Convective heat transfer analysis of direct steam generation in parabolic trough

collectors
Sara Sallam, Mohamed Taqi, and Naoual Belouaggadia

Citation: AIP Conference Proceedings 2056, 020023 (2018); doi: 10.1063/1.5084996

View online: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5084996
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/apc/2056/1
Published by the American Institute of Physics

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AIP Conference Proceedings 2056, 020016 (2018); 10.1063/1.5084989
 Convective heat transfer analysis of direct steam generation
in parabolic trough collectors
Sara Sallam 1,a) , Mohamed Taqi1 and Naoual Belouaggadia1
1
Laboratory of Engineering and Materials (LIMAT), Faculty of Sciences Ben M’Sik, Hassan II University of
Casablanca, B.P 7955 Sidi Othmane, Casablanca, Morocco.
a)
Corresponding author: sara.sallam@ymail.com

Abstract. The direct steam generation in parabolic trough collectors (PTCs) is a recommended application for the economic
development of PTC technology for electricity generation (large PTC) and industrial processes (small PTC).This process consists
of circulating water under pressure in the receiver tube subjected to concentrated solar radiation by the mirror of the PTC. Along
the tube, steam is generated which gives place to a two-phase liquid-vapor flow, under several configurations. Thus, control of
such a flow is complex and remains a hot topic for proper PTC design. In the present work, we are interested in the convective
exchanges between water and the receiver tube, which is a preliminary step in the simulation of a PTC with direct steam generation.
A bibliographic study of the usual models describing heat transfer during convective boiling and a comparison of these models was
carried out in a previous work [1] : the models of Chen-Cooper [2], Shah [3], Gungor and Winterton [4] and that of Kandlikar [5]
may be suitable for modeling diphasic PTCs [1]. In order to analyze the effects of the water input parameters (mass flow and inlet
pressure) and the solar flux density on the liquid-vapor convective heat exchange, the model of Gungor and Winterton for large
PTCs and Kandlikar for small PTCs are adopted. The results of this analysis show that increasing the mass flow and decreasing the
water pressure promote the convective transfer in the receiving tube of large and small PTCs, while the solar flux density has no
great influence on the convective heat exchange particularly for high quality.

INTRODUCTION
Solar parabolic trough collectors (PTC) with direct steam generation consist in circulating water under pressure in
the receiving tube, which is exposed to concentrated solar radiation by the PTC mirror (Figure 1). By convective
exchanges between the water and the receiver tube, the flow has several configurations along the tube as shown in
Figure 2. It is clear that the mechanisms of heat transfer differ from one configuration to another and it seems logical
to develop convective exchange correlations for each zone. This requires the determination of the transition criteria
from one regime to another, a problem that remains unclear. Thus, most authors propose empirical correlations as
a weighted superposition of two heat transfer mechanisms, one is due to forced convection and the other is due to
nucleate boiling. In this sense, a bibliographic study of the usual models describing heat transfer during convective
boiling and a comparison of these models were carried out in a previous work [1]. The results obtained show that the
correlations of Chen-Cooper [2], Shah [3], Gungor and Winterton [4] and that of Kandlikar [5] give close convection
coefficient values. These models may be suitable in the modeling of PTCs with direct steam generation, as reported in
literature : several authors use the Gungor and Winterton model for large PTCs [6]–[8] and the Kandlikar model for
small PTCs [9], [10].

In the present work, we present these last two models and we proceed to an analysis of the effects of water
input parameters (flow and pressure) and the solar flux on the convective transfers in PTC with direct steam generation.

CONVECTIVE TRANSFERS IN A LIQUID-VAPOR FLOW

In the following, models adopted for the analysis of convective transfers during a flow of a boiling fluid are presented

1st International Congress on Solar Energy Research, Technology and Applications (ICSERTA 2018)
AIP Conf. Proc. 2056, 020023-1–020023-8; https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5084996
Published by AIP Publishing. 978-0-7354-1784-7/$30.00

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 FIGURE 1. Principle of a cylindro-parabolic receive

FIGURE 2. Possible configurations of a two-phase flow in a horizontal tube [7].

Model of Gungor & Winterton (1986)

Gungor and Winterton [4] consider the thermal transfer mechanism in the two-phase liquid-vapor flow (hd ) as the
weighted superimposition of the forced convection and the nucleate boiling transfers :

hd = Fgw hl + S gw + hnb (1)

hl is the monophasic convection heat transfer coefficient evaluated by the Dittus-Boelter correlation and hnb is the
nucleate boiling heat transfer coefficient given by the Cooper correlations [11] :
kl
hl = 0.023(Rel )0.8 (Prl )0.4 ( ) (2)
D
−0.55 −0.5 0.67
hnb = 55p0.12
r (− log(pr )) M q (3)
The Prandtl Prl and Reynolds Rel numbers are those of the liquid defined by:
μl C p l
Prl = (4)
kl
G(1 − x)D
Rel = (5)
μl

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G being the mass velocity (kg/m2 .s); kl , C pl and μl are respectively the thermal conductivity, the specific heat and the
viscosity of the liquid; x is the Steam quality ; D the internal diameter of the tube.
p
pr = pcrit is the reduced pressure, pcrit is the critical pressure of water equal to 22,089 MPa and M its molar mass; q
being the heat flux on the outer wall of the tube. The corrective factor Fgw (> 1) reflects an increase in the two-phase
convection transfer coefficient with respect to that of a liquid flow alone and the factor S gw (< 1) takes into account
the decrease of the superheat in convective boiling compared to that related to the pool boiling. In a liquid-vapor flow,
the axial flow and the boundary layer may be disturbed by the generation of steam. This last effect can be described
by boiling number Bo. Thus, it is postulated that:

Fgw = f (Xtt , Bo) (6)

Xtt is Martinelli’s parameter which is expressed by:

1 − x 0.9 ρv 0.5 μl 0.1

Xtt = ( ) ( ) ( ) (7)
x ρl μv

The boiling number is defined by:

q
Bo = (8)
Ghlv
ρv ,μv are respectively the density and the viscosity of saturated vapor and hlv the latent heat of vaporization. The
adjustment of Fgw and S gw using a data bank obtained for several fluids (water, refrigerants, ...) at pressures and mass
velocities ranging respectively from 0.08 to 202.6 bar, 12 to 61518kg/m2 .s, heat fluxes from 0.3 to 91534kW/m2 and
quality from 0 to 0.99, in ascending or descending flows in vertical or horizontal tubes with a diameter of 3.05 to
32mm, allowed these authors to establish the following correlations:

• For flows in vertical tubes and horizontal tubes with Frl > 0.05.
⎧
⎪
⎪
⎨ Fgw = 1 + 24000Bo + 1, 37( Xtt )
1.16 1 0.86
⎪
⎪
⎩ S gw = 1+1.15×10−6 F 2 Re 1.17
1 (9)
gw l

• For horizontal flows with Frl ≤ 0.05

⎧  
⎪
⎪
⎪ 1 0.86
⎪ Fgw = 1 + 24000Bo + 1, 37( Xtt )
⎨
1.16
Frl(0.1−2Frl )
⎪   √ (10)
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎩ S gw = 1+1.15×10−61 F 2 Re 1.17
gw l
Frl

Frl is the Froude number of the liquid, expressed by:

G2
Frl = (11)
ρ2l gD

Model of Kandlikar (1990)

To establish a correlation covering horizontal flows for different fluids, Kandlikar model [5] is based on the expression
of the two-phase heat transfer coefficient for a vertical flow of water which is given by (Kandlikar [12]):

hd = C1CoC2 hl + C2 BoC4 hl (12)

The first term of this equation reflects the heat transfer during convective boiling and the second is related to nucleate
boiling.
Co is the convection number defined by:
 0.8  0.5
1−x ρg
Co = (13)
x ρl
The convection coefficient hl is given by the Dittus-Boelter equation. The constants C1 to C4 are evaluated empirically.
For fluids other than water, this author introduces, in the term of nucleate boiling, a parameter F f characterizing the

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fluid. The influence of stratification (at low flow rates) in horizontal tubes was taken into account by introducing the
Froude number. Thus, the correlation obtained by Kandlikar [5] is :

hd /hl = C1CoC2 (25Frl )C5 + C3 BoC4 (25Frl )C6 F f (14)

The constants C1 to C6 are adjusted to several experimental data relating to water and some refrigerants flowing in
vertical and horizontal tubes at pressures of 0.4 to 64.2 bar, mass flows of 13 to 8179 kg/m2 .s, heat fluxes from 0.3 to
2280kW/m2 and quality from 0.001 to 0.98, the diameter of the tubes ranges from 4.6 to 25mm. The values of these
constants turn out to depend on the convection number Co: for Co < 0.65, the flow regime is that of the convective
boiling where the convective heat transfer is dominant, and for Co > 0.65, the transfer by nucleate boiling prevails.
Table 1 gives the values of these constants according to Co. The constant C5 is equal to 0.3 for horizontal flows with
Fr ≤ 0.04 and it is zero for vertical and horizontal flows with Fr > 0.04. The parameter F f is given in Table 2.

TABLE 1. Parameters of Kandlikar (1990)

convection boiling Nucleated boiling
region Co < 0.65 region Co > 0.65
C1 1.1360 0.6683
C2 -0.9 -0.2
C3 667.2 1058
C4 0.7 0.7
C6 0 0

TABLE 2. Parameter F f l
Characterizing the Fluid
Fluid Ffl
water 1.00
R-11 1.30
R-12 1.50
R-13B1 1.31
R-22 2.20
R-113 1.30
R-114 1.24
R-152a 1.10
nitrogen 4.70
neon 3.50

CONVECTIVE BOINLING TRANSFER ANALYSIS

We study here the effects of water inlet parameters (flow and pressure) and solar flux on the exchange coefficient
in direct steam production PTCs whose geometrical and optical properties are represented on the Table 3 [13], [10].
Table 4 shows the basic operating conditions [14], [10].

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 TABLE 3. Physical properties of building materials.
Parameter Large CCP Small CCP
Geometric Properties Dri (m) 0.05 0.015
Dre (m) 0.07 0.018
Aperture (m) 5.76 1.0
optical properties Reflected surface reflectivity 0.93
Glass cover transmittance 0.95
Receiver absorptance 0.906
Shape facteur 0.92
Inclination angle 0.0
Incident angle modifier 1.0

TABLE 4. Basic operating conditions of the PTCs studied

Parameter Large CCP Small CCP
2
Solar flux (W/m ) 850 850
Inlet pressure (MPa) 6 2.0
Mass flow input (kg/s) 0.5 0.02

Effect of mass flow

For large PTCs (used in the production of electricity), the mass flow is varied from 0.4 up to 0.6kg/s, the pressure
being fixed at 6 MPa and the solar flux is 850W/m2 .
For small PTCs (used in industrial processes), the mass flow varies from 0.01 up to 0.02kg/s with an inlet pressure of
2MPa and a solar flow of 850W/m2 .
Figures 3a and 3b show the evolution of the two-phase exchange coefficient as a function of the quality at different
mass flow rates of the liquid water. It is found that this transfer coefficient increases with the mass flow and becomes
larger for quality higher than 0.4. This is consistent with the results described in [15] and shown in Figure 4.

FIGURE 3. Effect of mass flow on the convective exchange coefficient in large (a) and small (b) PTCs

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 FIGURE 4. Trends in heat transfer coefficient h for a horizontal evaporator tube [15]

Effect of inlet pressure

For the study of this effect on the convective transfer of heat, the pressure is varied from 3 to 10MPa for large PTCs,
the mass flow rate being fixed at 0.5 kg/s and for small PTCs the pressure is varied from 1 to 2 MPa and the inlet
mass flow is 0.02 kg/s. The solar flux is taken equal to 850 W/m2 .
Figures 5a and 5b show the evolution of the two-phase exchange coefficient as a function of the quality at different
input pressure values of the PTCs. The obtained results show a decrease of the tow phase heat exchange coefficient
as the inlet pressure increases. This behavior can be explained by the decrease of the latent heat when the pressure
increases. Note that the impact of pressure variation is low at low qualities and it is high when the quality increases.

FIGURE 5. Effect of inlet pressure on the convective exchange coefficient in large (a) and small (b) PTCs.

Effect of solar flux

In order to study the influence of the solar flux, the pressures and mass flow are chosen equal to 6 MPa and 0.5kg/s
for the large PTCs, 2MPa and 0.02kg/s for the small PTCs. The solar flux is varied from 100 to 900W/m2 .

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The evolution of the exchange coefficient as a function of the quality at different solar fluxes is given in figures 6a and
6b. It should be noted that the variation of the heat flux has small influence on the two phase heat exchange coefficient,
especially on high qualities. At low to moderate qualities the heat flux slightly affects the flows (nucleate boiling
regime).

FIGURE 6. Effect of solar flux on the convective exchange coefficient in large (a) and small (b) PTCs

CONCLUSION
In this work, the effects of water inlet parameters (mass flow and inlet pressure) and solar flux on the liquid-vapor
convective heat exchange coefficient in the PTCs were studied.
The results of this analysis show that increasing the mass flow and decreasing the water pressure favor the convective
transfer in the receiving tube of large and small PTCs while solar flux has little influence on the convective exchange
coefficient and especially for high qualities. For qualities higher than 0.9, the two-phase exchange coefficient decreases
sharply because of the drying of the walls.

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