Characterization of Solar-Aged Porous Silicon Carbide for Concentrated Solar Power Receivers.

Inmaculada Cañadas,Giulia De Aloysio,Antonio Rinaldi,Jesús Fernández,Claudio Testani,Angelo Tatì,Santiago Cuesta-López,T James Marrow,Victor M Candelario,Ana Mariblanca Sanchez,Yang Chen,Luca Laghi

doi:10.3390/ma14164627

Abstract

Porous silicon carbide is a promising material for ceramic receivers in next-generation concentrated solar power receivers. To investigate its tolerance to thermal shock, accelerated ageing of large coupons (50 × 50 × 5 mm) was conducted in a solar furnace to investigate the effects of thermal cycling up to 1000 °C, with gradients of up to 22 °C/mm. Non-destructive characterization by computed X-ray tomography and ultrasonic inspection could detect cracking from thermal stresses, and this informed the preparation of valid specimens for thermophysical characterization. The effect of thermal ageing on transient thermal properties, as a function of temperature, was investigated by using the light-flash method. The thermophysical properties were affected by increasing the severity of the ageing conditions; thermal diffusivity decreased by up to 10% and specific heat by up to 5%.

Highlights

Solar energy is an essential source of renewable energy which provides a promising solution to the current climate crisis
After performing the thermal ageing treatments, the slabs were observed by tomography to inspect for cracks
By comparison between untreated and aged samples, it is observed that, for samples aged over an inner temperature range from 300 to 800 ◦ C, the specific heat was reduced by up to 5% in the samples aged with shorter cycles (Figure 9)

Summary

Introduction

Solar energy is an essential source of renewable energy which provides a promising solution to the current climate crisis. One of the most mature of the solar technologies is concentrated solar power (CSP), which currently produces 0.5% of the global electricity and should provide 11% by 2050, according to References [1,2]. The main device employed in CSP technologies for exploiting solar energy is the solar collector, which is composed of a reflector and a receiver.

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