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%.
Highlights
Solar thermal power [1] is a very promising technology for clean and renewable energy
The nonuniform heat transfer of the cavityisreceiver is by established by the circular tube fluid temperature variable circumferential temperature, and considering thestructure, circular variable tube structure, variable and fluid temperature and variable circumferential temperature, and the thermal performance of the molten salt cavity receiver is further analyzed
The thermal efficiency of the cavity receiver MSEE calculated by the nonuniform model is 86.93%
Summary
Solar thermal power [1] is a very promising technology for clean and renewable energy. The main aim of this article is to propose a nonuniform heat transfer model of a cavity receiver by considering the circular tube structure, variable fluid temperature and variable circumferential temperature, and this model can present nonuniform temperature and thermal parameters, but need little calculation cost. By using the nonuniform heat transfer model based on the thermal resistance model, the heat loss and thermal efficiency of the receiver will be further analyzed under different incident radiation flux caused by the receiver area and incident energy power, different flow velocity and view factor, etc. The temperature distribution and thermal efficiency of the molten salt cavity receiver calculated from the uniform heat transfer model and nonuniform heat transfer model are further compared and analyzed
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