CAV2: A PC-based computer program for predicting incident solar flux distributions inside dish cavity receivers

Technical Report · Sun Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1987

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5228495· OSTI ID:5228495

Diver, R B; Andraka, C E

The energy flux distribution at the aperture of cavity receivers is an important parameter that characterizes the performance of point-focusing solar concentrators. Together with simplifying assumptions about cavity absorptance, emittance, and convective losses, good estimates of the dish-receiver collection efficiency as a function of incident flux and effective cavity temperature can be obtained. For detailed design of cavity receivers, however, it is necessary to determine the incident flux distribution on the interior surfaces. This information is needed ultimately to determine the resulting energy fluxes to the working fluid, temperature distributions within the cavity, and receiver performance. Knowing the incident flux distributions provides the designer with insights such as where hot-spots are likely to occur, where heat exchange surfaces are needed, and where more detailed analysis might be warranted. Solar receivers are heat exchangers and incident flux distributions are a fundamental aspect of their design. The objective of this effort was to develop a design tool with which the effects of concentrator and receiver geometry on energy distributions could be investigated. The principal interest was in obtaining the overall flux distributions within arbitrarily shaped cavities. CAV was selected as a starting point for this development because of its availability and because it interfaces with a thermal analysis program called CVT. It also has the advantage that it can accommodate a number of internal surface orientations and has been shown to agree very well with more sophisticated computer programs.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 5228495
• Report Number(s): SAND86-0927; ON: DE87006315
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
141000* -- Solar Collectors & Concentrators
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
990220 -- Computers
Computerized Models
& Computer Programs-- (1987-1989)
C CODES
CAVITIES
CAVITY RECEIVERS
COMPUTER CODES
COMPUTER PROGRAM DOCUMENTATION
COMPUTERS
CSP
Concentrating Solar Power
DESIGN
DIGITAL COMPUTERS
DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS
EFFICIENCY
EQUIPMENT
FUNCTIONS
HEAT EXCHANGERS
PERSONAL COMPUTERS
SOLAR CONCENTRATORS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
SOLAR FLUX
SOLAR RECEIVERS
THERMAL ANALYSIS