Nonuniform Heat Transfer Model and Performance of Molten Salt Cavity Receiver

Jianfeng Lu, Yarong Wang and Jing Ding
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Jianfeng Lu: School of Materials and Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Yarong Wang: School of Intelligent Systems Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Jing Ding: School of Materials and Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-19

Abstract: The temperature distribution and thermal efficiency of a molten salt cavity receiver are investigated by a nonuniform heat transfer model based on thermal resistance analysis. For the cavity receiver MSEE in Sandia National Laboratories, thermal efficiency in this experiment is about 87.5%, and the calculation value of 86.93–87.79% by a present nonuniform model fits very well with the experimental result. Different from the uniform heat transfer model, the receiver surface temperature in the nonuniform heat transfer model is remarkably higher than the backwall temperature. The incident radiation flux plays a primary role in thermal performance of cavity receiver, and thermal efficiency approaches to maximum under optimal incident radiation flux. In order to increase thermal efficiency, various methods are proposed and studied, including heat convection enhancement by an increase of flow velocity or the decrease of the tube diameter and number of tubes in the panel, and heat loss decline by a decrease of view factor, surface emissivity and insulation conductivity. According to calculation results by different modes of the nonuniform heat transfer model, the thermal efficiency of the cavity receiver is reduced by nonuniform heat transfer caused by variable fluid temperature or variable circumferential temperature, so thermal efficiency calculated by variable fluid temperature and variable circumferential temperature is lower than that calculated by average fluid temperature and bilateral uniform circumferential temperature for 0.86%.

Keywords: solar thermal power; cavity receiver; molten salt; nonuniform heat transfer; thermal efficiency; optimal incident radiation flux (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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