Open AccessNumerical Analysis of Central Solar Receivers with Various Geometries
Author(s) -
Kaustubh G. Kulkarni,
Sanjay N. Havaldar,
Harsh V. Malapur
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
heat and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.283
H-Index - 29
ISSN - 0392-8764
DOI - 10.18280/ijht.400141
Subject(s) - solar mirror , heat transfer , computational fluid dynamics , renewable energy , concentrated solar power , solar energy , solar power , passive solar building design , materials science , mechanics , optics , environmental science , power (physics) , physics , photovoltaic thermal hybrid solar collector , engineering , thermodynamics , electrical engineering
Concentrated solar power (CSP) is a cutting-edge method of conserving renewable energy. The concentrated solar power is utilized as a heating source to increase the temperature of heat transfer fluid circulating in the piping of the central solar receiver. The solar central receiver is the most crucial part in solar tower power plants. In this study, a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) framework was developed for analyzing four designs of the central tower receiver, namely, a conventional uniform tube diameter solar receiver (UTD), vertical variable tube diameter solar receiver (VTD), a circular solar variable tube diameter (CVTD) receiver and a leaf type circular solar receiver (LTSR). This analysis studied the solar radiation heat transfer efficiency, temperature distribution, and fluid outlet temperature; pressure and velocity distributions for the designs using CFD. It was found that the CVTD design helped achieve a higher rise in temperature of the heat transfer fluid (HTF) when the mass flow rate was in the range of 0.1 to 0.2 liter per minute. The CVTD and LSTR models of receiver were more efficient heat transfer receiver designs compared with other designs for same surface area and strength of beam radiations.