Numerical Investigation of Heat Transfer and Flow Characteristics of Supercritical CO 2 in Solar Tower Microchannel Receivers at High Temperature

Xiaoru Zhuang, Haitao Wang, Haoran Lu, Zhi Yang () and Hao Guo ()
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Xiaoru Zhuang: School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Shenzhen Polytechnic University, Shenzhen 518055, China
Haitao Wang: School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Shenzhen Polytechnic University, Shenzhen 518055, China
Haoran Lu: China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, Beijing 100076, China
Zhi Yang: School of Material and Energy, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
Hao Guo: Key Laboratory of Cryogenics, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 18, 1-19

Abstract: Using supercritical CO 2 as a heat transfer fluid in microchannel receivers is a promising alternative for tower concentrating solar power plants. In this paper, the heat transfer and flow characteristics of supercritical CO 2 in microchannels at high temperature are investigated by numerical simulations. The effects of microchannel structure, mass flow rate, heat flux, pressure, inlet temperature and radiation are analyzed and discussed. The results show that higher mass flow rate obtains poorer heat transfer performance with larger flow resistance of supercritical CO 2 in microchannels at high temperature. The fluid and wall temperatures, average heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop all increase nearly linearly with the increases in heat flux and inlet temperature in the high-temperature region. Moreover, high pressure contributes to great hydraulic performance with approximate thermal performance. The effect of radiation on thermal performance is more pronounced than that on hydraulic performance. Furthermore, the optimized structures of inlet and outlet headers, as well as those of the multichannel in the microchannels, are proposed to obtain good temperature uniformity in the microchannels with relatively low pressure drop. The results given in the current study can be conducive to the design and application of microchannel receivers with supercritical CO 2 as a heat transfer fluid in the third generation of concentrating solar power plants.

Keywords: supercritical CO 2; heat transfer; microchannel; solar receiver; numerical simulation; concentrating solar power (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: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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