Numerical analysis of cavity receiver with parallel tubes for cross-linear concentrated solar system

Highlights: • The combined optical and thermal analysis has been successfully utilized. • The thermal-hydraulic behavior of CLR of cross-linear CSP system has been explored. • The geometrical effect on the CLR performance has been analyzed. • The cavity surface reflectivity affects the optical efficiency has been explored. A comprehensive study to understand important parameters that affects the Cavity Linear Receiver (CLR) performance has been done. In this paper, the combined optical and thermal analysis has been successfully utilized, to investigate the thermal-hydraulic behavior of CLR of cross-linear CSP (CL-CSP) system, which is developed at the Tokyo Institute of Technology proposed a new CSP technology, which is called Cross Linear Concentrating Solar Power (CL-CSP). The first demonstration plant of cross-linear concept has been installed at Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya, Bhopal (23.2599° N, 77.4126° E), the combined analysis was done using a numerical model, which has been validated with literature and experimental test. The numerical model simulates the thermal-hydraulic behavior of CLR with the variation of working condition, surface property, and geometry. The optical efficiency and thermal efficiency are the main performance parameters for the simulation. From the numerical study, distribution of both solar flux and temperature on the receiver tubes shows high non-uniformity in axial and radial direction. Furthermore, the parameters effect on the CLR performance is investigated under general working condition of receiver of 673 K temperature, 0.0925 kg/s mass flow rate, and during solar noon of summer solstice.