Directly irradiated liquid metal film in an ultra-high temperature solar cavity receiver. Part 2: Coupled CFD and radiation analysis

A novel solar cavity receiver was proposed in Part 1 to facilitate operation at ultra-high temperatures (>1300 K). The concept featured enclosing a directly irradiated liquid metal film inside a window-sealed cavity containing an inert protective fluid. The receiver’s technical performance was evaluated using a quasi-steady-state analysis based on various assumptions, which were used to enable analytical modelling of the involved energy transfer mechanisms. This paper describes a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) solution developed to verify the conclusions of Part 1 and furtherly investigate the technical performance of the proposed receiver. The solution combined the Volume Of Fluid (VOF) and Discrete Ordinates Model (DOM) methods to simulate the volumetric radiation absorption by the liquid metal film while accounted for the transient flow developments of the gravity-driven film and buoyancy-driven cavity fluid. Analytical models were verified, showing improved performance for the absorptive cavity configuration. Film flow disintegration was mitigated by using surface corrugations, which were found to significantly influence the fluid dynamics and heat transfer performance of the receiver. Finally, a steady-state thermal analysis was presented for the proposed ceramic window, which indicated that active cooling is indispensable for protecting the window against thermo-mechanical fatigue.