Thermal performance simulation of a solar cavity receiver under windy conditions

Journal Article · Sat Jan 15 00:00:00 EST 2011 · Solar Energy

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/J.SOLENER.2010.10.013· OSTI ID:21401377

Fang, J B; Wei, J J; Dong, X W; Wang, Y S ^[1]

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1. State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049 (China)

Solar cavity receiver plays a dominant role in the light-heat conversion. Its performance can directly affect the efficiency of the whole power generation system. A combined calculation method for evaluating the thermal performance of the solar cavity receiver is raised in this paper. This method couples the Monte-Carlo method, the correlations of the flow boiling heat transfer, and the calculation of air flow field. And this method can ultimately figure out the surface heat flux inside the cavity, the wall temperature of the boiling tubes, and the heat loss of the solar receiver with an iterative solution. With this method, the thermal performance of a solar cavity receiver, a saturated steam receiver, is simulated under different wind environments. The highest wall temperature of the boiling tubes is about 150 C higher than the water saturation temperature. And it appears in the upper middle parts of the absorbing panels. Changing the wind angle or velocity can obviously affect the air velocity inside the receiver. The air velocity reaches the maximum value when the wind comes from the side of the receiver (flow angle {alpha} = 90 ). The heat loss of the solar cavity receiver also reaches a maximum for the side-on wind. (author)

• OSTI ID: 21401377
• Journal Information: Solar Energy, Vol. 85, Issue 1; Other Information: Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved; ISSN 0038-092X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
HEAT LOSSES
CAVITY RECEIVERS
ITERATIVE METHODS
MONTE CARLO METHOD
BOILING
AIR
PERFORMANCE
WIND
AIR FLOW
TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION
SIMULATION
VELOCITY
TUBES
WALLS
HEAT FLUX
MATHEMATICAL SOLUTIONS
CORRELATIONS
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0273-0400 K
EFFICIENCY
PANELS
STEAM
SURFACES
Flow boiling heat transfer