(325b) Experimental Dataset and Numerical Model Validation of a Lab Scale Solar Volumetric Receiver for High Temperature Industrial Heating

Concentrated solar technologies (CST) have the potential to revolutionize chemical industry due to their ability of delivering irradiance directly on the transformed chemicals and achieving very high temperatures. Unlike photovoltaics’, where energy efficiency is hindered by the intermediate energy conversion steps, the CST converts the light into thermal energy, directly, achieving higher thermal efficiencies. At the same time, few of the main challenges are the intermittent character of solar energy and lack of a true volumetric absorption of the delivered power. Concerning the latter, multiple solar receiver designs were suggested to improve the volumetric effect, therefore minimizing the radiation losses and improving the thermal efficiency. Nevertheless, in most cases the criteria of achieving a volumetric behavior differ and available experimental datasets are limited to validate modeling works. Therefore, first objective of this work is the generation of an open experimental dataset for the validation of numerical models. Second objective is to demonstrate the use and application of the dataset for the validation of a 3D numerical model employing ray tracing for the incident light and coupled momentum and energy equations for the heat transfer modeling. Finally, a third objective is to build a 1D model heat transfer to capture the apparent phenomena in the receiver, and investigate the possible dimensionless correlations. In brief, the experiments were conducted using a 6 kWe powered xenon arc lamp with an ellipsoidal reflector, with irradiance fluxes ranging from 150 – 600 kW/m² Ambient air was flowed from front to back into the receiver with varying flowrates of 4 – 17 lpm. The tested receivers comprise ceramic components commercially available i.e., 20x20 mm² SiC particle filter, 20mm in ID Al₂O₃ tube, and 20mm in ID SiC tube. Transient temperature profiles were collected at three different axial positions at the center of the receiver and on the side walls, including the inlet and exit gas temperatures. Finally, the irradiance levels on the receiver were collected using a calibrated heat flux gauge. The data and uncertainly analysis will be made available on a public repository upon completion of the work.