Experiment study of a quartz tube falling particle receiver

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental evaluation of a specially designed falling particle receiver. A quartz tube was used in the design, with which the particles would not be blown away by wind. Concentrated solar radiation was absorbed and converted into thermal energy by the solid particles flowed inside the quartz tube. Several experiments were conducted to test the dynamic thermal performance of the receiver on solar furnace system. During the experiments, the maximum particle temperature rise is 212°C, with an efficiency of 61.2%, which shows a good thermal performance with a falling distance of 0.2 m in a small scale particle receiver. The average outlet particle temperature is affected by direct normal irradiance (DNI) and other factors such as wind speed. The solid particles obtain a larger viscosity with a higher temperature while smaller solid particles are easier to get stuck in the helix quartz tube. The heat capacity of the silicon carbide gets larger with the rise of particle temperature, because as the temperature of solid particles increases, the temperature rise of the silicon carbide decreases.