Heat Conductivity Performance of SiC and Si_3N_4 as Volumetric Receiver Under Concentrated Irradiation
Abstract
Recently, researchers of Niigata University and the Institute of Applied Energy (IAE) developed an air receiver-evaluation system equipped with 30kWth point-concentration simulator to support solar-thermal usage in middle to high temperature. 147mm×147mm×100mm monolithic silicon carbide (SiC) honeycomb block used as volumetric receiver sample, and some experimental results were gathered from demonstration tests. Also, its three-dimensional simulation method was developed on FLUENT 14.5, in parallel. This simulation, based on dual-cell approach, considers that thermal non-equilibrium between solid and fluid domains in porous region defined as volumetric receiver material. And, its calculation regions include the upper and lower air domains in the porous region; therefore, this method is able to analyze the influence of inlet/outlet air flow. Under the same condition with tests, power on aperture (POA) and air-mass flow rate (AMF), some numerical results indicated similar results. This paper describes an example compared simulation and computational result. Also, a comparison between receiver outlet air temperature and solid/fluid max temperature caused by receiver material (SiC and Si3N4: silicon nitride) is presented.
Keywords
Csp, Volumetric receiver, Receiver evaluation, Three-dimensional simulation, Receiver material