Laboratory Experiment and Simulation of High-temperature Fluidized Bed Air Receiver for Concentrated Solar Power Generation

Abstract

This study proposes a two-tower type fluidized receiver for receiving concentrated solar light at high temperatures is proposed. This fluidized receiver is coupled with the Miyazaki beam-down reflector system. The visualization and the numerical simulation was made for the laboratory model to show the fluid-dynamics and the heat transport as well as to elaborate the existing demonstration model. The experimental visualization of the cold model demonstrated that in each tower, the particles are moved by the aerated organized flow. The numerical simulation was made using the thermal input cited from the 5.0kWth sun simulator. The numerical simulation demonstrated that the inner particles are heated above 950 °C after 3.0 minutes of the aeration start time. The increase in temperature is caused by the intrusion of the heated particles from the high-pressure side tower to the low-pressure side tower. It is thus suggested that collective circulation occurs between high- and low-pressure side towers and this can be utilized for a direct thermal storage system.