Modeling and optimization method of an indirectly irradiated solar receiver

Area of Science:

• Renewable Energy Engineering
• Thermal Sciences
• Computational Fluid Dynamics

Background:

• Solar receivers are crucial for converting solar energy into usable heat.
• Accurate modeling of radiative exchange and fluid dynamics is essential for receiver efficiency.
• Optimization techniques are needed to enhance solar receiver performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a numerical model for an indirectly irradiated solar receiver.
• To simulate air flow and heat transfer within the receiver using CFD.
• To optimize the receiver's design parameters for improved thermal efficiency.

Main Methods:

• Coupling the net-radiation method with a CFD code (ANSYS Fluent) for thermal analysis.
• Implementing a user-defined function (UDF) for boundary conditions in the CFD model.
• Employing Kriging surface response and Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm (MOGA) for multi-objective optimization.

Main Results:

• A validated numerical model accurately predicted temperature distribution.
• The solar receiver demonstrated a high thermal efficiency of 92%.
• Multi-objective optimization identified three optimal design parameter combinations.

Conclusions:

• The integrated modeling approach effectively simulates conjugated heat transfer in solar receivers.
• The optimized receiver design significantly enhances heat transfer to the working fluid.
• The proposed optimization methodology provides a robust framework for solar receiver design customization.