Thermal performance analysis of porous media receiver with concentrated solar irradiation

Abstract The distribution of concentrated solar irradiation has a significantly impact on the temperature distribution of porous media receiver. The thermal performance of porous media receiver is investigated by combining the Monte Carlo Ray Tracing (MCRT) method and FLUENT software with user defined functions (UDFs). The MCRT method is used to obtain the heat flux distribution on the fluid inlet surface of porous media receiver. The calculated heat flux distribution is treated as the wall heat flux boundary condition of thermal performance analysis. The local non-equilibrium thermal equation (LNTE) model with Rosseland approximation is used to investigate the temperature distributions. Typical influences of the heat flux boundary condition, radiation heat loss, porosity, emissivity, flow mass and average particle diameter on the temperature distributions are investigated.

[1]  Chang Xu,et al.  Numerical investigation on porous media heat transfer in a solar tower receiver , 2011 .

[2]  Yasser Mahmoudi,et al.  Analytical investigation of heat transfer enhancement in a channel partially filled with a porous material under local thermal non-equilibrium condition , 2011 .

[3]  S. Ergun.  Fluid flow through packed columns , 1952 .

[4]  Lana S. Pantić,et al.  A review of concentrating solar power plants in the world and their potential use in Serbia , 2012 .

[5]  Ali J. Chamkha,et al.  Natural convection from an inclined plate embedded in a variable porosity porous medium due to solar radiation , 2002 .

[6]  Ming Zhao,et al.  Finite element analysis of flow control using porous media , 2010 .

[7]  M. Modest.  Radiative heat transfer , 1993 .

[8]  R. Pitz-Paal,et al.  Porous Materials as Open Volumetric Solar Receivers: Experimental Determination of Thermophysical and Heat Transfer Properties , 2004 .

[9]  Xinxin Zhang,et al.  Flow and radiation heat transfer of a nanofluid over a stretching sheet with velocity slip and temperature jump in porous medium , 2013, J. Frankl. Inst..

[10]  Pei-Xue Jiang,et al.  Numerical investigation of forced convection heat transfer in porous media using a thermal non-equilibrium model , 2001 .

[11]  C. Wu,et al.  Investigation of non-Darcian forced convection in an asymmetrically heated sintered porous channel , 1995 .

[12]  M. Maerefat,et al.  Estimation of heat flux bifurcation at the heated boundary of a porous medium using a pore-scale numerical simulation , 2012 .

[13]  G. Flamant,et al.  Numerical simulation of convective heat transfer between air flow and ceramic foams to optimise volumetric solar air receiver performances , 2011 .

[14]  K. Vafai,et al.  Analysis of Variants Within the Porous Media Transport Models , 2000 .

[15]  Bin Liu,et al.  Optical efficiency analysis of cylindrical cavity receiver with bottom surface convex , 2013 .

[16]  Anthony G. Dixon,et al.  Theoretical prediction of effective heat transfer parameters in packed beds , 1979 .

[17]  G. Flamant,et al.  Coupled radiation and flow modeling in ceramic foam volumetric solar air receivers , 2011 .

[18]  Chung‐Jen Tseng,et al.  Thermal radiative properties of phenolic foam insulation , 2002 .

[19]  Cyril Caliot,et al.  Heat transfer simulation in a thermochemical solar reactor based on a volumetric porous receiver , 2011 .

[20]  Yong Shuai,et al.  Thermal stress analysis of eccentric tube receiver using concentrated solar radiation , 2010 .

[21]  P. Cheng.  Dynamics of a radiating gas with application to flow over a wavy wall. , 1966 .

[22]  Ya-Ling He,et al.  Numerical investigations on a pressurized volumetric receiver: Solar concentrating and collecting modelling , 2012 .

[23]  K. N. Seetharamu,et al.  Numerical analysis of convection conduction and radiation using a non-equilibrium model in a square porous cavity , 2007 .

[24]  Heat Transfer Predictions for Micro-/Nanochannels at the Atomistic Level Using Combined Molecular Dynamics and Monte , 2009 .

[25]  Kambiz Vafai,et al.  Constant wall heat flux boundary conditions in porous media under local thermal non-equilibrium conditions , 2002 .

[26]  Fengwu Bai,et al.  One dimensional thermal analysis of silicon carbide ceramic foam used for solar air receiver , 2010 .

[27]  Changying Zhao.  Review on thermal transport in high porosity cellular metal foams with open cells , 2012 .

[28]  Tie Li,et al.  Study on the radiation flux and temperature distributions of the concentrator–receiver system in a solar dish/Stirling power facility , 2011 .

[29]  B. Hoffschmidt,et al.  Performance Evaluation of the 200-kWth HiTRec-II Open Volumetric Air Receiver , 2003 .

[30]  P. Cheng.  Two-dimensional radiating gas flow by a moment method , 1964 .

[31]  T. Lu,et al.  Thermal radiation in ultralight metal foams with open cells , 2004 .

[32]  K. Vafai.  Handbook of porous media , 2015 .

[33]  María José Montes,et al.  Proposal of a fluid flow layout to improve the heat transfer in the active absorber surface of solar central cavity receivers , 2012 .

[34]  Wei Liu,et al.  Numerical analysis of heat transfer in a composite wall solar-collector system with a porous absorber , 2004 .

[35]  E. Achenbach.  Heat and flow characteristics of packed beds , 1993 .

[36]  Robert Pitz-Paal,et al.  Experimental and numerical evaluation of the performance and flow stability of different types of open volumetric absorbers under non-homogeneous irradiation , 1997 .

[37]  Dominique Baillis,et al.  Thermal radiation properties of dispersed media: theoretical prediction and experimental characterization , 2000 .

[38]  Jun-rui Shi,et al.  Experimental and numerical studies on the flame instabilities in porous media , 2013 .