Derivation of Error Sources from Experimentally Determined Heliostat Surface Shapes

Abstract

Data gathered using photogrammetry that represents the surface and structure of a heliostat mirror panel is investigated in detail. A curve-fitting approach that allows the retrieval of four distinct mirror error components, while prioritizing the best fit possible to paraboloidal terms in the curve fitting equation, is presented. The angular errors associated with each of the four surfaces are calculated, and the relative magnitude for each of them is given. It is found that in this case, the mirror had a significant structural twist, and an estimate of the improvement to the mirror surface quality in the case of no twist was made