Publications

Abstract not provided.

We have designed and tested a prototype dish/Stirling hybrid-receiver combustion system. The system consists of a pre-mixed natural-gas burner heating a pin-finned sodium heat pipe. The design emphasizes simplicity, low cost, and ruggedness. Our test was on a 1/6^th -scale device, with a nominal firing rate of 18kWt, a power throughput of 13kWt, and a sodium vapor temperature of 750°C. The air/fuel mixture was electrically preheated to 640°C to simulate recuperation. The test rig was instrumented for temperatures, pressures, flow rates, overall leak rate, and exhaust emissions. The data verify our burner and heat-transfer models. Performance and post-test examinations validate our choice of materials and fabrication methods. Based on the 1/6^th -scale results, we are designing a till-scale hybrid receiver. This is a fully-integrated system, including burner, pin-fin primary heat exchanger, recuperator (in place of the electrical pre-heater used in the prototype system), solar absorber, and sodium heat pipe. The major challenges of the design are to avoid pre-ignition, achieve robust heat-pipe performance, and attain long life of the burner matrix, recuperator, and flue-gas seals. We have used computational fluid dynamics extensively in designing to avoid pre-ignition and for designing the heat-pipe wick, and we have used individual component tests and results of the 1/6^th -scale test to optimize for long life. In this paper, we present our design philosophy and basic details of our design. We describe the sub-scale test rig and compare test results with predictions. Finally, we outline the evolution of our full-scale design, and present its current status.

Liquid metal reflux receivers (LMRRs) have been designed to serve as the interface between the solar concentrator dish and the Stirling engine of a dish Stirling power system. Such a receiver has undergone performance testing at Sandia National Laboratory to determine cold- and hot-start characteristics, component temperatures, throughput power, and thermal efficiency, for various times of day and year. Performance modeling will play an important role in the future commercialization of these systems since it will be necessary to predict overall energy production for potential installation sites based on available meteorological data. As a supplement to numerical thermal modeling, artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been investigated for their effectiveness in predicting long-term energy production of a LMRR. Two types of data were used to train ANNs, actual on-sun test data, and ersatz data. ANNs were trained on both the raw on-sun test data and on pre-formatted versions of the data to determine if pre-formatting of the input data would improve network training efficiency and predictive abilities. Usable on-sun test data were available for only a few days of performance testing. Therefore, a set of year-long ersatz data was generated using a transient numerical model driven by one-minute meteorological data from the Solar Energy Meteorological Research and Training Sites (SEMRTS) data base for Davis, CA. The ersatz data were used to train ANNs based on warm-month data, cool-month data, and year-long data to investigate the impact of using seasonal test data on long-term predictive capabilities. The findings indicated that a network trained on data from a limited time span could successfully predict annual energy output of a liquid metal receiver.

Two 75-kW{sub t} alkali-metal pool-boiler solar receivers have been successfully tested at Sandia National Laboratories` National Solar Thermal Test Facility. The first one, Sandia`s `` second-generation pool-boiler receiver,`` was designed to address commercialization issues identified during post-test assessment of Sandia`s first-generation pool-boiler receiver. It was constructed from Haynes alloy 230 and contained the alkali-metal alloy NaK-78. The absorber`s wetted side had a brazed-on powder-metal coating to stabilize boiling. This receiver was evaluated for boiling stability, hot- and warm-restart behavior, and thermal efficiency. Boiling was stable under all conditions. All of the hot restarts were successful. Mild transient hot spots observed during some hot restarts were eliminated by the addition of 1/3 torr of xenon to the vapor space. All of the warm restarts were also successful. The heat-transfer crisis that damaged the first receiver did not recur. Thermal efficiency was 92.3% at 750{degrees}C with 69.6 kW{sub t} solar input. The second receiver tested, Sandia`s ``advanced-concepts receiver,`` was a replica of the first-generation receiver except that the cavities, which were electric-discharge-machined in the absorber for boiling stability, were eliminated. This step was motivated by bench-scale test results that showed that boiling stability improved with increased heated-surface area, tilt of the heated surface from vertical, and added xenon. The bench-scale results suggested that stable boiling might be possible without heated-surface modification in a 75-kW{sub t} receiver. Boiling in the advanced-concepts receiver with 1/3 torr of xenon added has been stable under all conditions, confirming the bench-scale tests.

During 1989-90, a refluxing liquid-metal pool-boiler solar receiver designed for dish/Stirling application at 75 kWt throughput was successfully demonstrated at Sandia National Laboratories. Significant features of this receiver included (1) boiling sodium as the heat transfer medium and (2) electric-discharge-machined (EDM) cavities as artificial nucleation sites to stabilize boiling. Following this first demonstration, a second-generation pool-boiler receiver that brings the concept closer to commercialization has been designed, constructed, and successfully tested. For long life, the new receiver is built from Haynes Alloy 230. For increased safety factors against film boiling and flooding, the absorber area and vapor-flow passages have been enlarged. To eliminate the need for trace heating, sodium has been replaced by the sodium-potassium alloy NaK-78. To reduce manufacturing costs, the receiver has a powdered-metal coating instead of EDM cavities for stabilization of boiling. To control incipient-boiling superheats, especially during hot restarts, it contains a small amount of xenon. In this paper, we present the receiver design and report the results of on-sun tests using a nominal 75 kWt test-bed concentrator to characterize boiling stability, hot-restart behavior, and thermal efficiency at temperatures up to 750°C. We also report briefly on late results from an advanced-concepts pool-boiler receiver.

X-ray observations of boiling sodium in a 75-kW{sub t} reflux-pool-boiler solar receiver operating at up to 800{degrees}C were carried out. Both cinematographic and quantitative observations were made. From the cinematography, the pool free surface was observed before and during the start of boiling. During boiling, the free surface rose out of the field of view, and chaotic motion was observed. From the quantitative observations, void fraction in pencil-like probe volumes was inferred, using a linear array of detectors. Useful data were obtained from three of the eight probe volumes. Information from the other volumes was masked by scattered radiation. During boiling, time-averaged void fractions ranged from 0.6 to 0.8. During hot restarts, void fractions near unity occurred and persisted for up to {1/2} second. 17 refs.

A sodium reflux pool-boiler solar receiver has been tested on a nominal 75-kWt parabolic dish concentrator. The purpose was to demonstrate the feasibility of reflux receiver technology for application to Stirling engine dish electric systems. In this application, pool boilers (and more generally liquid metal reflux receivers) have advantages over directly illuminated tube receivers. The advantages include more uniform temperature, which results in longer lifetime and higher temperature available to the engine. The absorber was a 70° half-angle spherical segment with an 8.63 inches radius, positioned behind an 8.65 inches diameter aperture. The relatively small size of this receiver, which minimized thermal losses, fabrication costs, and sodium inventory, was possible because of its excellent internal heat transfer characteristics. Tests were run at sodium temperatures up to 800°C and receiver input power levels as high as 67 kWt. At maximum input power, the peak in the solar flux distribution on the absorber was calculated to be 73 Wt/cm2. Receiver efficiency was about 90% when the input power and sodium temperature were at their maximum values. To promote stable boiling, the receiver design included 35 equally spaced artificial cavities in the absorber wetted surface. In all tests, stable boiling was always observed. Under certain conditions during both real and simulated cloud transients, high incipient boiling superheats were observed. This behavior could be suppressed either actively by momentarily increasing the thermal load on the receiver or passively by the addition of a small amount of xenon into the boiler.

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.