Thermal performance simulation of a solar cavity receiver under windy conditions

Solar cavity receiver plays a dominant role in the light–heat conversion. Its performance can directly affect the efficiency of the whole power generation system. A combined calculation method for evaluating the thermal performance of the solar cavity receiver is raised in this paper. This method couples the Monte-Carlo method, the correlations of the flow boiling heat transfer, and the calculation of air flow field. And this method can ultimately figure out the surface heat flux inside the cavity, the wall temperature of the boiling tubes, and the heat loss of the solar receiver with an iterative solution. With this method, the thermal performance of a solar cavity receiver, a saturated steam receiver, is simulated under different wind environments. The highest wall temperature of the boiling tubes is about 150 °C higher than the water saturation temperature. And it appears in the upper middle parts of the absorbing panels. Changing the wind angle or velocity can obviously affect the air velocity inside the receiver. The air velocity reaches the maximum value when the wind comes from the side of the receiver (flow angle α = 90°). The heat loss of the solar cavity receiver also reaches a maximum for the side-on wind.