Numerical heat loss analysis of cylindrical cavity receiver using heat pipe for solar power generation by stirling engine

Cavity receiver plays an important role for concentrated solar power generation. In this article a 2-D axisymmetric model with weakly compressible Navier Stokes equation, general heat conduction and convection equations were simultaneously solved using the finite element method approach to determine the convective and radiative heat losses from the cavity receiver. Computational fluid dynamics package COMSOL 3.5a was used as a numerical tool. Geometry of most suitable cavity receiver was used to find the optimum insulation thickness to minimize the conduction heat loss through the walls of cavity receiver numerically. Later the numerical analysis is performed to find convection and radiation heat losses through the cavity receiver. The temperature and flow field inside the cavity receiver were also visualized by means of surface contours. Heat loss analysis were performed for different configurations of Cavity Receiver and the numerical solution of different configuration showed that the aperture ratio (AR) plays a significant role for convection and radiation heat losses whereas the aperture position (AP) effects are negligible. Finally the developed 2-D axisymmetric model is used to compare with the previous 3-D numerical work and experimental results which showed good agreement.