One-side heating test and modeling of tubular receivers equipped with turbulence promoters for solar tower applications

Marco Cantone, Mattia Cagnoli, Jesus Fernandez Reche and Laura Savoldi

Applied Energy, 2020, vol. 277, issue C, No S030626192031031X

Abstract: Tubular receivers in central tower systems suffer the high mechanical stresses caused by the temperature gradient typically established along the tube and across its circumference due to the one-side heating. In the present work, the thermal behavior of three different absorber tubes is investigated both experimentally and numerically. The tubes, manufactured in Cr alloy 718 (Inconel®), were smooth or with repeated rib-roughness (annular or helical ribs), and were tested at the solar furnace SF60 of the Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA) in 2017 within the international access program of SFERA II project, financed by the EU. The specific focus of the tests was the assessment of the role of turbulence promoters in reducing the peak wall temperature when a strong one-side heating is present, contributing to the reduction of the thermal gradients between the irradiated and the non-irradiated (back) side of the tube. The experimental results show that the use of turbulence promoters reduce the wall temperature with respect to the case of a smooth tube, as expected, although the comparison between the samples is not trivial in view of the change in the optical properties induced by the progressive oxidation of the irradiated surface. Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) 3D models have been developed for the three samples and they have proven the capability to very-well reproduce the experimental results. A fair comparison between the different simulated tubes in the same controlled conditions of one-side heating has been performed numerically, assessing quantitatively the temperature reduction induced by the turbulence promoters, and the best performance of the Inconel® tube equipped with helices.

Keywords: Solar tubular receivers; Turbulence promoters; One-side heating; CFD; TEF; Heat transfer enhancement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030626192031031X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:277:y:2020:i:c:s030626192031031x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115519

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().