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ABSTRACT
Mathematical model is presented for prediction of thermal losses from central receiver solar
thermal power plant. Results obtained are verified with evidence from solar experiments. Code is
developed for studying the effect of variation of weather conditions i.e. variation of incident solar
radiation, wind speed and ambient temperature during the entire year on the thermal performance
of receiver. Thermal losses have its effect on efficiency of the receiver and hence the overall cost of
solar thermal to electric power. Radiation and convection losses are the major components of
thermal losses. Simulation is done for weather data of Jaipur city of India.
Key words: Central receiver solar plant, external receiver, thermal losses, simulation.
Cite this Article: Sandhya Jadhav and Dr. V. Venkat Raj. Simulation of Solar Thermal Central
Receiver Power Plant and Effect of Weather Conditions on Thermal Power Generation.
International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology, 8(2), 2017, pp. 2733.
http://www.iaeme.com/ijmet/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=8&IType=2
1. INTRODUCTION
In central receiver solar thermal power plant (CRSTPP), the incident solar rays from the sun are
concentrated and reflected by heliostat field onto a receiver mounted at the top of a tower. Heat transport
fluid flowing through the receiver tubes gets heated up by absorbing the incident energy on the receiver
and is used to produce steam which drives the turbine. The CRSTPP requires a large space for installation
and the components are costly. To carry out experimentation, it becomes costly and time consuming.
Therefore experimental work has shown the necessity to master user friendly modeling tools and
simulation to reduce the effort and time required. Tools can be of great help in predicting the performance
of components of plant and also plant as a whole. It also helps in plant optimization.
Several codes have been developed since 1970s. According to different specifications and needs of
power plants, these softwares can be modified and adopted for simulation. In the literature, some software
for energy balance and performance analysis of entire power plant are available. DELSOL developed by
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Sandhya Jadhav and Dr. V. Venkat Raj
Kristler in 1986 is a performance and design optimization software developed by using FORTRAN 77.
Although receiver radiation and convection losses are also calculated, the detail is probably insufficient for
use in receiver evaluation, thus only flux density calculation capabilities are used for receiver analysis.
SOLERGY developed in 1987 used FORTRAN 77 for simulation of the plant.
Code is developed using Visual Basic for studying the thermal performance of the central receiver
solar thermal power plant for different amount of solar radiation received during the entire year. The code
developed simulates the operation and annual power output of a solar central receiver power plant using an
actual simulated weather data recorded at time intervals of 1 hour. It calculates the net electrical energy
output including parasitic power requirements over 24 hrs a day. It has subroutine for each major plant
system, receiver, thermal energy storage and turbine. Annual plant performance is found by adding the
performance at every considered time step.
For each time step, the heliostat field concentrates the incident solar radiation and directs it on to the
receiver placed on the top of the tower. On receiving the adequate amount of solar radiation from the
heliostat field, the receiver starts working. The operation of the receiver depends upon the power received
from the heliostat field and the previous receiver status. The lower receiver power limit is set by the
minimum flow rate that the receiver flow valves can handle. If the power to the receiver is greater than the
receiver thermal rating, the input is decreased to the thermal rating, by heliostat defocusing. All thermal
power from the receiver is delivered to thermal storage tank, provided that storage tank can accept it (i.e.
until storage tank is full). The turbine operates, after a specific level in thermal storage is achieved.
600
400
200
0
Jan March May July Sept Nov
Month
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Simulation of Solar Thermal Central Receiver Power Plant and Effect of Weather Conditions on
Thermal Power Generation
The total solar incident flux obtained in year 2007 in Jaipur is shown in Fig.1. It is observed that most
of the sunny days of the year the incident flux received is 900 W/m2 as. On rainy seasons and cloudy days
it is zero. Therefore the effect of variation of incident flux is studied for the values ranging from 0 to 900
W/m2. As most of the days in the year, wind speed is observed to be 4m/s and the ambient temperature to
be 300C, therefore these values are considered for simulation.
20.00
to radiationin MWth
12.00
8.00
4.00
0.00
0 200 400 600 800 1000
Incident flux in W/m2
Figure 2 (a) Variation in thermal losses due to radiation with increase in incident flux
2.90
Thermal power loss due to
2.80
2.70
Convection in MWth
2.60
2.50
2.40
2.30
2.20
0 200 400 600 800 1000
Incident flux in W/m2
Figure 2 (b) Variation in thermal losses due to convection with increase in incident flux
200.00
100.00
0.00
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
Incident flux in W/m2
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Sandhya Jadhav and Dr. V. Venkat Raj
Month
40 10
Convection in MWth
Coefficient in W/m2K
30 8
Heat transfer
6
20
4
10 2
0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 0 5 10 15 20 25
Figure 4 (a) Variation of heat transfer coefficient Figure 4 (b) Power loss due to convection
with variation of speed with variation of wind speed
84 0.82
Net power generated in
Efficiency of Receiver
82 0.80
80 0.78
78 0.76
MW
76 0.74
74 0.72
0 5 10 15 20 25 0 5 10 15 20 25
Velocity of wind in m/s Velocity of Wind in m/s
Figure 4 (c) Variation in net power generated Figure 4 (d) Variation of efficiency of receiver
with variation of wind speed with variation of wind speed
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Simulation of Solar Thermal Central Receiver Power Plant and Effect of Weather Conditions on
Thermal Power Generation
The results obtained are plotted to visualize the impact of wind speed. Fig No 4a shows that the heat
transfer coefficient increases with the increase in wind speed and the thermal power loss due to convection
also increases with wind speed as shown in Fig 4b. It can be seen that after wind speed of 5m/s, power loss
due to convection increases sharply. It is observed, at 0 m/s wind velocity, the net thermal power generated
in the receiver decreases with increase of wind speed. This shows that there is 8.9% of reduction in net
thermal power for increase of wind speed from 0m/s to 20m/s as shown in Fig No.4c. Decrease in receiver
efficiency due to increase in heat loss is also observed from 81.35% to 74.1% as shown in Fig No.4d.
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Month
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Sandhya Jadhav and Dr. V. Venkat Raj
11.68 1.95
in MWth
11.62
MWth
1.80
11.60
11.58 1.75
11.56 1.70
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Ambient temperature in deg Celcius Ambient temperature in deg Celcius
Figure 6 (a) Power loss due to radiation with Figure 6 (b) Power loss due to convection with
variation of ambient temperature variation of ambient temperature
80.05 74.85
Net thermal power in MWth
80.00 74.80
Efficiency of receiver
79.95 74.75
79.90
74.70
79.85
74.65
79.80
79.75 74.60
79.70 74.55
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 10 20 30 40 50
Ambient temperature in deg Celcius Ambient temperature in deg Celcius
Figure 6 (c) Variation in net power generated with Figure 6 (d) Variation of efficiency of receiver
variation of ambient temperature with variation of ambient temperature
4. CONCLUSION
It is observed that, the thermal losses due to radiation increases considerably with the increase in incident
flux. It is seen that due to variation in flux intensity the receiver temperature varies and hence the mean
temperature which results in variation of the working fluid properties. The net thermal power generated in
the receiver decreases with increase of wind speed. There is 8.9% of reduction in net thermal power for
increase of wind speed from 0m/s to 20m/s. The efficiency of the receiver increases as net thermal power
of the receiver increases with increase in ambient temperature. Out of these three weather parameters;
incident solar radiation is the most affecting parameter for thermal losses and hence generation of thermal
power.
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