Heat-transfer and stress-strain analyses of solar receiver with supercritical carbon dioxide as heat transfer fluid

Supercritical CO2 power cycle has attracted wide attention as a new generation of solar thermal power generation system. The operating temperature of the solar receiver is increased to satisfy the requirements of higher temperature in the supercritical CO2 power cycle. The heat transfer and mechanical properties of the receiver affects the safety of the operation. In this paper, the performances of the solar receiver are investigated. The influences of heat flux distribution on the properties of heat transfer and mechanics are analyzed. The tubes of circular tube row with higher stress are replaced with reinforced tubes. The overall performances of the tube row with different types of tubes are conducted. The total entropy generation in the internal spiral ribbed tube row is reduced by 11.5 %, the equivalent stress is reduced by 15.4 %, and the equivalent elastic strain is reduced by 17.4 %. Moreover, the performances are investigated with the variations of the solar irradiation and the inlet mass flow rate. The results indicate that the tube row with internal spiral rib is superior. Therefore, the research provides a theoretical basis for the design and optimization of solar cavity receiver.