Study on optical and thermal performance of a linear Fresnel solar reflector using molten salt as HTF with MCRT and FVM methods

Applied Energy

Volumn 146, Issue , 2015, Pages 162-173

  Qiu, Yu ^a   He, Ya Ling ^a   Cheng, Ze Dong ^a   Wang, Kun ^a  

^a Xi an Jiaotong University)   (China)

Author keywords

Finite volume method; Linear fresnel reflector; Molten salt; Monte carlo ray tracing; Optical performance; Thermal performance

Indexed keywords

EFFICIENCY; FINITE VOLUME METHOD; FUSED SALTS; HEAT TRANSFER; MIRRORS; MONTE CARLO METHODS; RAY TRACING; REFLECTION;

LINEAR FRESNEL REFLECTOR (LFR); MOLTEN SALT; MONTE-CARLO RAY TRACING; OPTICAL PERFORMANCE; THERMAL PERFORMANCE;

COLLECTOR EFFICIENCY;

ERROR ANALYSIS; FINITE VOLUME METHOD; MONTE CARLO ANALYSIS; PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT; RAY TRACING; SALT;

EID: 84924173276     PISSN: 03062619     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.01.135     Document Type: Article

References (51)

1. Gharbi N.E., Derbal H., Bouaichaoui S., Said N. A comparative study between parabolic trough collector and linear Fresnel reflector technologies. Energy Procedia 2011, 6:565-572.
2. Morin G., Dersch J., Platzer W., Eck M., Häberle A. Comparison of linear Fresnel and parabolic trough collector power plants. Sol Energy 2012, 86(1):1-12.
3. Mills D.R., Morrison G.L. Compact linear Fresnel reflector solar thermal powerplants. Sol Energy 2000, 68(3):263-283.
4. Mills DR, Le Lievre P, Morrison GL. First results from compact linear Fresnel reflector installation. Proc of ANZSES Solar 2004; 204.
5. Pye JD, Morrison GL, Mills DR, Lievre PL, Behnia M. Steam-circuit model for the compact linear Fresnel reflector prototype. Solar 2004: Life, the Universe and Renewables; 2004.
6. Häberle A, Zahler C, Lerchenmüller H, Mertins M, Wittwer C, Trieb F, et al. The Solarmundo line focussing Fresnel collector. Optical and thermal performance and cost calculations. Proc of the 2002 SolarPACES Int Symp; 2002.
7. Bernhard R, Laabs HG, de Lalaing J, Eck M, Eickhoff M, Pottler K, et al. Linear Fresnel Collector Demonstration on the PSA. Part I-Design; Construction and Quality Control. Proc of the 14th SolarPACES int symp on concentrating solar power and chemical energy technologies; 2008.
8. Novatec Solar. Technical Data. 2012. http://www.novatecsolar.com/8-1-Projects.html.
9. Ausra. 2009. http://www.ausra.com.
10. Hoshi A., Mills D.R., Bittar A., Saitoh T.S. Screening of high melting point phase change materials (PCM) in solar thermal concentrating technology based on CLFR. Sol Energy 2005, 79(3):332-339.
11. Pacheco JE, Gilbert R. Overview of recent results of the solar two test and evaluations program. Sandia National Laboratories, Tech. Rep. SAND99-0091C. 1999.
12. Burgaleta JI, Arias S, Ramirez D. Gemasolar, the first tower thermosolar commercial plant with molten salt storage. In Proc of SolarPACES. Granada (Spain); 2011: 20-23.
13. Falchetta M, Liberati G, Consoli D, Malloggi S, Mazzei D, Crescenzi T. Commissioning of the Archimede 5 MW molten salt parabolic trough solar plant. In Proc of SolarPaces 2010 Conference; September 2010.
14. Reynolds D.J., Jance M.J., Behnia M., Morrison G.L. An experimental and computational study of the heat loss characteristics of a trapezoidal cavity absorber. Sol Energy 2004, 76(1):229-234.
15. Pye JD, Morrison GL, Behnia M. Transient modelling of cavity receiver heat transfer for the compact linear fresnel reflector. Destination Renewables - ANZSES 2003; 2003.
16. Eck M., Uhlig R., Mertins M., Häberle A., Lerchenmüller H. Thermal load of direct steam-generating absorber tubes with large diameter in horizontal linear Fresnel collectors. Heat Transfer Eng 2007, 28(1):42-48.
17. Sahoo S.S., Singh S., Banerjee R. Analysis of heat losses from a trapezoidal cavity used for Linear Fresnel Reflector system. Sol Energy 2012, 86(5):1313-1322.
18. Lin M., Sumathy K., Dai Y.J., Wang R.Z., Chen Y. Experimental and theoretical analysis on a linear Fresnel reflector solar collector prototype with V-shaped cavity receiver. Appl Therm Eng 2013, 51(1):963-972.
19. Grena R., Tarquini P. Solar linear Fresnel collector using molten nitrates as heat transfer fluid. Energy 2011, 36(2):1048-1056.
20. He Y.L., Xiao J., Cheng Z.D., Tao Y.B. A MCRT and FVM coupled simulation method for energy conversion process in parabolic trough solar collector. Renew Energy 2011, 36(3):976-985.
21. Wang F.Q., Shuai Y., Yuan Y., Yang G., Tan H.P. Thermal stress analysis of eccentric tube receiver using concentrated solar radiation. Sol Energy 2010, 84(10):1809-1815.
22. Cheng Z.D., He Y.L., Xiao J., Tao Y.B., Xu R.J. Three-dimensional numerical study of heat transfer characteristics in the receiver tube of parabolic trough solar collector. Int Commun Heat Mass Transfer 2010, 37(7):782-787.
23. Shuai Y., Xia X.L., Tan H.P. Radiation performance of dish solar concentrator/cavity receiver systems. Sol Energy 2008, 82(1):13-21.
24. Cui F.Q., He Y.L., Cheng Z.D., Li Y.S. Modeling of the dish receiver with the effect of inhomogeneous radiation flux distribution. Heat Transfer Eng 2014, 35(6-8):780-790.
25. Wang F.Q., Shuai Y., Tan H.P., Zhang X., Mao Q. Heat transfer analyses of porous media receiver with multi-dish collector by coupling MCRT and FVM method. Sol Energy 2013, 93:158-168.
26. He Y.L., Cheng Z.D., Cui F.Q., Li Z.Y., Li D. Numerical investigations on a pressurized volumetric receiver: solar concentrating and collecting modelling. Renew Energy 2012, 44:368-379.
27. Cheng Z.D., He Y.L., Cui F.Q. A new modelling method and unified code with MCRT for concentrating solar collectors and its applications. Appl Energy 2013, 101:686-698.
28. Yao Z., Wang Z., Lu Z., Wei X. Modeling and simulation of the pioneer 1 MW solar thermal central receiver system in China. Renew Energy 2009, 34(11):2437-2446.
29. Cheng Z.D., He Y.L., Cui F.Q. Numerical investigations on coupled heat transfer and synthetical performance of a pressurized volumetric receiver with MCRT-FVM method. Appl Therm Eng 2013, 50(1):1044-1054.
30. Cui F.Q., He Y.L., Cheng Z.D., Li D., Tao Y.B. Numerical simulations of the solar transmission process for a pressurized volumetric receiver. Energy 2012, 46(1):618-628.
31. He Y.L., Cui F.Q., Cheng Z.D., Li Z.X., Tao W.Q. Numerical simulation of solar radiation transmission process for the solar tower power plant: from the heliostat field to the pressurized volumetric receiver. Appl Therm Eng 2013, 61(2):583-595.
32. Dudley V, Kolb G, Sloan M, Kearney D. SEGS LS2 Solar Collector-Test Results. Report of Sandia National Laboratories. SAN94-1884; 1994.
33. Winston R., Miñano J.C., Benitez P. Nonimaging optics 2005, Academic Press, Waltham.
34. Wang K., He Y.L., Cheng Z.D. A design method and numerical study for a new type parabolic trough solar collector with uniform solar flux distribution. Sci China Technol Sci 2014, 57(3):531-540.
35. Yu Q., Wang Z., Xu E., Zhang H., Lu Z., Wei X. Modeling and simulation of 1 MWe solar tower plant's solar flux distribution on the central cavity receiver. Simul Model Pract Th 2012, 29:123-136.
36. Tao W.Q. Numerical heat transfer 2001, Xi'an Jiaotong University Press, Xi'an. 2nd ed.
37. Cheng Z.D., He Y.L., Cui F.Q. Numerical study of heat transfer enhancement by unilateral longitudinal vortex generators inside parabolic trough solar receivers. Int J Heat Mass Transfer 2012, 55(21):5631-5641.
38. Li X., Dai Y.J., Li Y., Wang R.Z. Performance investigation on a novel single-pass evacuated tube with a symmetrical compound parabolic concentrator. Sol Energy 2013, 98:275-289.
39. ANSYS FLUENT 14.0 Theory Guide. ANSYS Inc, 2011.
40. Cheng Z.D., He Y.L., Cui F.Q., Du B.C., Zheng Z.J., Xu Y. Comparative and sensitive analysis for parabolic trough solar collectors with a detailed Monte Carlo ray-tracing optical model. Appl Energy 2014, 115:559-572.
41. Chemisana D., Barrau J., Rosell J.I., Abdel-Mesih B., Souliotis M., Badia F. Optical performance of solar reflective concentrators: a simple method for optical assessment. Renew Energy 2013, 57:120-129.
42. Zhu G. Development of an analytical optical method for linear Fresnel collectors. Sol Energy 2013, 94:240-252.
43. Wei X., Lu Z., Yu W., Zhang H., Wang Z. Tracking and ray tracing equations for the target-aligned heliostat for solar tower power plants. Renew Energy 2011, 36(10):2687-2693.
44. TracePro User's Manual 5.0. Lambda Research Corporation; 2009.
45. Wendelin T. SolTrace: a new optical modeling tool for concentrating solar optics. ASME 2003 int sol energy conf 2003, American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
46. Cheng Z.D., He Y.L., Cui F.Q., Xu R.J., Tao Y.B. Numerical simulation of a parabolic trough solar collector with nonuniform solar flux conditions by coupling FVM and MCRT method. Sol Energy 2012, 86(6):1770-1784.
47. Dow. SYLTHERM 800. Silicone heat transfer fluid. Product Information; 2001.
48. He Y.L., Tao W.Q., Song F.Q., Zhang W. Three-dimensional numerical study of heat transfer characteristics of plain plate fin-and-tube heat exchangers from view point of field synergy principle. Int J Heat Fluid Flow 2005, 26(3):459-473.
49. Cheng Z.D., He Y.L., Qiu Y. A detailed nonuniform thermal model of a parabolic trough solar receiver with two halves and two inactive ends. Renew Energy 2015, 74:139-147.
50. Abbas R., Montes M.J., Piera M., Martínez-Val J.M. Solar radiation concentration features in Linear Fresnel Reflector arrays. Energy Convers Manage 2012, 54(1):133-144.
51. Kearney D., Herrmann U., Nava P., Kelly B., Mahoney R., Pacheco J., et al. Assessment of a molten salt heat transfer fluid in a parabolic trough solar field. J Sol Energy Eng 2003, 125(2):170-176.