LATENT-HEAT THERMAL STORAGE FOR SOLAR DYNAMIC POWER-GENERATION

Latent heat thermal storage is very attractive for space-based solar dynamic power systems. In this article, we describe a solar receiver unit (SRU) integrated with a phase change thermal storage facility. A two-dimensional model has been set up to simulate the transient behavior of the system. The resulting equations have been solved numerically by the finite difference method, and a parametric study on the performances of the SRU has been conducted; the results are presented and discussed.