Multi-objective optimization of a solar receiver considering both the dimple/protrusion depth and delta-winglet vortex generators

Lei Luo, Wei Du, Songtao Wang, Lei Wang, Bengt Sundén and Xinhong Zhang

Energy, 2017, vol. 137, issue C, 1-19

Abstract: In this study, multi-objective optimization of the performance of a solar receiver with dimple and delta-winglet vortex generators (DWVGs) is carried out. The thermal performance and outlet dimensionless turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) are chosen as the optimization objectives. The dimple depth, dimple arrangement, the length, height, angle and spacing of the DWVGs are selected as the optimization variables. The Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA II) optimization algorithm and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) are adopted. The Re number is fixed as 15,000 in the optimization process. After the optimization, five cases including a Baseline are studied in detail. Results of the Pareto front, flow structure, heat transfer, TKE and thermal performance are included. The results show that the Pareto front is obtained by using this optimization platform. The mixing and thermal performance are significantly increased in the optimal cases. In addition, the solar receiver with inline arranged dimples and DWVGs provides better performance of both mixing and heat transfer than the stagger arrangement. The flow impingement on the protrusion leading edge and half downstream the dimple, the reattachment downstream the dimple are responsible for the thermal performance augmentation while the vortices generated by dimples and protrusions contribute to the increase of mixing. As a result, the heat transfer is enhanced by 75.78%, the friction factor is increased by 166.57% and the TKE is augmented by 5.2 times, respectively. The thermal performance analysis indicates that optimization increases the thermal performance by 72%.

Keywords: Multi-objective optimization; Solar receiver; Thermal performance; Mixing; Delta-winglet vortex generator; Dimple (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544217311751
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:137:y:2017:i:c:p:1-19

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2017.07.001

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 ().