Coupled modeling of a directly heated tubular solar receiver for supercritical carbon dioxide Brayton cycle: Structural and creep-fatigue evaluation

Journal Article · 06 June 2016 · Applied Thermal Engineering

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2016.06.031 · OSTI ID:1257788

Ortega, Jesus ^[1]; Khivsara, Sagar ^[2]; Christian, Joshua ^[1]; Ho, Clifford ^[1]; Dutta, Pradip ^[2]

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1. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
2. Indian Inst. of Science, Bangalore, KS (India)

A supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO₂) Brayton cycle is an emerging high energy-density cycle undergoing extensive research due to the appealing thermo-physical properties of sCO₂ and single phase operation. Development of a solar receiver capable of delivering sCO₂ at 20 MPa and 700 °C is required for implementation of the high efficiency (~50%) solar powered sCO₂ Brayton cycle. In this work, extensive candidate materials are review along with tube size optimization using the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code. Moreover, temperature and pressure distribution obtained from the thermal-fluid modeling (presented in a complementary publication) are used to evaluate the thermal and mechanical stresses along with detailed creep-fatigue analysis of the tubes. For resulting body stresses were used to approximate the lifetime performance of the receiver tubes. A cyclic loading analysis is performed by coupling the Strain-Life approach and the Larson-Miller creep model. The structural integrity of the receiver was examined and it was found that the stresses can be withstood by specific tubes, determined by a parametric geometric analysis. The creep-fatigue analysis display the damage accumulation due to cycling and the permanent deformation on the tubes showed that the tubes can operate for the full lifetime of the receiver.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 1257788
• Report Number(s): SAND2016-2443J; 625539
• Journal Information: Applied Thermal Engineering, Journal Name: Applied Thermal Engineering; ISSN 1359-4311
• Publisher: ElsevierCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English