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Effect of porous disc receiver configurations on performance of solar parabolic trough concentrator

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Abstract

In this article, heat transfer enhancement of line focus solar collector with porous disc receiver is studied with water and therminol oil. A three dimensional (3-D) numerical simulation of porous disc enhanced receiver is carried out using commercial CFD software Fluent 6.3 to evolve the optimum configuration. The 3-D numerical model is solved by renormalization-group based k-ε turbulent model associated with standard wall function. The effect of porous disc receiver configurations (solid disc at bottom; porous disc at bottom; porous disc at top; and alternative porous disc) on performance of the trough concentrator is investigated. The effect of porous disc geometric parameters (φ, θ, W, H and t) and fluid parameters (Pr and m) on heat transfer enhancement of the receiver is also studied. The numerical simulation results show that the flow pattern around the solid and porous discs are entirely different and it significantly influences the local heat transfer coefficient. The porous disc receiver experiences low pressure drop as compared to that of solid disc receiver due to less obstruction. The optimum configuration of porous disc receiver enhances the heat transfer rate of 221 W m−1 and 13.5% with pumping penalty of 0.014 W m−1 for water and for therminol oil-55, heat transfer rate enhances of 575 W m−1 and 31.4% with pumping penalty of 0.074 W m−1 as compared to that of tubular receiver at the mass flow rate of 0.5 kg s−1. The Nusselt number and friction factor correlations are proposed for porous disc receiver to calculate heat transfer characteristics. The porous disc receiver can be used to increase the performance of solar parabolic trough concentrator.

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Abbreviations

Ac :

Cross sectional area of the receiver (m2)

Ap :

Aperture area of the solar trough collector (m2)

Ar :

Receiver area (m2)

cF :

Forchheimer coefficient

cp :

Specific heat at constant pressure (J kg−1 K−1)

CR:

Concentration ratio of the collector

\( C_{\varepsilon 1} ,C_{\varepsilon 2} ,C_{\mu } \) :

Turbulent model constants

di :

Inner diameter of the receiver (m)

do :

Outer diameter of the receiver (m)

dp :

Diameter of the pore in the disc (m)

D:

Glass cover diameter (m)

f:

Friction factor

H:

Height of the porous disc (m)

hf :

Heat transfer coefficient at inner surface of the receiver (W m−2 K−1)

Ib :

Beam radiation (W m−2)

k:

Turbulent kinetic energy (J)

Kp :

Permeability (m2)

L:

Length of the receiver (m)

m:

Mass flow rate (kg s−1)

Nu:

Nusselt number

ΔP:

Pressure drop (Pa)

Pr:

Prandtl number

Q:

Total heat transfer (W)

\( q^{\prime \prime } \) :

Heat flux (W m−2)

\( q_{ub}^{\prime \prime } \) :

Useful heat flux applied at bottom of the receiver (W m−2)

\( q_{ut}^{\prime \prime } \) :

Useful heat flux applied at top of the receiver (W m−2)

r:

Radius (m)

Re:

Reynolds number

S:

Magnitude of rate of strain

t:

Thickness of the porous disc (m)

T:

Temperature (K)

Twi :

Inner wall temperature of the receiver (K)

Two :

Outer wall temperature of the receiver (K)

u, v, w:

Velocity (m s−1)

Ul :

Overall heat loss coefficient (W m−2 K−1)

V:

Velocity vector (m s−1)

W:

Pitch of the porous discs (m)

x, y:

Spatial position (m)

α t :

Inverse of Prandtl number

γ:

Intercept factor

ε:

Turbulent dissipation rate (m2 s−3)

θ:

Angle (deg)

λ:

Thermal conductivity (W m−1 K−1)

μ:

Viscosity of the fluid (Ns m−2)

\( \upsilon_{eddy} \) :

Eddy viscosity (m2 s−1)

\( \upsilon_{o} \) :

Molecular viscosity (m2 s−1)

\( \upsilon_{t} \) :

Turbulent viscosity (m2 s−1)

ρ:

Density (kg m−3)

\( \rho_{g} \) :

Reflectivity of the glass

φ:

Porosity

ψ:

Turbulent model constant

\( \left( {\tau \alpha } \right)_{b} \) :

Transmissivity-absorptivity product for beam radiation

a:

Ambient

CF:

Clear fluid

f:

Fluid

in:

Inlet

int:

Interface

i, j:

General spatial indices

max:

Maximum

PM:

Porous medium

ref:

Reference

s:

Solid

T:

Therminol oil

W:

Water

WT:

Water and therminol oil

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Acknowledgement

The financial support provided by the Department of Science and Technology (DST, Govt. of India), New Delhi through the research project is duly acknowledged.

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  1. Heat Transfer and Thermal Power Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, 600036, India

    K. Ravi Kumar & K. S. Reddy

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  1. K. Ravi Kumar
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  2. K. S. Reddy
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Correspondence to K. S. Reddy.

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Ravi Kumar, K., Reddy, K.S. Effect of porous disc receiver configurations on performance of solar parabolic trough concentrator. Heat Mass Transfer 48, 555–571 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-011-0903-8

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