Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2007 A Concentrated Solar Thermal Energy System C. Christopher Newton Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY FAMU-FSU COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING A CONCENTRATED SOLAR THERMAL ENERGY SYSTEM By C. CHRISTOPHER NEWTON A Thesis submitted to the Department of Mechanical Engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2007 Copyright 2007 C. Christopher Newton All Rights Reserved The members of the Committee approve the Thesis of C. Christopher Newton defended on December 14, 2006. ______________________________ Anjaneyulu Krothapalli Professor Directing Thesis ______________________________ Patrick Hollis Outside Committee Member ______________________________ Brenton Greska Committee Member The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii This thesis is dedicated to my family and friends for their love and support. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Professor Anjaneyulu Krothapalli and Dr. Brenton Greska for their advisement and support of this work. Through their teachings, my view on life and the world has changed. I would also like to give special thanks to Robert Avant and Bobby DePriest for their help with the design and fabrication of the apparatus used for this work. Also, I would like to thank them for teaching myself, the author, the basics of machining. Mike Sheehan and Ryan Whitney also deserve mention for their help with setting up and assembling the apparatus used in this work. The help and support from each of these individuals mentioned was, and will always be greatly appreciated. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables ................................................................................................ Page viii List of Figures ................................................................................................ Page ix Abstract ...................................................................................................... Page xiv 1. Background ................................................................................................ Page 1 1.1 Introduction........................................................................................... Page 1 1.2 Historical Perspective of Solar Thermal Power and Process Heat ....... Page 2 1.2.1 Known Parabolic Dish Systems.......................................... Page 3 1.3 Solar Thermal Conversion .................................................................... Page 5 1.4 Solar Geometry (Fundamentals of Solar Radiation)............................. Page 6 1.4.1 Sun-Earth Geometric Relationship ..................................... Page 6 1.4.2 Angle of Declination........................................................... Page 7 1.4.3 Solar Time and Angles........................................................ Page 10 1.5 Solar Radiation ..................................................................................... Page 13 1.5.1 Extraterrestrial Solar Radiation .......................................... Page 13 1.5.2 Terrestrial Solar Radiation.................................................. Page 14 1.6 Radiative Properties.............................................................................. Page 17 1.7 Solar Collector/Concentrator ................................................................ Page 18 1.7.1 Acceptance Angle ............................................................... Page 21 1.7.2 Thermodynamic Limits of Concentration........................... Page 22 1.8 The Receiver/Absorber ......................................................................... Page 23 1.8.1 Cavity Receiver................................................................... Page 24 1.8.2 External Receiver................................................................ Page 25 1.9 Heat Storage.......................................................................................... Page 25 1.9.1 Sensible Heat Storage ......................................................... Page 25 1.9.2 Latent Heat Storage ............................................................ Page 26 1.10 Rankine Cycle..................................................................................... Page 26 1.10.1 Working Fluid................................................................... Page 29 1.10.2 Deviation of Actual Cycle from Ideal............................... Page 29 1.11 Steam Turbine..................................................................................... Page 30 1.11.1 Impulse Turbine................................................................ Page 31 1.11.2 Reaction Turbine............................................................... Page 31 1.11.3 Turbine Efficiency ............................................................ Page 32 1.12 Overview............................................................................................. Page 33 2. Experimental Apparatus and Procedures........................................................ Page 34 2.1 Introduction........................................................................................... Page 34 2.2 Solar Collector ...................................................................................... Page 34 2.3 The Receiver ......................................................................................... Page 36 2.4 Steam Turbine....................................................................................... Page 39 v 2.5 Gear-Train............................................................................................. Page 41 2.6 Working Fluid of Solar Thermal System.............................................. Page 43 2.7 Feed-Water Pump ................................................................................. Page 44 2.8 Tracking ............................................................................................... Page 45 2.9 Data Acquisition ................................................................................... Page 49 2.9.1 Instrumentation ................................................................... Page 50 2.10 Power Supply...................................................................................... Page 50 2.11 Generator/Alternator........................................................................... Page 53 3. Analysis/Results and Discussion .................................................................... Page 55 3.1 Introduction........................................................................................... Page 55 3.2 Solar Calculations................................................................................. Page 55 3.3 Analysis of the Dish.............................................................................. Page 57 3.3.1 Efficiency of Collector........................................................ Page 61 3.4 Receiver ............................................................................................... Page 66 3.4.1 Boiler Efficiency................................................................. Page 76 3.5 Turbine Efficiency ................................................................................ Page 77 3.6 Turbine/Gear-Train Analysis................................................................ Page 78 3.7 Analysis of the Rankine Cycle.............................................................. Page 79 3.8 Generator and Energy Conversion Efficiency...................................... Page 81 4. Conclusions …................................................................................................ Page 83 4.1 Introduction........................................................................................... Page 83 4.2 Solar Calculations................................................................................. Page 83 4.3 Trackers ............................................................................................... Page 83 4.4 Solar Concentrator ................................................................................ Page 84 4.5 Receiver/Boiler ..................................................................................... Page 84 4.6 Steam Turbine....................................................................................... Page 85 4.7 Generator .............................................................................................. Page 85 4.8 Cycle Conclusions ............................................................................... Page 85 4.9 Future Work ......................................................................................... Page 86 APPENDICES ................................................................................................ Page 88 A Rabl’s Theorem..................................................................................... Page 88 B Solar Angle and Insolation Calculations .............................................. Page 91 C Solar Calculations for October 12th ..................................................... Page 100 D Collector Efficiency for Varied Wind Speeds ...................................... Page 105 E Calculations for Collector Efficiency on Oct. 12th for Beam Insolation Page 111 F Collector Efficiency as Receiver Temperature Increases....................