An Investigation of Porous Materials for the Capture of Concentrated Solar Energy
Abstract
Fossil fuel usage is resulting in climate change. There is a need to switch to renewable energies, but existing technologies lack the efficiency for wide-scale adoption. Concentrating solar energy to a receiver using a parabolic reflector is an efficient method of converting sunlight into thermal energy at a high efficiency. Current receivers suffer efficiency challenges due to significant re-radiation losses as they reach a high temperature at the front surface. This project is focused on the creation of a computational model to simulate the radiation heat transfer in porous geometries, which can be used to optimize the geometric properties of the concentrated solar receiver and improve the efficiency. Two different computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software were considered, and their capabilities were assessed. A parametric study was conducted that involved changing the input radiation flux, porous material, porosity, pore size, and porosity gradient of the block. Results showed that of the geometries and materials tested, a graphite block with 70% porosity had the highest output flux from the system.