Within the thermal energy capture and/or storage systems currently available or investigated, PCMs are the sole latent heat stores. Despite their low thermal conductivity, that limits charging and discharging times, the higher energy storage capacity per unit weight in comparison with sensible...

Experimental and simulated quantitative thermal stratification evaluations of a small un-insulated oil storage tank subjected to heat losses during charging are presented. A model for simulating the thermal profile in the storage is developed. Simulated results using the model are found to be in...

In this work, the premixed flame propagation and pressure dynamics in a closed combustion tube with a 90° bend are investigated using experiment and numerical simulations to provide further knowledge of premixed combustion process in a curved chamber. In the experiment, high-speed schlieren...

The receiver’s back surface radiative characteristics of a heat-pipe evacuated-tube solar collector (ETSC) may have a significant influence on its performance. This influence is generally related to the back surface emissivity and temperature; however it has been not studied previously. This...

In present work, a cavity receiver with quartz glass cover is presented for the dish concentrating system. The quartz glass cover can separate the receiver cavity from the ambient air and its selective coating layer can intercept the infrared radiation emitted from the inner-surface of the...

Molten salts consisting of 60% sodium nitrate and 40% potassium nitrate have been used successfully as a thermal energy collection and storage fluid in different solar thermal plants. However, the relatively high melting point of this mixture (221°C) represents an important risk of local...

A model is developed for an existing organic Rankine cycle (ORC) utilizing a low-temperature geothermal brine including the performance characteristics of the components. The model is validated with a set of 7200 operation data collected in one-year. The operation of the ORC is optimized...

Solar Parabolic Trough Collectors (PTCs) are currently used for the production of electricity and applications with relatively higher temperatures. A heat transfer fluid circulates through a metal tube (receiver) with an external selective surface that absorbs solar radiation reflected from the...

Parabolic trough solar collector is the most proven industry-scale solar generation technology today available. The thermal performance of such devices is of major interest for optimising the solar field output and increase the efficiency of power plants. In this paper, a detailed numerical heat...