Numerical Heat Transfer Modelling of a Centrifugal Solar Particle Receiver

Abstract

Solar particle receivers promise higher operating temperatures compared to molten salt-based receivers. The Discrete Element Method (DEM) tool LIGGGHTS is used to simulate the particle motion in a centrifugal solar particle receiver. A separate thermal model is developed in MATLAB, which uses the particle positions calculated with the DEM simulation. Heat transfer at the particle scale is accounted for with models of particle-particle conduction, particle-fluid-particle conduction, and a newly developed short-range radiation model. Radiation between large internal surfaces of the receiver are modeled with a view factor based long-range radiation model, and concentrated incident radiation is modeled with the Monte Carlo method. A thermal simulation for a lab-scale receiver is run for a relevant set of operational parameters, with key results being the temperature distribution and thermal efficiency of the receiver.