Theoretical and experimental investigation of a moving bed heat exchanger for solar central receiver power plants

Abstract

A Moving Bed Heat Exchanger for heat extraction from solar heated granular materials is investigated with respect to flow behaviour. To overcome limitations of existing empirical models, a numerical CFD model is established and parametrised with the help of experiments. Parametric studies are performed to quantify the effect of inlet velocities on the velocity field. A good agreement with an empirical model is found. Also, a comparison with PIV measurements confirms its validity, making it a solid basis for future design work. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.