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Numerical investigation on the thermal performance of molten salt cavity receivers with different structures

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  • Zhang, Li
  • Fang, Jiabin
  • Wei, Jinjia
  • Yang, Guidong

Abstract

The geometry of a solar cavity receiver affects the absorption of incident solar energy and the temperature distribution on the absorber tube panels, and hence affects the operation stability and efficiency of the solar receiver. A modified combined computational method was proposed to investigate the thermal performance of the three dimensional (3-D) molten salt cavity models in steady state. This computational method was also used to calculate the thermal performance of the receiver in the Molten-Salt Subsystem/Component Test Experiment (MSS/CTE) in the United States, and the results agree well with published data. Molten salt cavity receivers with different heights were studied. The results show that a too-low or too-high height leads to low thermal efficiency of a receiver. Therefore, appropriate heights shall be chosen to enable receivers achieve relatively high efficiencies and reach low temperatures. The molten salt cavity receivers with different cross-sections in the chosen heights were then studied, to obtain a high-efficiency cavity receiver structure without increasing the inner surface area or the depth of the cavity, under the condition that the molten salt cavity receivers were in the same perimeter of the cross-section, aperture size, cavity height, tube panel and fluid flow layouts but different cavity depths. When only the lengths of the back walls next to the side walls had been increased, the thermal efficiency decreased first and then increased with the depth decreasing, which reached the lowest value when the depth was 2.71m. When the depth of the modified receiver is small enough, its thermal efficiency can be higher than that of the MSEE receiver. When only the lengths of the two walls adjacent to the aperture had been increased, the thermal efficiency increased with the depth decreasing, and was always higher than that of the receiver in the Molten-salt Electric Experiment (MSEE) in the United States. The thermal-efficiency difference between the two arrangements of the side walls decreased with a decrease in the cavity depth. The cross-section of the MSEE receiver is similar to that of the receiver in the molten salt electric experiment by Sandia National Laboratories. Under the condition of side-on wind at a velocity of 8.3m/s, the thermal efficiency of the modified cavity with the minimum depth is 2% higher than that of the MSEE cavity with the maximum depth. The convective heat loss is 3.1% lower, while the radiative and reflective heat losses changed slightly. Therefore, the modified cavity in the present study is capable of achieving a higher efficiency with a less depth.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Li & Fang, Jiabin & Wei, Jinjia & Yang, Guidong, 2017. "Numerical investigation on the thermal performance of molten salt cavity receivers with different structures," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 966-978.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:204:y:2017:i:c:p:966-978
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.03.114
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Dimitrios N. Korres & Evangelos Bellos & Christos Tzivanidis, 2022. "Integration of a Linear Cavity Receiver in an Asymmetric Compound Parabolic Collector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-19, November.
    2. Liu, Yun & Dong, Yue & Li, Tao & Zhang, Chuan-Zhi, 2022. "Performance analysis and comparison of different corrugated structures and a novel alternative elliptical twisted tube in supercritical CO2 tower solar receivers," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 1523-1533.
    3. Yu, Qiang & Fu, Peng & Yang, Yihui & Qiao, Jiafei & Wang, Zhifeng & Zhang, Qiangqiang, 2020. "Modeling and parametric study of molten salt receiver of concentrating solar power tower plant," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    4. Georgios E. Arnaoutakis & Dimitris Al. Katsaprakakis, 2021. "Concentrating Solar Power Advances in Geometric Optics, Materials and System Integration," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-25, September.
    5. Liang, Hongbo & Zhu, Chunguang & Fan, Man & You, Shijun & Zhang, Huan & Xia, Junbao, 2018. "Study on the thermal performance of a novel cavity receiver for parabolic trough solar collectors," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 790-798.

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