塔式太阳能熔盐腔体吸热器一体化光热耦合模拟研究

Integrated numerical study on the coupled photon-thermal conversion process in the central solar molten salt cavity receiver

首先采用蒙特卡罗光线追迹与杰勃哈特方法结合的混合光学模拟方法对塔式聚光集热系统中太阳辐射传播的全过程进行了完整描述,准确获得了全镜场条件下吸热表面非均匀的能流分布.在此基础上对熔盐腔体吸热器进行了一体化光热耦合模拟,重点分析了非均匀能流分布条件下熔盐流动布置方式对吸热性能的影响,同时考察了不同时刻条件下的吸热性能,结果表明:腔体吸热器吸热表面的能流分布表现出强烈的非均匀性,在这种非均匀的能流分布条件下,熔盐的流动布置方式会对吸热器性能产生显著的影响.当熔盐从能量密度高的区域流入,温度迅速升高,整个吸热面处于较高的温度水平,热损失较大,且会在熔盐出口处会出现熔盐加热吸热管的"吸热恶化"现象;当熔盐从能量密度低的区域流入,温度缓慢升高,整个吸热面处于相对较低的温度水平,热损失较小,能够获得更多的高温熔盐.另外,反射损失随时间变化显著,热损失随时间变化不显著.

In a solar power tower system, the concentrating and collecting subsystem, including the heliostat field and the receiver, contains some of the most costly and technically challenging components. Many types of solar receivers make up the solar power tower system. Among them, the cavity molten salt receiver has been widely applied due to its lower heat loss. The accurate simulation of the coupled heat transfer process in the cavity receiver and the prediction of receiver performance are of great importance for the receiver design and safe operation. The solar flux distribution on cavity interior surfaces is extremely non-uniform, which has great effect on the receiver thermal performance. Taking the non-uniform solar flux distribution into consideration, the photon-thermal conversion process is simulated integrally in this paper. A hybrid simulation approach, which couples Monte Carlo ray tracing and Gebhart methods, is applied to investigate the complete solar radiation transfer process in the solar power tower system with a cavity receiver and obtain the non-uniform solar flux distribution. On this basis, the coupled photon-thermal conversion process in the molten salt cavity receiver is simulated. The effects of the fluid flow layout on the receiver performance under the non-uniform solar flux distribution are particularly revealed. Also, the variation of the receiver performance with time is analyzed in detail. The results show that the solar flux distribution on the interior surfaces of the cavity receiver is extremely non-uniform, under which the molten salt flow layout has great effects on the receiver performance. In the case of flow layout that the cold molten salt flows into the receiver in the high-flux area, the temperatures of both the absorber wall and the molten salt increase rapidly along the flow path. The temperature of the whole absorber wall is relatively high, which leads to greater heat loss and less amount of hot molten salt, and even seriously, ＂heat transfer deterioration＂ near the outlet of the receiver. When the cold molten salt flows into the receiver in the low-flux area, the temperature of both the absorber wall and the molten salt increase slowly along the flow path. The temperatures of the whole absorber wall is relatively low, which results in less heat loss and larger amount of hot molten salt. Although the shape of the solar flux distribution on the interior surfaces varied greatly with time, the evolutions of the molten salt（absorber wall） temperature at different time display similar variation tendency along the flow path. Moreover, the reflective loss varies with time greatly, while the heat loss varies with time slightly.