Session: 05-04 Solar Receiver Design 2

Paper Number: 107525

107525 - Simulation of the Performance of a High Temperature Solar Thermal Receiver Comprised Parallel Micro-Pin Unit-Cells Fabricated via Additive Manufacturing 

The objective of this paper is to assess the receiver efficiency, maximum surface temperature, and pressure drop through a 100 MW thermal solar receiver designed to heat carbon dioxide from 500 to 720°C at 20 MPa. The solar receiver is composed of 385 identical unit-cells fabricated using additive manufacturing. Each unit cell contains an array of micro-pins with a single inlet and outlet for carbon dioxide. A unit-cell thermal hydraulic sub model developed in prior work is integrated into a multiple unit-cell receiver model which solves for the mass flow rate, outlet temperature, maximum surface temperature, efficiency, pressure drop and other parameters of each unit-cell and the overall receiver for a specified solar flux distribution. Simulations are conducted for scenarios in which (1) the overall outlet temperature is fixed, (2) the maximum allowable surface temperature is specified, and (3) the total mass flow into the receiver is specified for representative flux distributions. The results suggest that overall receiver efficiency for the parallel unit-cell approach can be optimized by using different unit-cell geometries throughout the receiver.     

Presenting Author: Leyli Bahrami The Pennsylvania State University

Presenting Author Biography: Leyli Bahrami is a graduate research assistant at The Pennsylvania State University.