A computational approach to simulate the optical and thermal performance of a novel complex geometry solar tower molten salt cavity receiver
| Autor: | M. Slootweg, Ken J. Craig, Josua P. Meyer |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
Heliostat
Materials science Renewable Energy Sustainability and the Environment business.industry 020209 energy Monte Carlo method Mechanical engineering 02 engineering and technology Computational fluid dynamics 021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology Complex geometry Thermal Heat transfer 0202 electrical engineering electronic engineering information engineering General Materials Science Molten salt 0210 nano-technology business Distributed ray tracing |
| Zdroj: | Solar Energy. 187:13-29 |
| ISSN: | 0038-092X |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.solener.2019.05.003 |
| Popis: | A novel complex geometry solar tower molten salt cavity receiver is presented and investigated with regard to its optical and thermal performance. The receiver’s design consists of a collector with the goal of limiting the concentrated rays from escaping, which is further enhanced by an absorber design that consists of an array of hexagonal pyramid elements inspired by Garbrecht et al. (2013) that limits re-radiative and convective losses. The performance analysis considers the solar position, DNI and sun shape with an existing heliostat field (PS-10 field) to analyse the receiver, rather than assuming a flux. The optical analysis is conducted with the Monte Carlo ray-tracing approach, while the thermal analysis is conducted using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The initial design showed impractical receiver efficiencies of 32.8%, while preliminary sensitivity studies on selected parameters increased efficiencies up to 69.9%. In the process a design with improved optics was developed and proposed, with initial results increasing efficiencies up to 82.4%. The study indicates that the design is promising from a heat transfer point of view, although many improvements are still to be made to the design to make it competitive. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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