Ray-Thermal Sequential Coupled Heat Transfer ANALYSIS of Porous Media Receiver for Solar Dish Collector

For the sake of reflecting the concentrated heat flux distribution boundary condition as genuine as possible during simulation, the sequential coupled optical-thermal heat transfer analysis is introduced for porous media receiver. During the sequential coupled numerical analysis, the non-uniform heat flux distribution on the fluid entrance surface of porous media receiver is obtained by Monte-Carlo ray tracing method. Finite element method (FEM) is adopted to solve energy equation using the calculated heat flux distribution as the third boundary condition. The dimensionless temperature distribution comparisons between uniform and non-uniform heat flux distribution boundary conditions, various porosities, and different solar dish concentrator tracking errors are investigated in this research.