Development of a "Solar Patch" Calculator to evaluate heliostat-field irradiance as a boundary condition in CFD models

Siri Sahib S. Khalsa, Clifford K. Ho

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

A rigorous computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach to calculating temperature distributions, radiative and convective losses, and flow fields in a cavity receiver irradiated by a heliostat field is typically limited to the receiver domain alone for computational reasons. A CFD simulation cannot realistically yield a precise solution that includes the details within the vast domain of an entire heliostat field in addition to the detailed processes and features within a cavity receiver. Instead, the incoming field irradiance can be represented as a boundary condition on the receiver domain. This paper describes a program, the Solar Patch Calculator, written in Microsoft Excel VBA to characterize multiple beams emanating from a "solar patch" located at the aperture of a cavity receiver, in order to represent the incoming irradiance from any field of heliostats as a boundary condition on the receiver domain. This program accounts for cosine losses; receiver location; heliostat reflectivity, areas and locations; field location; time of day and day of year. This paper also describes the implementation of the boundary conditions calculated by this program into a Discrete Ordinates radiation model using Ansys® FLUENT (www.fluent.com), and compares the results to experimental data and to results generated by the code DELSOL.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationASME 2010 4th International Conference on Energy Sustainability, ES 2010
Pages483-490
Number of pages8
DOIs
StatePublished - 2010
Externally publishedYes
EventASME 2010 4th International Conference on Energy Sustainability, ES 2010 - Phoenix, AZ, United States
Duration: May 17 2010May 22 2010

Publication series

NameASME 2010 4th International Conference on Energy Sustainability, ES 2010
Volume2

Conference

ConferenceASME 2010 4th International Conference on Energy Sustainability, ES 2010
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityPhoenix, AZ
Period5/17/105/22/10

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Energy Engineering and Power Technology
  • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Development of a "Solar Patch" Calculator to evaluate heliostat-field irradiance as a boundary condition in CFD models'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this