Comparison between two solar tower receivers of different geometry

Abstract

This study presents a comparison between two solar power tower receivers. Selecting the optimum location of thousands of heliostats, the most profitable tower height, receiver size and geometric shape remains a challenge. In our case, we are interested in the geometric shape of the receiver. Two solar receivers connected in series and the other in parallel with different cross-sections and identical internal surface areas were studied. We performed a comparison to find the right pipe connection that gives us the good thermal capacity and solar tower efficiency. The heat transfer fluids used are water vapor and molten salts (NaNO3-NaNO2 - KNO3/NaNO3 - KNO3/LiF - NaF - BeF2), the software used for this study is ANSYS CFX with an unstructured grid with 825 300 cells and standard turbulent model and the flow of heat imposed on the receiver tubes 0.5 MW. We have been assumed that heat transfer occurs only by conduction and convection. The simulation results show the influence of parameters on the temperature field between the input and output of the receiver. The numerical simulation was done by the ANSYS CFX calculation software and using a Z620 Workstation computing machine. The objective of this work is to define the performance geometry for receivers in solar towers.

Keywords

• 3d-simulation
• solar power tower
• solar receivers
• flow
• heat transfer