Heat Loss Reduction Approach in Cavity Receiver Design Based on Performance Investigation of a Novel Positive Conical Scheme

The cavity receiver’s thermal conversion performance is critical for parabolic dish and tower Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) systems. Distinct from precedent research aiming to increase the receiver’s absorption through cavity geometry optimization, the objective of this work was to investigate the thermal conversion performance of a novel, positive conical cavity receiver design, following the heat loss reduction approach with simplified pipe forming, to stress the effectiveness of this approach in cavity receiver design, and to provide data for future optimization of the proposed design. To accomplish these goals, the novel receiver and existing designs’ heat flux absorption and heat loss are compared numerically. The resulting conversion power is also experimentally validated. The concept is inspired by analysis of formulas, suggesting the novel design may realize a thermal conversion improvement of 8.6%, at 650 K, and increases with the rise in temperature. The comprehensive numerical investigation combines ray tracing of identical incoming radiation to investigate the receiver absorption and CFD methods to investigate the cavities’ heat loss at identical temperatures. The absorption acquired is unoptimized. The novel design can reduce the heat loss by as much as 91.8% when compared with a negative conical design at 650 K, resulting in a 12.3% improvement in conversion power. The experimental investigation measures the energy conversion to the working fluid in different cavities under identical incoming radiation. The novel receiver outperforms by over 5.6% in the setup. After correcting boundary conditions using experiment measurements, the experimental and numerical results are comparable. This research proves that the novel positive conical receiver has a better thermal conversion performance over 650 K; thus, the heat loss reduction approach is effective and feasible in receiver designs within this temperature range.