Open Ended Lab

Power Plants Lab

Thermal Analysis of Cylindrical Cavity Receiver used in

Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Plants
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Presenters:
Ashar Zia (2019-ME-13)
Mooaz Sajid (2019-ME-29)
Azam Zaheer (2019-ME-40)
Zain Abdullah (2019-ME-45)

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Abstract

• Simulation of the thermal and heat transfer

behavior of a cylindrical solar cavity receiver.
• The geometry of the cylindrical solar cavity
receiver was modeled on SolidWorks and the
thermal analysis was performed.
• Convective and radiative exchange as the main
components of heat transfer.
• The relationship between the design parameters
of the cavity receiver and the temperature of the
working fluid within the cavity receiver was
established.

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 Introduction
• Requirement of cost effective and
environmentally friendly energy
options.
• Solar energy offers the solution to
make the best use of solar
radiations either by direct
conversion or by heating of
working fluid. The latter option is
regarded as Solar Thermal Energy.
• Solar thermal energy options offer
the ability to capture, collect, and
store solar radiation through
thermal-fluid based interactions of Solar Thermal Energy Application
a working fluid.
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 Introduction(continued)
• One of the many solar thermal technologies, the cavity
receivers forms the energy collection modules for point
concentrator solar collectors.
• The goal of this investigation is to study the thermo-fluid
behavior of a cylindrical solar cavity receiver.
• This investigation aims to understand the effect of geometric
changes on the thermal performance of cavity receiver.

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 Literature Review

Concentrated Solar Power

(CSP) Plants:
Concentrated solar power
systems generate solar power by
using mirrors or lenses to
concentrate a large area of
sunlight into a receiver.

Concentrated Solar Power Plant

03/05/2023
 Literature Review (Continued)
Solar Cavity Receiver:
• Cavity-type receivers,
concentrated solar radiations
from reflectors are incident into
the cavity of the receiver.
• Receiver includes a housing
having an internal reflective
surface.
• A high percentage of the solar
power input is retained.

Solar Cavity Receiver

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 Literature Review (Continued)
Cylindrical Cavity Receiver:
• The heat transfer surfaces are
composed by coiled metal
tube.
• Heat transfer fluid flows in the
internal spaces of coiled metal
tube.
• Heat transfer surfaces of
cylindrical cavity receiver are
covered by insulation.

Cylindrical Cavity Receiver

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Methodology
Geometry Selection:
• Cylindrical solar cavity receiver

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Methodology:

Geometry Selection (Continued):

A solar cavity receiver system as shown in above Figures has 3
main parts :

 Aperture

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Methodology:

Geometry Selection (Continued):

 Encased Metallic Ring

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Methodology:

Geometry Selection (Continued):

 Polished Metallic Reflector

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Methodology
Thermal Efficiency:

Energy that enters the aperture is

overall energy losses

working fluid absorbs energy

The thermal efficiency of the cavity receiver given by:

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Methodology
Boundary Conditions:
Following are some boundary conditions used for different
cases:

• These variations are evaluated for various parameters on

the thermal behaviour leading to an optimal design of the
solar cavity receiver system.

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Methodology
Boundary Conditions:

For all simulation cases, it is assumed that the emissivity

properties of the system are as given:

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Result and Discussion
• Effect of aperture diameter
Increasing aperture size results in lower working fluid
temperatures for both laminar and turbulent conditions.

Aperture diameter Working fluid temp

• Effect of cavity length:

Tightly packed cavity receivers demonstrate higher working
fluid temperatures for both laminar and turbulent conditions in
comparison to medium and loosely packed cavity receivers.

Cavity length Working fluid temp

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Result and Discussion (continued)
• Effect of helical pipe diameter:
Decreasing helical pipe size resulted in higher working fluid
temperatures for both laminar and turbulent conditions.

Helical pipe size Working fluid temp

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References

1. R. S. Oscar, C. Bryan Castro, B. Matheus Ungaretti, J. G. Juan, and V. Ramón Molina, "Modelling,
simulation and thermal analysis of a solar dish/Stirling system: A case study in Natal, Brazil,"
Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 181, pp. 189-201, 2019.
2. R. Bader, M. Barbato, A. Pedretti, and A. Steinfeld, "An Air-Based Cavity-Receiver for Solar
Trough Concentrators," Journal of Solar Energy Engineering, vol. 132, no. 3, 2010.
3. R. Bader, A. Pedretti, M. Barbato, and A. Steinfeld, "An air-based corrugated cavity-receiver for
solar parabolic trough concentrators," Applied Energy, vol. 138, pp. 337-345, 2015.
4. M. Prakash, S. B. Kedare, and J. K. Nayak, "Investigations on heat losses from a solar cavity
receiver," Solar Energy, vol. 83, no. 2, pp. 157-170, 2009.
5. Y. Singh, "Thermal Analysis of a Solar Cavity Receiver," Theses and Dissertations. , vol. Paper
1073., p. 89, 2012.
6. N and K. S. Reddy, "Numerical investigation of natural convection heat loss in modified cavity
receiver for fuzzy focal solar dish concentrator," Solar Energy, vol. 81, no. 7, pp. 846-855, 2007.

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