Numerical Study of Flow and Heat Transfer in Cavity Receiver Tube of a Solar Power Tower with Different Inserts under Non-uniform Heat flux

علوم کاربردی و محاسباتی در مکانیک

Article 2, Volume 35, Issue 2 - Serial Number 32, July 2023, Pages 17-36   

Document Type: Original Article

DOI: 10.22067/jacsm.2022.76201.1111

Authors

Siavash Zeynalpour; Zahra Mehrdoost^*

Department of Mechanical Engineering,Ahvaz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz, Iran

Abstract

In this paper, the effect of using four different types of inserts in cavity receiver tube of solar power tower to improve heat transfer and reduce non-uniform temperature distribution is investigated. Numerical simulation is performed in three dimensions and the effect of inserts configurations, position inside receiver tube, pitch and thickness of insert and the effect of non-uniform heat fluxon the Nusselt number, friction factor and temperature of outer surface of receiver tube are investigated. The flow is incompressible, steadystate, turbulent and the Reynolds number is in the range of 8000 to 20000. Numerical simulation results for four types of inserts: twisted-tape, wavy-tape, helical-tape and louvered-tape show that wavy-tape compared to the other three types, has the higher Nusselt number and the lower average temperature of receiver tubesurface. The Nusselt number of the wavy-tape is increased by 1.8%, 2% and 3.2% relative to the louvered-tape, twisted-tape and helical-tape, respectively and 10% relative to the receiver tube without insert. By increasing the insert thickness and decreasing the insert pitch, the Nusselt number increases and average temperature of receiver tubesurface decreases. Investigating the insert position in three cases: close to the non-uniform heat flux wall, the middle of the tube and close to the insulation wall show that by increasing the distance of insert from non-uniform heat flux wall, the mixing of hot and cold fluids flow is better and the temperature distribution is more uniform.Therefore, the best position to place insert is the farthest distance from the non-uniform heat flux wall.

Keywords

Solar power tower; cavity receiver tube; non-uniform heat flux; insert; heat transfer

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