• Energy Research

Abstract Improving efficiency and yield of a parabolic trough collector (PTC) field is of paramount technological importance. Here, an attempt toward this goal is made through combined optical and thermal simulation. Two major factors that affect the performance of an individual trough are mass flow rate and aperture width, which scales with rim angle. Performance of PTC-field is observed to have a non-linear scale-up rule as opposed to the same for an individual trough. Wider aperture leads to higher heat collection for individual trough; however, the same results in higher inter-trough shading limiting the number of troughs in a field and the effective unshaded hours. It also depends on insolation and latitude. Therefore, there lies a possibility of trade-off where flow rate, rim angle and design hours of operation require careful tuning to maximize annual energy yield. Here, a step by step procedure is demonstrated for Kanpur, India where optimal values of flow rate, rim angle and hours of operation are obtained to be 1.1 kg/s (for Syltherm 800 as the heat transfer fluid), 70° and 4 h around solar noon on winter solstice day, respectively. The methodology is illustrated to be generally applicable to any location or working fluid.

Abstract Storage acts as an inseparable component of the heat accumulation process using an inherently intermittent and variable source such as solar heat. Sensible thermal storage often is chosen over the other options owing to its operational simplicity and lower response time. In the current study we propose a novel method of designing the sensible heat storage system which can provide significantly better energetic and exergetic efficiency particularly under variable temperature profile for the input flow as compared to the conventional single tank storage. Through small scale laboratory experiments, we demonstrate the proof of concept for the proposed modular multi-tank storage against a low temperature input flow having prescribed temperature variations. We observe that for both charging and discharging, the modular storage holds a distinct thermodynamic advantage due the thermal segregation as well as the appropriate sequencing of the use of different tanks based on heat transfer argument. The concept of modular thermal storage can remarkably enhance the flexibility of plant operation and improve the energetic and exergetic efficiencies of the storage.

Abstract Analysis of the transient temperature evolution during charging or discharging of the packed bed thermal storage systems is immensely simplified with the formulation of an effective heat transfer coefficient between the solid storage materials and the heat transfer fluid. It can cut significant computational cost which is otherwise required for a complete numerical simulation. The lumped capacitance method, the simplest of the available options, is restricted only to the low Biot number scenarios and hence is seldom applicable to any real system. The formulation of the effective heat transfer coefficient allows the extension of the lumped capacitance method for moderate Biot numbers. The present work develops such a formulation to simplify the analysis of packed bed storage systems through analytical route. Earlier attempts in this direction were made through weighted average time method which is inherently restricted to the simple one-dimensional heat conduction problems. On the other hand, we find out the effective heat transfer coefficient starting from a general three dimensional analytical solution of the transient heat conduction and proceed with the well-known one term approximation which acts as the basis of the Heisler charts. The method is not dimensionally restricted and hence we can include realistic three dimensional shapes such as cuboid, short cylinder etc. in the formulation. We validate our method by comparing the resulting temperature profiles for the one-dimensional geometries which have been attempted earlier by the weighted average time method. We also provide the accuracy estimation (as a function of increasing Biot number) against the full numerical simulation for the geometries where the weighted average time is not applicable. Therefore, the current study provides the tool for an inexpensive theoretical estimation for the transient heat transfer behaviour in the thermal storage tanks which has long term design implications particularly for the large scale concentrated solar thermal power plants.