Session: 05-03 Solar Receiver Design 1

Paper Number: 107262

107262 - Thermomechanical Stress and Creep-Fatigue Analysis of a High-Temperature Prototype Receiver for Heating Particles 

This work presents a 3D thermomechanical model of a prototype-scale planar-cavity particle receiver. Results of the thermoelastic model are used to estimate receiver lifetime under peak flux conditions. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is first developed to predict the temperature fields in a multi-panel assembly under steady operating conditions. Solar flux distributions on the receiver are obtained from the software package SolTrace developed at NREL and directly applied to the 3D thermal model. The subsequent particle heating is captured through a simplified one-dimensional energy balance. Panel reradiation is considered through a surface-to-surface radiation model and natural convection loss to the surrounding air is captured in a representative fluid domain surrounding the receiver. The resulting temperature fields from the CFD analysis are used as inputs for a thermoelastic mechanical model with representative boundary conditions. With the resultant temperature and stress fields, a creep-fatigue damage and lifetime analysis is performed using the linear damage accumulation (LDA) theory. The Manson–Coffin formula and Mendelson–Roberts–Manson (M–R–M) correlation are used to calculate the fatigue and creep, respectively. A maximum damage (corresponding to a 30-year service life) is defined for design assessment. The model was first developed and verified in detail by comparing with published results in the literature (temperature and stress profiles and distributions, and creep/fatigue damage fractions) for tubular solar receivers with supercritical carbon dioxide as the working fluid. It was then implemented to model the planar-cavity receiver with various design parameters. Specifically, three different design geometries are considered, and the results show that a maximum temperature of approximately 950°C could be reached for each design with the given incident solar flux, with the main difference being the distribution of these temperatures. Preliminary resulting stresses without design optimization vary from 20 MPa to 250 MPa for each design, with the maximum stresses occurring on the front face and concave geometry on the side of the panel. In future work, the model will be further improved through validation with experimental testing of the solar receiver prototype.

Presenting Author: Matt Carter Mississippi State University

Presenting Author Biography: Matt Carter is a graduate student at Mississippi State University working in the area of thermomechanical stress analysis of high temperature solar receivers and reactors.