Abstract The high efficiency of concentrated solar power (CSP) in energy conversion makes it a very attractive device for using solar energy as a substitute of nonrenewable energy sources. The open volumetric receiver plays an important role in the performance of a CSP. The optimized design of solar receiver implies the thorough knowledge of the heat transfer between the air and the foam and of the temperature distribution in the receiver. Heat transfer in the cylindrical SiC porous volumetric receiver of a solar tower, undergoing the impact of concentrated solar radiation, is investigated numerically in this paper. Governing equations are written with the volume averaging technique. A two-equation model for the energy equation, under the local thermal nonequilibrium assumption, is used. Numerical simulations are carried out through the commercial code COMSOL Multiphysics. The solid and fluid temperatures, the fluid velocity and the pressure drop, for various boundary and morphological conditions, are predicted and discussed. The receiver efficiency is finally maximized carrying out an extended parametric analysis of process parameters.

中文翻译：

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陶瓷泡沫太阳能接收器的热流体动力学：参数分析

摘要 聚光太阳能（CSP）在能量转换方面的高效率使其成为利用太阳能替代不可再生能源的一种非常有吸引力的装置。开放式体积接收器在 CSP 的性能中起着重要作用。太阳能接收器的优化设计意味着对空气和泡沫之间的热传递以及接收器中温度分布的全面了解。本文以数值方法研究了受集中太阳辐射影响的太阳能塔圆柱形 SiC 多孔体积接收器中的传热。控制方程是用体积平均技术编写的。在局部热非平衡假设下，使用能量方程的两方程模型。数值模拟是通过商业代码 COMSOL Multiphysics 进行的。对各种边界和形态条件下的固体和流体温度、流体速度和压降进行了预测和讨论。通过对过程参数进行扩展参数分析，最终使接收器效率最大化。