Simulation-based optimisation of a linear Fresnel collector mirror field and receiver for optical, thermal and economic performance

Increasing the efficiency of concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies by means of optimisation tools is one of the current topics of solar thermal researchers. Of these technologies, Linear Fresnel collectors (LFCs) are the least developed. Therefore, there is plenty of room for the optimisation of this technology. One of the goals of this paper, in addition to the optimisation of an LFC plant, is introducing an applicable optimisation procedure that can be applied for any type of CSP plant. This paper focuses on harvesting maximum solar energy (maximising plant optical efficiency), as well as minimising plant thermal heat loss (maximising plant thermal efficiency), and plant cost (the economic optimisation of the plant), which leads to the generation of cheaper solar electricity from an LFC plant with a fixed power plant cycle (The performance optimisation of this study is based on the plant performance throughout an imaginary summer day). A multi-tube cavity receiver is considered in this study since there is plenty of room for its optimization. For the receiver, optimal cavity shape, tube bundle arrangement, tube numbers, cavity mounting height and insulation thickness are considered, while for the mirror field, the number of mirrors, mirror width, mirror gaps and mirror focal length are considered to achieve the optimisation goals. A multi-stage optimisation process is followed. Firstly, optical (using SolTrace), thermal (using a view area approach) and economic performance are combined in a multi-objective genetic algorithm as incorporated in ANSYS DesignXplorer (DX). This leads to an optimal LFC with a variable focal length for each mirror. After determining a fixed optimal focal length for all the mirrors, a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach is used to optimise the thermal insulation of the cavity receiver for minimal heat loss and minimal insulation material. The process is automated through the use of ANSYS Workbench and Excel (coding with Visual Basic for Application (VBA) and LK Scripting in SolTrace). The view area approach provides an inexpensive way of calculating radiation heat loss from the receiver that is shown in the subsequent CFD analysis to be dominating the heat transfer loss mechanisms. The optimised receiver is evaluated at different LFC plant tube temperatures to assess its performance.