Numerical study on the transient thermal performance of a lab-scale molten salt receiver

For the on-site high-temperature molten salt receiver, the non-uniformity of temperature distribution and thermal stress distribution is usually reflected in the unstable working conditions of the receiver. Therefore, this paper focuses on the receiver's transient thermal performance under the non-steady-state conditions. In this paper, a three-dimensional transient model was developed for the receiver's thermal performance calculation, and the program was applied to predict the transient temperature distribution of a lab-scale receiver. Combining with the numerical prediction and the variable-condition experiment on a lab-scale receiver, the transient thermal performance of the lab-scale receiver was studied under some variable operating conditions, such as the startup process, the mass flow rate varying, the radiation flux varying, and the ambient wind speed changing. It was found that the temperature distribution of the receiver needed about 12s to reach the stable state again when the working environment changes. Besides, the transient temperature changes of the receiver were presented and analyzed in detail when the operating environment was varying in this paper.