Heat pipe central solar receiver. Semiannual progress report, September 1, 1976--May 31, 1977

Technical Report · Thu Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1977

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6772444· OSTI ID:6772444

Bienert, W. B.; Wolf, D. A.

It is proposed to develop a solar-to-gas heat exchanger for a Central Solar Receiver Power Plant. The concept employs heat pipes to transfer the concentrated solar flux to the gaseous working medium of a Brayton cycle conversion system. During early phases of the program, an open air cycle with recuperator and a turbine inlet temperature of 800/sup 0/C was selected as the optimum design. The predicted cycle efficiency is 33 percent and the overall solar-to-electric efficiency is 20 percent. Three potential receiver configurations were also identified during the initial phases of the program. Optimum heat pipe diameter is approximately 5 cm for all three receiver configurations, and typical lengths are 2 to 3 meters. The required number of heat pipes for a 10 MWe receiver ranges from 2000 to 8000. Heat transport requirements per pipe vary from 4 to 18 Kw. Several wick structures were developed and evaluated in subscale heat pipe tests using sodium as the working fluid. One full scale heat pipe (5 cm diameter by 183 cm long) was developed and tested with sodium as the working fluid.

• Research Organization: Dynatherm Corp., Cockeysville, Md. (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• OSTI ID: 6772444
• Report Number(s): COO--2839-2; DTM-77
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140702* -- Solar Thermal Power Systems-- Central Receiver
ALKALI METALS
BRAYTON CYCLE
CENTRAL RECEIVERS
DESIGN
EFFICIENCY
ELEMENTS
FABRICATION
FLUIDS
HEAT EXCHANGERS
HEAT FLUX
HEAT PIPES
HEAT TRANSFER FLUIDS
LIQUID METALS
LIQUIDS
METALS
POWER PLANTS
SODIUM
SOLAR POWER PLANTS
SOLAR THERMAL POWER PLANTS
TESTING
THERMODYNAMIC CYCLES
TOWER FOCUS POWER PLANTS
WORKING FLUIDS