Design and optimization of baffled fluid distributor for realizing target flow distribution in a tubular solar receiver

Abstract

This paper presents an original study on the design and optimization of baffled fluid distributor for the realization of optimal fluid flow distribution in a tubular solar receiver. The basic idea is to install a perforated baffle in the inlet fluid distributor and to optimize the configuration of orifices on the baffle so as to approach the target flow distribution among downstream parallel tubes. A pressurized-air solar receiver comprising of 45 parallel tubes is used for study, with copper or Inconel 600 used as the filling material.Results show that the final fluid flow distributions realized by the geometrically optimized baffles are in good agreement with the target curves. The peak temperature of the receiver wall can be minimized accordingly with moderate increase in total pressure drop of the receiver system. It is shown that the insertion of a geometrically optimized baffle is generally a practical solution with various features: capable of realizing non-uniform target distribution; small pressure drop increase; compact geometry; flexible and adaptive; easy fabrication with a reasonable cost, etc.

Single-tank thermal energy storage systems for concentrated solar power: Flow distribution optimization for thermocline evolution management

“…It should be noted that the strategy for flow distribution management coupled with novel optimized baffled fluid distributor/collector has been proposed and proven to be really effective in our earlier studies [Luo et al, 2015;Wei et al, 2015b;Wei et al, 2016;Wei et al, 2017]. But in the current study, this method is for the first time applied to a more complicated situation (TES tank) to tackle the dynamic thermocline behavior optimization problem.…”

Fluid flow characteristics of a multi-scale fluidic network

“…This method, associated with an evolutionary algorithm to determine the optimal sizes of orifices, is in similar relation to the study of Tong et al [60] and that of Liu and Yu [61] which adjust the dimension of the inlet/outlet opening of every mini-channel as a supplemental hydraulic resistance. Numerical and experimental results [62][63][64] confirmed that this method is practical, easy to implement, effective and robust in realizing different target (both uniform and non-uniform) flow distributions among parallel channels. For complex multiscale fluidic networks such as shown in Fig.…”

Tailoring the fluid flow distribution in a parallel mini-channel heat sink under multiple-peak heat flux

“…It should be noted that acting on the channel inlets (also called perforated baffle in some studies) to regulate the flow distribution among parallel channels or tubes is not new but has been proposed and proven to be effective by many researchers [20,[33][34][35]. But most of them use homogeneous or non-homogeneous insertion baffle as a convenient way to improve the flow uniformity.…”