Numerical Design of a High-Flux Microchannel Solar Receiver

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles J. Rymal ◽  
Sourabh V. Apte ◽  
Vinod Narayanan ◽  
Kevin Drost
Keyword(s):  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Cross Section ◽  
Thermal Stresses ◽  
Computational Study ◽  
Rectangular Cross Section ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Operating Pressure ◽  
Pin Fin ◽  
Fin Design ◽  
Solar Receiver

This computational study investigates design of microchannel based solar receiver for use in concentrated solar power. A design consisting of a planar array of channels with solar flux incident on one side and using supercritical carbon dioxide as the working fluid is sought. Use of microchannels is investigated as they offer enhanced heat transfer in solar receivers and have the potential to dramatically reduce the size and increase the performance. Designs are investigated for an incident heat flux of 1 MW/m2, up to 3.3 times that of current solar receivers [1], resulting in significant reduction of size and cost. The goal is to design a microchannel receiver with inlet and outlet temperatures of the working fluid of 500°C and 650°C, operating pressure of 100 bar, pressure drop less than 0.35 bar and surface efficiency greater than 90% defined by radiation and convection losses to the environment. Three micro-channel designs are considered: rectangular cross section with high and low aspect ratio (designs A and B) and rectangular cross section with an array of micro pin-fins of various shape spanning the height of the channel (design C). Numerical simulations are performed on individual channels and on a unit cell of the pin-fin design. Structural analysis is performed to ensure that the design can withstand the operating pressure and thermal stresses. The effects of flow maldistribution and header system in an array of channels are also investigated. Preliminary results show that all three designs are capable of meeting the requirements, with the pin-fin design having the lowest pressure drop and highest efficiency.

Pressure Drop in Rectangular Microchannels as Compared With Theory Based on Arbitrary Cross Section

2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohsen Akbari ◽  
David Sinton ◽  
Majid Bahrami
Keyword(s):  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Cross Section ◽  
Soft Lithography ◽  
Rectangular Cross Section ◽  
Streaming Potential ◽  
Arbitrary Cross Section ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Aspect Ratios ◽  
Flow Through ◽  
Developed Pressure

Pressure driven liquid flow through rectangular cross-section microchannels is investigated experimentally. Polydimethylsiloxane microchannels are fabricated using soft lithography. Pressure drop data are used to characterize the friction factor over a range of aspect ratios from 0.13 to 0.76 and Reynolds number from 1 to 35 with distilled water as working fluid. Results are compared with the general model developed to predict the fully developed pressure drop in arbitrary cross-section microchannels. Using available theories, effects of different losses, such as developing region, minor flow contraction and expansion, and streaming potential on the measured pressure drop, are investigated. Experimental results compare well with the theory based on the presure drop in channels of arbitrary cross section.

Numerical Design of a Planar High-Flux Microchannel Solar Receiver

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles J. Rymal ◽  
Sourabh V. Apte ◽  
Vinod Narayanan ◽  
Kevin Drost
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Molten Salt ◽  
Thermal Stresses ◽  
Maximum Pressure ◽  
Operating Pressure ◽  
Design Features ◽  
Power Cycles ◽  
Solar Receiver

This paper discuses the design of several micro-channel solar receiver devices. Due to enhanced heat transfer in micro-channels, these devices can achieve a higher surface efficiency than current receiver technology, leading to an increase in overall plant efficiency. The goal is to design an efficient solar receiver based on use of super-critical carbon-dioxide and molten salt as heat-transfer fluids. The super-critical Brayton cycle has shown potential for a higher efficiency than current power cycles used in CSP. Molten salt has been used in CSP applications in the past. The required inlet and outlet temperatures of the fluid are 773.15 K and 923.15 K for carbon-dioxide and 573.15 K and 873.15 K for molten salt. These temperature values are determined by the power cycles the devices are designed to operate in. The required maximum pressure drop is 0.35 bar for carbon-dioxide and 1 bar for molten salt. These pressure values are intended to be a practical goal for maximum pressure drop. The super-critical carbon-dioxide power cycle requires an operating pressure of is 120 bar. Finally, each device must withstand any mechanical and thermal stresses that may exist. Devices presented range in size from 1 cm2 to 4 cm2 and in heat transfer rates from 200 W to 400 W. The size of the device is based on the output capacity of the solar simulator which will be used for testing. For carbon-dioxide, three designs were developed with varying manufacturability. The low risk design features machined and welded parts and straight parallel channels. The medium risk design features machined and diffusion bonded parts and straight parallel channels. The high risk design features a circular micro-pin-fin array created using EDM and is constructed using diffusion bonding. The absence of high operating pressure for molten salt made structural design much easier than for carbon-dioxide. Conjugate heat-transfer simulations of each design were used to evaluate pressure drop, receiver efficiency, and flow distribution. Two and three dimensional structural analyses were used to ensure that the devices would withstand the mechanical and thermal stresses. Based on the numerical analyses, a receiver efficiency of 89.7% with a pressure drop of 0.2 bar were achieved for carbon-dioxide. The design was found to have a structural safety factor of 1.3 based maximum mechanical stress occurring in the headers. For molten salt, an efficiency of 92.1% was achieved with a pressure drop of 0.5 bar.

Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop in a Pin Fin Heat Sink Using Nanofluids as Coolant

2015 ◽  
Vol 1105 ◽  
pp. 253-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weerapun Duangthongsuk ◽  
Somchai Wongwises
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Heat Sink ◽  
Heat Transfer Performance ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Electric Heater ◽  
Uniform Heat Flux ◽  
Heat Transfer Area ◽  
Pin Fin ◽  
Aluminum Material

This research presents an experimental investigation on the heat transfer performance and pressure drop characteristics of a heat sink with miniature square pin fin structure using nanofluids as coolant. ZnO-water nanofluids with particle concentrations of 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 vol.% are used as working fluid and then compared with the data for water-cooled heat sink. Heat sink made from aluminum material with dimension around 28 x 33 x 25 mm (width x length x thickness). The heat transfer area and hydraulic diameter of the each flow channel is designed at 1,565 mm2and 1.2 mm respectively. Uniform heat flux at the bottom of heat sink is achieved using an electric heater. The experimental data illustrate that the thermal performance of heat sink using nanofluids as coolant is average 14% higher than that of the water-cooled heat sink. For pressure drop, the data show that the pressure drop of nanofluids is a few percent larger than that of the water-cooled heat sink.

scholarly journals Experimental Investigation of Embedded Micropin-Fins for Single-Phase Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop

2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chirag R. Kharangate ◽  
Ki Wook Jung ◽  
Sangwoo Jung ◽  
Daeyoung Kong ◽  
Joseph Schaadt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Friction Factor ◽  
Integrated Circuit ◽  
Single Phase ◽  
Absolute Error ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Pin Fin

Three-dimensional (3D) stacked integrated circuit (IC) chips offer significant performance improvement, but offer important challenges for thermal management including, for the case of microfluidic cooling, constraints on channel dimensions, and pressure drop. Here, we investigate heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of a microfluidic cooling device with staggered pin-fin array arrangement with dimensions as follows: diameter D = 46.5 μm; spacing, S ∼ 100 μm; and height, H ∼ 110 μm. Deionized single-phase water with mass flow rates of m˙ = 15.1–64.1 g/min was used as the working fluid, corresponding to values of Re (based on pin fin diameter) from 23 to 135, where heat fluxes up to 141 W/cm2 are removed. The measurements yield local Nusselt numbers that vary little along the heated channel length and values for both the Nu and the friction factor do not agree well with most data for pin fin geometries in the literature. Two new correlations for the average Nusselt number (∼Re1.04) and Fanning friction factor (∼Re−0.52) are proposed that capture the heat transfer and pressure drop behavior for the geometric and operating conditions tested in this study with mean absolute error (MAE) of 4.9% and 1.7%, respectively. The work shows that a more comprehensive investigation is required on thermofluidic characterization of pin fin arrays with channel heights Hf < 150 μm and fin spacing S = 50–500 μm, respectively, with the Reynolds number, Re < 300.

Evaluation of Nusselt number and pressure drop in hexagonal and rectangular micro-channels in the presence of nano-fluids

2020 ◽  
Vol 234 (6) ◽  
pp. 665-672
Author(s):  
S Emami ◽  
MH Dibaei Bonab ◽  
M Mohammadiun ◽  
H Mohammadiun ◽  
M Sadi
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Nusselt Number ◽  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Cross Section ◽  
Rectangular Cross Section ◽  
Heat Sinks ◽  
Nano Particles ◽  
Geometrical Parameters ◽  
Micro Channels ◽  
Nano Fluids

Few papers investigated the effect of different nano-fluids and geometrical parameters of the micro channels on the performance of heat sinks. In this study, Nusselt number and pressure drop are investigated in differential geometry and Reynolds numbers. Then the effect of the micro-channel is studied for different heat flux. The results show that hexagonal micro-channels represents a better performance than the rectangular and the heat transfer of without using nano-particles in the hexagonal cross-section is about 9% higher than the rectangular cross-section and with the presence of nanoparticles (Al2O3 - CUO- TiO2, φ  =  4%), heat transfer is about 30 to 40% higher than the base liquid.

Comparative Study of Thermal Performance of Longitudinal and Transversal-Wavy Microchannel Heat Sinks for Electronic Cooling

2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gongnan Xie ◽  
Jian Liu ◽  
Yanquan Liu ◽  
Bengt Sunden ◽  
Weihong Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Reynolds Number ◽  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Thermal Resistance ◽  
Cross Section ◽  
Thermal Performance ◽  
Heat Load ◽  
Rectangular Cross Section ◽  
Flow Direction ◽  
Heat Sinks ◽  
Liquid Cooling

Liquid cooling incorporating microchannels are used to cool electronic chips in order to remove more heat load. However, such microchannels are often designed to be straight with rectangular cross section. In this paper, on the basis of straight microchannels having rectangular cross section (SRC), longitudinal-wavy microchannel (LWC), and transversal microchannel (TWC) were designed, respectively, and then the corresponding laminar flow and heat transfer were investigated numerically. Among them, the channel wall of LWC undulates along the flow direction according to a sinusoidal function while the TWC undulates along the transversal direction. The numerical results show that for removing an identical heat load, the overall thermal resistance of the LWC is decreased with increasing inlet Reynolds number while the pressure drop is increased greatly, so that the overall thermal performance of LWC is inferior to that of SRC under the considered geometries. On the contrary, TWC has a great potential to reduce the pressure drop compared to SRC, especially for higher wave amplitudes at the same Reynolds number. Thus the overall thermal performance of TWC is superior to that of SRC. It is suggested that the TWC can be used to cool chips effectively with much smaller pressure drop penalty. In addition to the overall thermal resistance, other criteria of evaluation of the overall thermal performance, e.g., (Nu/Nu0)/(f/f0) and (Nu/Nu0)/(f/f0)1/3, are applied and some controversial results are obtained.

Analysis of Flow and Thermal Performance of a Water-Cooled Transversal Wavy Microchannel Heat Sink for Chip Cooling

2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gongnan Xie ◽  
Jian Liu ◽  
Weihong Zhang ◽  
Bengt Sunden
Keyword(s):  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Cross Section ◽  
Thermal Performance ◽  
Integrated Circuit ◽  
Rectangular Cross Section ◽  
Cooling Capacity ◽  
Heat Sinks ◽  
Liquid Cooling ◽  
Rectangular Microchannel ◽  
Microchannel Heat Sinks

With the increasing output power of the integrated circuit chips, the heat flux involved is being accordingly increased. In such situation, the air has almost reached its limit of cooling capacity, and thus the liquid cooling technology incorporating microchannel heat sinks is desired to cool the electronic chips in order to remove more heat loads. However, these microchannel heat sinks are often designed to be straight with rectangular cross section. In this study, on the basis of a straight microchannel having rectangular cross section, a kind of transversal wavy microchannel is designed and then the laminar flow and heat transfer are investigated numerically. It is shown that for removing the identical load, the transversal wavy microchannel has great potential to reduce pressure drop compared to the straight microchannel, especially for higher wave amplitude at the same Reynolds number, indicating the overall thermal performance of the transversal wavy microchannel is superior to the traditional straight rectangular microchannel. It is suggested such wavy microchannel can be used to cool chips effectively with much smaller pressure drop penalty.

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