Thermal performance of vortex-based solar particle receivers for sensible heating

Abstract

We report a first-order assessment of a novel vortex-based solar particle receiver and the sensitivity of its thermal performance to a number of key operational parameters. This assessment is made with a one-dimensional numerical model developed here to adapt the zonal method to calculate heat and mass transport within the enclosure of the solar vortex receiver (SVR) and to incorporate radiative and convective heat transfer between the particle phase, the air phase and the receiver wall together with re-radiative and conductive loss from the receiver. This simplified one-dimensional model allows for the systematic assessment of first order trends of mass and energy balance within the SVR and..