MODELING OF METAL MATRIX CONCENTRATED SOLAR RECEIVERS FOR SCO2 POWER BLOCKS

Supercritical CO2 power blocks for Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) with novel metal matrix solar receivers have the potential to reduce operating expenses while improving overall system efficiencies. These concentrated solar receivers integrated with a metal matrix-based phase change (PCM) thermal storage medium provide the compounding effect of an efficient heat exchanger while also integrating thermal storage within the receiver. Detailed numerical modeling of such devices with enthalpy-porosity-based formulation for phase change and turbulent convective heat transfer for the sCO(2) microchannels is described in the current work. With sCO(2) power blocks operating at temperatures and pressures beyond 800 degrees C and 200 bar, different high-temperature PCMs are studied. A detailed steady charging followed by discharge and charging transients is simulated to analyze the thermal performance of these devices. In the current work, the energy storage density of PCMs is studied, followed by an analysis of the movement of the melt-pool interface over the streamwise length of a high corrugation wavy microchannel. A scaling analysis is carried out to estimate the heat transfer coefficients while compare them with the numerical model predictions. The results from the current work can be utilized for sizing and detailed design of integrated solar receivers for high-temperature sCO(2) power block applications.