Publications Details
Test results from bench-scale sodium-pool-boiler solar receiver
A liquid-metal pool-boiler solar receiver has been proposed to link a paraboloidal-dish concentrator to a Stirling heat engine operating in the temperature range 700--800/degree/C. Preliminary to the construction of a full-scale receiver of this type, a bench-scale version using liquid sodium was designed, built and tested. Conclusions drawn from the test included: (1) boiling instability will occur in the full-scale receiver unless special measures are taken, (2) boiling was stabilized in the bench-scale receiver after the addition of ''artificial cavities'', but other stabilizing influences may also have been present, (3) ''hot restarts'' can under some circumstances lead to unacceptably-high incipient-boiling superheats, (4) no thermal-fatigue damage was evident after 100 hours of boiling interspersed with 24 cooldown periods, (5) 0.01-inch-diameter sheathed thermocouples used to provide an estimate of heated-wall temperature survived over 100 hours at 830/degree/C, and (6) other instrumentation and control techniques that were tested were shown to be appropriate for future full-scale receiver tests. 27 refs., 24 figs., 4 tabs.