1. Characterization of thermal-hydraulics in wavy solar power plant: effect of thermal dispersion.
- Author
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Mehta, Sumit Kumar, Kumar, Dhananjay, Mondal, Pranab Kumar, and Wongwises, Somchai
- Subjects
REYNOLDS number ,NUSSELT number ,SOLAR power plants ,HEAT flux ,HEAT transfer - Abstract
We examined the thermo-hydraulic characteristics for conjugate heat flow in the solar power plant having wavy channel with porous blocks (WCPB), while taking the thermal dispersion effect into account. The flow field inside the porous blocks is modelled using the Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer equations and the finite element method-based solver to solve the transport variables numerically. The temperature field, conductive heat flux, local Nusselt number, average Nusselt number and performance factor has been examined by changing the thermal dispersion coefficient, Reynolds number and Darcy number. We found that the average temperature decreases and conductive heat flux enhances by thermal dispersion near the bottom wall close to porous blocks. The rate of increase in average Nusselt number and performance factor with increase in dispersion coefficient is seen to be higher at the higher Reynolds number. It's interesting to note that the average Nusselt number underestimated with greater extent at higher dispersion coefficients as a result of ignoring the conjugate heat transfer effect. Moreover, the performance factor with the higher Reynolds number (= 500) is found to be more than unity. Also, when Reynolds number is 500, the performance factor for WCPB becomes larger than the plane channel with pours block at higher dispersion coefficient and Darcy number. The results of this analysis suggest that the proposed system is cost-effective to be used in the solar power plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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