空间站太阳能热动力发电系统吸热器研究

系统介绍了国际上对空间站太阳能热动力发电系统中吸热器的研究成果。详细地介绍了目前国际上研究设计的两种吸热器的结构、尺寸以及工作原理，对蓄热相变材料及其和吸热管材料间的腐蚀、相容性进行了讨论。分析了吸热器相变材料储罐壁面的热松脱问题及其对策。研究结果对促进我国空间站事业的发展具有指导意义。     

组合相变材料换热管吸热器性能的数值分析

吸热器是空间太阳能热动力发电系统关键部件之一。传统吸热器采用单一熔点的相变材料。该文提出了由不同溶点的相变材料组成的组合PCM换热管吸热器模型，计算了换热管最大温度、工质出口温度、各容器PCM熔化率、换热管总PCM熔化率等结果。并与单一PCM换热管吸热器进行了比较分析，说明了采用组合PCM换热管可以很好的提高吸热器的性能，对于减少工质温度波动、减少吸热器质量有重要的意义。计算结果可以较好的指导吸热器的设计。     

太阳能热动力空间发电系统的研究

以空间站电源为研究背景，对近年来国际上太阳能空间利用的研究做了回顾，重点讨论了太阳能热动力系统发电的原理和特点。太阳能热动力系统由聚能器，带相变蓄热的吸热器，电力转换设备，散热设备以及控制和电力调节设备等组成，其发电原理是闭式Brayton循环。在日照期，通过一个反射聚能器把入射太阳辐射聚集在一个空腔式吸热器内作为热源，沿吸热器圆周分布的换热管外的封壳内含有相变盐，吸收太阳能后熔化，利用其融解热加热惰性气体工质进行闭式Brayton循环(CBC)发电，同时储存能量，保证飞行器在阴影期的能量连续供应。CBC太阳能热动力系统已经达到了实用阶段，热机循环效率超过27％，系统总的电转换效率超过17％。与光伏电池系统相比，该系统有较高的能量转换效率、较长的寿命和较低的长期运行维护费用，是未来大功率空间站电源的发展方向。     

太阳入射热流对吸热器换热的影响

空间太阳能热动力发电系统是非常有前景的未来空间能源供应系统。吸热器的入射热流分布将影响到换热管的传热以及系统的寿命，采用焓法处理相变区的传热，建立了太阳能热动力发电系统吸势器换热管三维换热模型，计算得到在轨道周期内对应三种入射热流的换热管的温度场、工质的出口温度变化、相变材料熔化率等重要的结果，并进行了比较、分析。     

半周加热半周绝热的熔盐吸热管传热特性研究

建立了描述半周加热、半周绝热的不均匀热流边界条件下熔盐吸热管内热传导与热对流换热的数值模型,模型考虑了管壁导热和熔盐的变物性.采用Fluent软件,通过求解三维N-S方程和能量方程,对熔盐吸热管的传热过程进行了模拟,并在熔盐吸热传热实验平台上进行了试验研究.模拟计算与实验结果基本一致.揭示了熔盐吸热管在高温、高热流密度条件下的管内流速和温度分布规律及其换热特性,为塔式太阳能热发电熔盐吸热器的设计和运行控制提供了重要依据.     

高温熔盐相变蓄热材料

高温蓄热技术是太阳能热动力发电系统的关键技术之一,通常利用相变材料(PCM)固液相变时的熔化潜热来蓄热。在轨道的日照期,聚能器将截取的太阳能聚集到吸热器圆柱形腔内,被吸收转化成热能,其中一部分热能传递给循环工质以驱动热机发电,其余的热能被封装在单元换热管上多个小容器内的PCM吸收储存起来,此时PCM部分或全部变为液态。在轨道的阴影期,小容器内的PCM部分或全部变为固态,储存的能量被释放出来,使出口的循环工质温度仍能维持在循环所要求的最低峰值温度上。保证空间站处于阴影期时热机仍能连续工作,保证连续供电。太阳能利用中…     

基于CSO算法优化的LSSVM熔盐温度预测

吸热器的安全高效运行在太阳能热发电系统中起到了至关重要的作用。吸热管中熔盐出口最高温度和平均温度为太阳能热发电系统中吸热器的设计、材料的选择和运行控制提供了重要的科学依据。文章提出了基于最小二乘支持向量机(Least squares support vector machines,LSSVM)的快速预测方法,预测不同工况下吸热管中熔盐出口最高温度和平均温度。为了提高预测精度,利用猫群优化(Cat Swarm Optimization,CSO)算法求解LSSVM方法中的超参数。数值计算结果证实了LSSVM方法是可行的,从而为研究塔式太阳能吸热器的热特性以及运行控制提供一种新的有效方法。     

太阳能吸热器换热管蓄热数值模拟与试验研究

对以高温共晶盐LiF—CaF2为相变材料(PCM)和以干空气为工质的相变蓄热系统，采用焓方法建立了以控制体单元为对象的单管相变蓄热模型，并对系统进行了数值分析，得到了循环工质气体出口温度、相变材料容器最高温度和平均壁温等参数的瞬态变化曲线，实验研究了吸热器换热管的蓄傲热性能，分析了工质进口温度、输入热流级工质流量对工质出口温度、PCM容器平均壁温及最高壁温的影响。计算结果和试验表明单元换热管的蓄傲热性能达到了设计要求，试验结果与数值计算吻合良好。     

太阳能热动力发电系统吸热器换热管试验及数值模拟

吸热器换热管地面试验是空间太阳能热动力发电系统吸热／蓄热器研制的重要阶段，是为了验证相变材料的蓄放热性能。对以共晶盐LiF—CaF2为蓄热介质的换热管进行了27个周期共2511分钟的地面试验，包括变参数试验和稳态试验，获得了容器表面温度和工质出口温度等试验结果。利用焓法建立相变蓄热换热管试验的传热模型，采用试验参数对地面试验进行了数值模拟，得到的结果与试验结果进行了比较，两者比较接近。证明了地面单管试验的成功性，也验证了换热管传热分析软件的可靠性。     

熔盐塔式太阳能热发电站中蒸汽发生系统水循环方式的对比分析

蒸汽发生系统水循环方式的选择对熔盐塔式太阳能热发电站的投资经济性及安全稳定运行至关重要。对熔盐塔式太阳能热发电站的蒸汽发生系统进行了介绍，对蒸汽发生系统的两种水循环方式——自然循环方式和强制循环方式进行了技术性和经济性对比分析。分析结果表明：在目前熔盐塔式太阳能热发电站采用高温、超高压参数下，自然循环方式及强制循环方式技术路线均能满足熔盐塔式太阳能热发电站蒸发换热的需求；若选择强制循环方式，在设备选型时，应将强制循环泵的结构及运行环境作为重点进行综合分析；结合国内已建成的熔盐塔式太阳能热发电项目的运行经验及太阳能热发电技术的发展趋势，熔盐塔式太阳能热发电站蒸汽发生系统的出口主蒸汽压力在亚临界以下(<16 MPa)时，从技术性、经济性及运行维护方面综合考虑，水循环方式推荐采用自然循环方式。以期为熔盐塔式太阳能热发电站蒸汽发生系统的设计选型提供参考。     

Simulated energy and exergy analyses of the charging of an oil-pebble bed thermal energy storage system for a solar cooker

Energy balance equations are used to model the solar energy capture (SEC) system and the thermal energy storage (TES) system of a proposed indirect solar cooker. An oil-pebble bed is used as the TES material. Energy and exergy analyses are carried out using two different charging methods to predict the performance of the TES system. The first method charges the TES system at a constant flowrate. In the second method, the flowrate is made variable to maintain a constant charging temperature. A Simulink block model is developed to solve the energy balance equations and to perform energy and exergy analyses. Simulation results using the two methods indicate a greater degree of thermal stratification and energy stored when using constant-temperature charging than when using constant-flowrate charging. There are greater initial energy and exergy rates for the constant-flowrate method when the solar radiation is low. Energy efficiencies using both methods are comparable whilst the constant-temperature method results in greater exergy efficiency at higher levels of the solar radiation. Parametric results showing the effect of each charging method on the energy and exergy efficiencies are also presented.     

Innovative configuration of a hybrid nuclear-parabolic trough solar power plant

This paper proposes a combination of a nuclear and a concentrated solar power (CSP) plant. Most of today’s operating nuclear reactor systems are producing saturated steam at relatively low pressure. This, in turn, limits their thermodynamic efficiency. Superheating of nuclear steam with solar thermal energy has the potential to overcome this drawback. An innovative configuration of a hybrid nuclear-CSP plant is assembled and simulated. It brings together a small pressurised water reactor and a parabolic trough solar field. The solar heat is transferred to nuclear steam to raise its temperature. Continuous superheating is provided through molten salts-based thermal energy storage (TES). The results from design point calculations show that solar superheating has the potential to increase nuclear plant electric efficiency significantly. Solar heat to electricity conversion efficiency defined as the ratio of extra generated power to collected solar energy reaches unprecedented rates of 52%. An off-design model was used to simulate 24-h operation for one year by simulating 8760 cases. Due to TES non-stop operation is manageable.     

Experimental study on heat discharging characteristic of single tank with different annular baffle conditions

Molten salts as thermal energy storage (TES) material have been numerously studied. The annular baffle immersed in single tank can improve the heat discharging performance (HDP) of the TES system. The different annular baffle conditions are experimentally studied in single tank TES system, the working conditions are set as atmospheric pressure, vacuum and filled with solar salt in the annular baffle. The results present that the effective heat discharging time (HDT) of working condition C (filling the solar salt in the annular baffle) and working condition B (the vacuum treatment of the annular baffle) is increased by 21.1% and 6.1%, respectively compared with the working condition A (the atmospheric pressure in the annular baffle). The highest heat discharging efficiency (HDE) is 93.93% obtained by working condition C, while the HDE of working condition B and A is 91.16% and 83.2%, respectively. This research provides a significance guide for the design and application of single tank TES system.     

Modeling, design and thermal performance of a BIPV/T system thermally coupled with a ventilated concrete slab in a low energy solar house: Part 1, BIPV/T system and house energy concept

This paper is the first of two papers that describe the modeling, design, and performance assessment based on monitored data of a building-integrated photovoltaic-thermal (BIPV/T) system thermally coupled with a ventilated concrete slab (VCS) in a prefabricated, two-storey detached, low energy solar house. This house, with a design goal of near net-zero annual energy consumption, was constructed in 2007 in Eastman, Québec, Canada - a cold climate area. Several novel solar technologies are integrated into the house and with passive solar design to reach this goal. An air-based open-loop BIPV/T system produces electricity and collects heat simultaneously. Building-integrated thermal mass is utilized both in passive and active forms. Distributed thermal mass in the direct gain area and relatively large south facing triple-glazed windows (about 9% of floor area) are employed to collect and store passive solar gains. An active thermal energy storage system (TES) stores part of the collected thermal energy from the BIPV/T system, thus reducing the energy consumption of the house ground source heat pump heating system. This paper focuses on the BIPV/T system and the integrated energy concept of the house. Monitored data indicate that the BIPV/T system has a typical efficiency of about 20% for thermal energy collection, and the annual space heating energy consumption of the house is about 5% of the national average. A thermal model of the BIPV/T system suitable for preliminary design and control of the airflow is developed and verified with monitored data.     

Analysing the benefits of hybridisation and storage in a hybrid solar gas turbine plant

ABSTRACT

A dynamic model of a tower-driven, hybrid solar gas turbine power plant is presented to highlight the benefits of hybrid operation as well as the development a novel plant configuration to improve solar fraction by leveraging a packed-bed thermal energy storage (TES). Relative to solar-only plant, hybridisation increases solar-to-electric efficiency (STE) by 30%. Introduction of a passive packed-bed TES only leads to slight improvement in solar energy utilisation and displacement of solar load. A novel plant configuration, which utilises a recycle stream to charge TES, is presented to improve solar energy utilisation. The recycle stream gives freedom to manipulate the thermal capacity of flow in the tower collector to control collector exit temperature and direct excess solar energy to TES. Employment of the proposed plant configuration leads to a 10.8% and 11.3% improvement in yearly STE and solar fraction, respectively, relative to a plant not utilising such a control scheme.     

Experimental and simulated temperature distribution of an oil-pebble bed thermal energy storage system with a variable heat source

Axial temperature distributions of a thermal energy storage (TES) system under variable electrical heating have been investigated. An electrical hot plate in thermal contact with a hollow copper spiral coil through which the oil flows simulates a solar collector/concentrator system. The hot plate heats up the oil which flows through the storage thus charging the TES system at a constant controlled temperature. The Schumann model and the modified Schumann model for the dynamic temperature distributions in the TES system are implemented in Simulink. The simulated results are compared with experimental results during the charging and discharging of the TES system. The Schumann model is in close agreement with experiment at lower TES temperatures during the early stages of the charging process. However, larger deviations between experiment and simulation are seen at later stages of the charging process and this is due to heat losses that are unaccounted for. The modified Schumann model is in closer agreement with experiment at later stages of the charging process. The discrepancies between experiment and simulation are also discussed. Discharging simulation results using both models are comparable to the experimental results.     

Experimental characterisation of a thermal energy storage system using temperature and power controlled charging

The experimental set-up and technical aspects for charging a thermal energy storage (TES) of a proposed solar cooker at constant temperature and variable electrical power are presented. The TES is developed using a packed pebble bed. An electrical hot plate simulates the concentrator which heats up oil circulating through a copper coil absorber charging the TES system. A computer program to acquire data for monitoring the storage system and to maintain a nearly constant outlet charging temperature is developed using Visual Basic. The input power to the hot plate is also controlled to simulate the variation of the daily solar radiation by using another Visual Basic program. A combined internal model control (IMC) and proportional, integral and derivative (PID) temperature control structure is tested on the TES system under varying conditions and its performance is reasonable within a few degrees of the set temperature points. Results of the charging experiments are used to characterise the storage system. The different experiments indicate various degrees of stratification in the storage tank.     

Evaluation of distributed building thermal energy storage in conjunction with wind and solar electric power generation

Energy storage is often seen as necessary for the electric utility systems with large amounts of solar or wind power generation to compensate for the inability to schedule these facilities to match power demand. This study looks at the potential to use building thermal energy storage as a load shifting technology rather than traditional electric energy storage. Analyses are conducted using hourly electric load, temperature, wind speed, and solar radiation data for a 5-state central U.S. region in conjunction with simple computer simulations and economic models to evaluate the economic benefit of distributed building thermal energy storage (TES). The value of the TES is investigated as wind and solar power generation penetration increases. In addition, building side and smart grid enabled utility side storage management strategies are explored and compared. For a relative point of comparison, batteries are simulated and compared to TES. It is found that cooling TES value remains approximately constant as wind penetration increases, but generally decreases with increasing solar penetration. It is also clearly shown that the storage management strategy is vitally important to the economic value of TES; utility side operating methods perform with at least 75% greater value as compared to building side management strategies. In addition, TES compares fairly well against batteries, obtaining nearly 90% of the battery value in the base case; this result is significant considering TES can only impact building thermal loads, whereas batteries can impact any electrical load. Surprisingly, the value of energy storage does not increase substantially with increased wind and solar penetration and in some cases it decreases. This result is true for both TES and batteries and suggests that the tie between load shifting energy storage and renewable electric power generation may not be nearly as strong as typically thought.     

Economic implications of thermal energy storage for concentrated solar thermal power

Solar energy is an attractive renewable energy source because the sun's energy is plentiful and carbon-free. However, solar energy is intermittent and not suitable for base load electricity generation without an energy backup system. Concentrated solar power (CSP) is unique among other renewable energy options because it can approach base load generation with molten salt thermal energy storage (TES). This paper describes the development of an engineering economic model that directly compares the performance, cost, and profit of a 110-MW parabolic trough CSP plant operating with a TES system, natural gas-fired backup system, and no backup system. Model results are presented for 0–12 h backup capacities with and without current U.S. subsidies. TES increased the annual capacity factor from around 30% with no backup to up to 55% with 12 h of storage when the solar field area was selected to provide the lowest levelized cost of energy (LCOE). Using TES instead of a natural gas-fired heat transfer fluid heater (NG) increased total plant capital costs but decreased annual operation and maintenance costs. These three effects led to an increase in the LCOE for PT plants with TES and NG backup compared with no backup. LCOE increased with increasing backup capacity for plants with TES and NG backup. For small backup capacities (1–4 h), plants with TES had slightly lower LCOE values than plants with NG backup. For larger backup capacities (5–12 h), plants with TES had slightly higher LCOE values than plants with NG backup. At these costs, current U.S. federal tax incentives were not sufficient to make PT profitable in a market with variable electricity pricing. Current U.S. incentives combined with a fixed electricity price of $200/MWh made PT plants with larger backup capacities more profitable than PT plants with no backup or with smaller backup capacities. In the absence of incentives, a carbon price of $100–$160/tonne CO_2eq would be required for these PT plants to compete with new coal-fired power plants in the U.S. If the long-term goal is to increase renewable base load electricity generation, additional incentives are needed to encourage new CSP plants to use thermal energy storage in the U.S.     

熔融盐斜温层蓄热的热特性研究

对熔融盐高温斜温层蓄热过程进行较深入的理论与实验研究,建立熔融盐单相流体斜温层蓄热的瞬态热分析模型,模型考虑熔融盐的变物性。利用Fluent软件,通过求解N-S方程与能量方程,对熔融盐单相流体斜温层蓄热罐在各工况条件下的传热蓄热过程进行数值模拟。研究时间进程、初始条件以及结构尺寸等对蓄热性能的影响。结果表明:斜温层的厚度随时间的推移而增加,达到一定厚度后增加量趋缓;流体进口流速、长径比等是影响有效蓄热容量的主要因素,当进口速度为0.001m/s级、长径比为2∶1时,将减少斜温层厚度。