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Experimental and Computational Fluid Mechanics pp 157–174Cite as

Annular Two-Phase Flow Regimen in Direct Steam Generation for a Low-Power Solar System

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Part of the book series: Environmental Science and Engineering ((ENVENG))

Abstract

This study aims to quantify and to model the temperature profile around an absorber tube belonging to a parabolic trough concentrator when fluid is applied at low powers. This study was specifically developed for the Solar Power Plant of the Engineering Institute, National University of Mexico. This work presents experimental results under saturated conditions and low pressures (1.5–3 bars) using water as the thermal and working fluid for direct steam generation (DSG). The control variable was feed flow. Solar irradiance was used as the restriction variable because all experimental tests should be developed under very specific values of this variable (for example, I> 700 \(\text {W/m}^{2}\)). The objective of this experiment was to study the thermal behavior of a temperature gradient around the absorber tube under steady-state conditions and with low flow. Additionally, a theoretical analysis was carried out by means of the homogeneous heat conduction equation in the cylindrical coordinate system using only two dimensions \((\mathrm{r}, \varphi )\). The finite-difference numerical method was used with the purpose of proposing a solution and obtaining a temperature profile. The aim of this theoretical analysis was to complement the experimental tests carried out for direct steam generation (DSG) with annular two-phase flow patterns for low powers in parabolic trough concentrators with carbon steel receivers.

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Abbreviations

A:

area in \(\mathrm{m}^{2}\)

Cp:

heat capacity in \(\text {kJ/}(\text {kg}\cdot \mathrm{K}\))

d:

pipe diameter in m

G :

irradiance in \(\text {W/m}^{2}\)

h:

convective heat transfer coefficient in \(\mathrm{W}/(\mathrm{m}^{2}\mathrm{K}\))

k :

thermal conductivity in \(\mathrm{W}/(\mathrm{m}\cdot \mathrm{K}\))

\(\overline{Nu} \) :

overall Nusselt number

P:

pressure in bar

Pr:

Prandtl number

\({q}''\) :

heat flow in \(\text {kW/m}^{2}\)

\(\dot{q}\) :

energy generation in \(\text {kW/m}^{2}\)

Q:

volumetric flow in L/s

r:

radius in m; radial coordinate

Re:

Reynolds number

t:

time in seconds

T:

temperature in K

u:

velocity in m/s

\(\alpha \) :

absortance; void fraction

\(\Delta \) :

interval or difference

\(\varepsilon \) :

emittance

\(\varphi \) :

radial angle; azimuth coordinate

\(\nu \) :

kinematic viscosity in \(\mathrm{m}^{2}\text {/s}\)

\(\rho \) :

reflectance; density in \(\text {kg/m}^{3}\)

\(\sigma _{SB} \) :

Stefan-Boltzman constant

a :

air

atm :

atmospheric

cov :

convective

Fe :

Iron

l :

liquid

rad:

radiation

sup:

superficial

S:

solar

T:

total

int :

internal

ext :

external

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Acknowledgments

This work has been financed by DGAPA (Dirección General de Apoyo al Personal Académico) and CONACYT (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología) who awarded a fellowship to the corresponding author. Ceferino Figueroa, Cuauhtémoc Salazar and Lauro Santiago helped to carry out the experimental work, and also installed and calibrated measuring equipments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México (UAEMex) Cerro de Coatepec s/n, Ciudad Universitaria, 50100, Toluca, México

    Iván Martínez, María Dolores Durán & Miriam Sánchez

  2. Instituto de Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Ciudad Universitaria, 04510, Coyoacán, D.F., México

    Rafael Almanza

Authors
  1. Iván Martínez
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  2. Rafael Almanza
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  3. María Dolores Durán
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  4. Miriam Sánchez
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Iván Martínez .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Nacional des Investigaciones Nucleares, Mexico, Mexico

    Jaime Klapp

  2. Departamento de Ciencias Básicas, Unviersidat Autonóma Metropolitana-Azcapotzalco, Mexico, Mexico

    Abraham Medina

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Martínez, I., Almanza, R., Durán, M.D., Sánchez, M. (2014). Annular Two-Phase Flow Regimen in Direct Steam Generation for a Low-Power Solar System. In: Klapp, J., Medina, A. (eds) Experimental and Computational Fluid Mechanics. Environmental Science and Engineering(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00116-6_11

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