Experiment study of a quartz tube falling particle receiver

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental evaluation of a speciallydesigned falling particle receiver. A quartz tube was used in thedesign, with which the particles would not be blown away by wind.Concentrated solar radiation was absorbed and converted into thermalenergy by the solid particles flowed inside the quartz tube. Severalexperiments were conducted to test the dynamic thermal performanceof the receiver on solar furnace system. During the experiments, themaximum particle temperature rise is 212°C, with an efficiencyof 61.2%, which shows a good thermal performance with a falling distanceof 0.2 m in a small scale particle receiver. The average outlet particletemperature is affected by direct normal irradiance (DNI) and otherfactors such as wind speed. The solid particles obtain a larger viscositywith a higher temperature while smaller solid particles are easierto get stuck in the helix quartz tube. The heat capacity of the siliconcarbide gets larger with the rise of particle temperature, becauseas the temperature of solid particles increases, the temperature riseof the silicon carbide decreases.

Keywords

solar thermal electricity / central receiver / particle receiver / experimental research

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the NationalNatural Scientific Foundation of China (Grant No.51376176).

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