Thermal-hydraulic and thermodynamic performance of parabolic trough solar receiver partially filled with gradient metal foam

Hao Peng, Meilin Li and Xingang Liang

Energy, 2020, vol. 211, issue C

Abstract: With the aim to improve overall thermal-hydraulic and thermodynamic performance of parabolic trough solar receiver (PTR), a new configuration with partial insertion of gradient metal foam (GMF) is proposed. The effects of GMF with pore density gradient or porosity gradient on turbulent forced convection heat transfer, flow resistance, entropy generation rate and exergetic efficiency of PTR tube are numerically analyzed. The distribution of non-uniform heat flux on receiver tube wall is calculated by Monte Carlo Ray-Trace Method, and the local thermal non-equilibrium model is used, which considers the temperature difference between metal skeleton and fluid. The numerical method is validated by experimental data. The results show that GMF enhances the heat transfer of PTR tube, with Nusselt number being increased by 43.7%–812.6%; brings the increase of flow resistance, with friction factor being 4.2 to 16.7 times of empty tube; improves the overall thermal-hydraulic performance with performance evaluation criteria ranging from 1.5–3.6. The GMF causes maximum reduction of total entropy generation rate and maximum enhancement of exergetic efficiency to be 92.6% and 24.4%, respectively. The PTR tube partially filled with GMF can obtain higher thermal-hydraulic and thermodynamic performance than that with uniform metal foam.

Keywords: Gradient metal foam; Parabolic trough solar receiver; Forced convection; Non-uniform heat flux; Local thermal non-equilibrium (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544220321538
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:energy:v:211:y:2020:i:c:s0360544220321538

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2020.119046

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

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