Heat pipe central solar receiver. Semiannual progress report, March 1, 1976--August 31, 1976

Technical Report · Mon Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1976

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/7294632· OSTI ID:7294632

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

The objective of this program is the development of a solar-to-gas heat exchanger for a Central Receiver Power Plant. The concept is based on the use of heat pipes to transfer the concentrated solar flux to the gaseous working medium of a Brayton cycle conversion system. An open air cycle with recuperator and a turbine inlet temperature of 800/sup 0/C (approximately 1500/sup 0/F) was selected as the optimum choice. It yields a conversion efficiency of approximately 32 percent and an overall solar-to-electric efficiency of 20 percent. The light weight of gas turbine equipment opens the possibility of tower mounting the entire system. Three potential receiver configurations have been identified, two of them being of the cavity type and one being an external receiver. The required thermal diffuser heat pipes use liquid metal as the working fluid. The optimum size is approximately 5 cm in diameter and 2 to 3 m in length. The design axial heat flux is 10 MW/m/sup 2/ which corresponds to a heat transfer rate of 20 kW per heat pipe. The theoretical foundations of these heat pipes have been developed and subscale prototypes have been tested successfully. The radial and axial heat fluxes of the prototypes met and exceeded the requirements for the full-scale heat pipes.

• Research Organization: Dynatherm Corp., Cockeysville, MD (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: US Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA)
• OSTI ID: 7294632
• Report Number(s): COO-2839-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140702* -- Solar Thermal Power Systems-- Central Receiver
ALLOYS
BRAYTON CYCLE
CENTRAL RECEIVERS
CHROMIUM ALLOYS
CHROMIUM STEELS
CHROMIUM-NICKEL STEELS
CLOSED-CYCLE SYSTEMS
CONFIGURATION
CORROSION RESISTANT ALLOYS
DESIGN
EFFICIENCY
ELEMENTS
ENERGY BALANCE
FLUIDS
GAS TURBINES
HEAT EXCHANGERS
HEAT PIPES
HEAT RESISTANT MATERIALS
HEAT RESISTING ALLOYS
INCONEL ALLOYS
IRON ALLOYS
IRON BASE ALLOYS
LIQUID METALS
LIQUIDS
MATERIALS
METALS
NICKEL ALLOYS
NICKEL BASE ALLOYS
OPEN-CYCLE SYSTEMS
PERFORMANCE TESTING
POWER PLANTS
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SIZE
SOLAR POWER PLANTS
SOLAR THERMAL POWER PLANTS
STAINLESS STEEL-304
STAINLESS STEELS
STEELS
TESTING
THERMODYNAMIC CYCLES
TOWER FOCUS POWER PLANTS
TURBINES
TURBOMACHINERY
WORKING FLUIDS