is ensured due to the fact that the object undergoing research is heated only by radiation. This means that the oven does not produce any contaminants.

Despite the fact that the Soviet Union is long gone, the "Institute of the Sun" was renamed into the Physicotechnical Institute of NPO "Physics-Sun" of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan, and in the same mode it is inspiredly engaged in research work, regularly experimenting with solar panels, nanomaterials, optoelectronics and many others.

According to the editors of Novate. Ru, the scientific institution is also engaged in commercial activities, because modern technologies more than ever need highly accurate optoelectronics, pure semiconductors, special ceramics, ultra-precise elements for creating medical equipment and medical equipment, etc.

Tourism has also become popular recently. Travel companies organize exciting one-day excursions so that everyone can see with their own eyes the greatness of the "Institute of the Sun" and its unique oven.