An Update on the Development of Heat-Pipe Solar Receivers for Stirling/Dish-Electric Systems

Conference · Sun Mar 17 00:00:00 EST 1991

OSTI ID:6193715

Adkins, D. R. ^[1]; Godett, T. M. ^[2]

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1. Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
2. Stirling Thermal Motors, Inc., Ann Arbor, MI (United States)

The Department of Energy is sponsoring the development of a 75-kW (thermal) heat-pipe solar receiver to drive a 25-kW (electric) Stirling engine/generator system. A heat pipe solar receiver transfers energy from the focus of a parabolic-dish solar concentrator to the heater tubes of a Stirling engine through the evaporation and condensation of a liquid metal. With a heat pipe receiver, it is possible to transform irregular flux profiles from solar concentrators into a more uniform thermal input at the engine's heater tubes. Recent work in the heat-pipe receiver development program is reviewed in this paper. Techniques for constructing the heat-pipe receiver's wick structure are discussed and findings from recent bench-scale tests are presented. This paper also addresses several problem areas that have been discovered in the course of this program.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 6193715
• Report Number(s): SAND-89-3042C; CONF-910318-7; ON: DE91004568
• Resource Relation: Conference: 13. ASME-JSME International Solar Energy Conference, Reno, NV (United States), 17-22 Mar 1991
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
42 ENGINEERING
SOLAR RECEIVERS
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
DESIGN
STIRLING ENGINES
POWER GENERATION
ELECTRIC GENERATORS
ENERGY TRANSFER
EVAPORATION
HEAT FLUX
HEAT PIPE WICKS
HEAT PIPES
HEATERS
LIQUID METALS
PARABOLIC DISH REFLECTORS
POWER RANGE 10-100 KW
SODIUM
SOLAR ABSORBERS
SOLAR THERMAL CONVERSION
THERMOCOUPLES
TUBES
VAPOR CONDENSATION
ALKALI METALS
CONVERSION
ELEMENTS
ENERGY CONVERSION
ENGINES
EQUIPMENT
FLUIDS
HEAT ENGINES
KILOWATT POWER RANGE
LIQUIDS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
METALS
PARABOLIC REFLECTORS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
POWER RANGE
SOLAR CONCENTRATORS
SOLAR ENERGY CONVERSION
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
SOLAR REFLECTORS
140700* - Solar Thermal Power Systems
425003 - Engineering- Power Cycles- Stirling- (1980-)