• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.1383-1389
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• 2011

The current study focuses on the consistent analysis of heat transfer in multichannel volumetric solar receivers used for concentrating solar power. Changes in the properties of the absorbing material and channel dimensions are considered in an optical model based on the Monte Carlo ray-tracing method and in a one-dimensional heat transfer model that includes conduction, convection, and radiation. The optical model results show that most of the solar radiation energy is absorbed within a very small channel length of around 15 mm because of the large length-to-radius ratio. Classification of radiation losses reveals that at low absorptivity, increased reflection losses cause reduction of the receiver efficiency, notwithstanding the decrease in the emission loss. As the average temperature increases because of the large channel radius or small mass flow rate, both emission and reflection losses increase but the effect of emission losses prevails.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.277-284
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• 2012

In this study, a heat-transfer performance analysis is carried out for a multi-channel volumetric air receiver for a solar power tower. On the basis of a series of reviews regarding the relevant literature, a calculation process is proposed for the prediction of the wall- and air- temperature distributions of a single channel at given geometric and input conditions. Furthermore, a unique mathematical model of the receiver effectiveness is presented through analysis of the temperature profile. The receiver is made of silicon carbide. A total of 225 square straight channels per module are molded to induce the air flow, and each channel has the dimensions of $2mm(W){\times}2mm(H){\times}0.2mm(t){\times}320mm(L)$. The heat-transfer rate, temperature distribution and effectiveness are presented according to the variation of the channel and module number under uniform irradiation and mass flow rate. The available air outlet temperature applied to the solar power tower should be over $700^{\circ}C$. This numerical model was actually used in the design of a 200 kW-level commercial solar air receiver, and the required number of modules satisfying the thermal performance could be obtained for the specified geometric and input conditions.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.223-228
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• 2011

The volumetric solar receiver is a key element of solar power plants using air. The solar flux distribution inside the receiver should be a priori known for its heat transfer modeling. Previous works have not considered characteristics of the solar flux although they change with radiative properties of receiver materials and receiver geometries. A numerical method, which is based on the Monte Carlo ray-tracing method, was developed in the current work. The solar flux distributions inside multi-channeled volumetric solar receivers were calculated when light is concentrated at the KIER solar furnace. It turned out that 99 percentage of the concentrated solar energy is absorbed within 15 mm charmel length for the charmel radius smaller than 1.5 mm. If the concentrated light is assumed to be diffuse, the absorbed solar energy at the charmel entrance region is overpredicted while the light penetrates more deeply into the charmel. The developed method will help understand the solar flux when only a part of concentrated light is of interest. Furthermore, if the presented results are applied for heat transfer modeling of multi-channeled volumetric solar receivers, one could examine effects of receiver charmel properties and shape on air temperature profiles.