Abstract
This work presents the comprehensive development of a solar receiver for the integration into a micro gas-turbine solar dish system. Special focus is placed on the thermo-mechanical design to ensure the structural integrity of all receiver components for a wide range of operating conditions. For the development, a 3-dimensional coupled multi-physics model is established and is validated using experimental data. Contrary to previous studies, the temperature of the irradiated front surface of the absorber is included in the comprehensive validation process which results in a high level of confidence in the receiver design.Finally, a full-scale solar receiver for the integration into the OMSoP solar dish system is designed and its performance determined for a wide operating range to define its safe operating envelope using the validated model. It is shown that the receiver is capable of operating at 803°C with an efficiency of 82.1% and a pressure drop of 0.3% at the nominal operating point, while at the same time functioning effectively for a wide range of off-design conditions without compromising its structural integrity. At the nominal operating point, the maximum comparison stress of the porous absorber is 5.6 MPa compared to a permissible limit of 7.4 MPa.
Highlights
Small-scale concentrating solar power plants such as micro gasturbine (MGT) based solar dish systems have the potential to harness solar energy in an effective way and supply electricity to customers in remote areas
The analyses identified a pressurized solar receiver concept in a recuperated gas-turbine configuration to be the most suitable setup for the Optimised Microturbine Solar Power system project (OMSoP) solar dish system and established two main design requirements: a pressure drop below 1% and the receiver outlet temperature of 800C or more
The thermo-mechanical design was evaluated to ensure the structural integrity of all receiver components and to define its safe operating envelope
Summary
Small-scale concentrating solar power plants such as micro gasturbine (MGT) based solar dish systems have the potential to harness solar energy in an effective way and supply electricity to customers in remote areas. Parabolic dish concentrators allow reaching high temperatures efficiently due to the high concentration ratios [3,4] Another key issue for the gas-turbine power conversion cycle is the pressure drop created by the solar receiver. Minimizing the pressure drop created by the solar receiver avoids overly penalizing the performance of the gas-turbine This is especially important for MGTs as they are sensitive to pressure losses [5]. In gas-turbine based concentrating solar power plants the preferred integration scheme is to directly place the solar receiver into the gas-turbine circuit. This eliminates the need for an intermediary heat exchanger and increases the conversion efficiency [6]. The combination of high temperatures, high light fluxes, and the requirement of low pressure drop makes the solar receiver one of the most critical components of the system
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