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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET)
Volume 8, Issue 2, February 2017, pp. 27–33, Article ID: IJMET_08_02_004 Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/ijmet/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=8&IType=2 ISSN Print: 0976-6340 and ISSN Online: 0976-6359
© IAEME
Publication
SIMULATION OF SOLAR THERMAL CENTRAL RECEIVER POWER PLANT AND EFFECT OF WEATHER CONDITIONS ON THERMAL POWER GENERATION
Sandhya Jadhav
Research Scholar, Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University College of Engineering, Pune, India
Dr. V. Venkat Raj
Former Director, Health Safety and Environment Group, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India
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. 27–33. 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
 
Sandhya Jadhav and Dr. V. Venkat Raj
 
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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.
2. THERMAL LOSSES IN THE RECEIVER
In Solar thermal power plants, heat loss can significantly reduce the efficiency and consequently the cost effectiveness of the system. It is therefore vital to fully understand the nature of these heat loss mechanisms. The magnitude of the thermal losses varies and it depends on the receiver type, geometry and size. Apart from receiver configurations weather conditions also play a significant role in thermal losses of receiver. Therefore it becomes important to study the effect of incident solar flux, ambient temperature and wind speed. Thermal losses in receiver are due to conduction, convection and radiation processes. Experimental works have shown that conduction losses are very small. Therefore neglecting thermal power loss due to conduction, the total thermal power lost by the receiver is the summation of loss due to radiation by the receiver and loss due to convection by the receiver. These losses account for most of the receiver thermal losses resulting from calculation. They are evaluated in the receiver simulation model.
3. EFFECT OF VARIATION IN WEATHER CONDITIONS
Variation of incident flux, wind speed and ambient temperature affects the performance of receiver and hence thermal losses from receiver. Therefore, effect of variation in incident flux, wind speed and ambient temp is studied.
3.1. Variation of Incident Solar Radiation
Figure 1
 Monthly average incident flux in W/m
2
 for Jaipur.
0200400600800
Jan March May July Sept Nov
   I   n   c   i    d   e   n   t   F    l   u   x   i   n   W    /   m
   2
Month
 
Simulation of Solar Thermal Central Receiver Power Plant and Effect of Weather Conditions on Thermal Power Generation
 
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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/m
2
 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/m
2
. As most of the days in the year, wind speed is observed to be 4m/s and the ambient temperature to be 30
0
C, therefore these values are considered for simulation.
Figure 2 (a)
 Variation in thermal losses due to radiation
 with increase in incident flux
Figure 2 (b)
 Variation in thermal losses due to convection with increase in incident flux
Figure 2 (c)
 Variation in thermal power with increase in incident flux Increase in solar radiation increases the receiver temperature and hence the loss due to radiation also increases. It can be observed from Fig.2a that the radiation loss increases considerably, almost 4 times when incident solar radiation increases from 100 W/m
2
 to 900 W/m
2
. Thermal loss due to convection on the other hand increases by only a small amount i.e. only by 0.6 MW
th
 as shown in Fig 2b. Due to the increase in thermal losses, the total loss in the receiver increases with increase in flux intensity as shown in Fig 2c. As the flux intensity increases, the net power absorbed by the receiver increases but as there is increase in losses, net power generated and the overall efficiency of the receiver is almost constant and is within a range of 78% to 82%.
0.004.008.0012.0016.0020.000 200 400 600 800 1000
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   M   W
   t    h
Incident flux in W/m
2
2.202.302.402.502.602.702.802.900 200 400 600 800 1000
   T    h   e   r   m   a    l   p   o   w   e   r    l   o   s   s    d   u   e   t   o   C   o   n   v   e   c   t   i   o   n   i   n   M   W
   t    h
Incident flux in W/m
2
0.00100.00200.000 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
   T    h   e   r   m   a    l   P   o   w   e   r   i   n   M   W
   t    h
Incident flux in W/m
2
power absorbed net power Power loss

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