Coupled heat transfer analyses of molten salt with variation of thermophysical properties

In this study, coupled heat transfer analysis of molten salt with variation of thermophysical properties was made. Radiative transfer and energy equations were solved by FEM using the codes compiled by the authors, while the mass and momentum conservation equations were solved by Fluent software. Thereafter, the temperature distribution of the molten salt flowing in a tube receiver with/without considering radiative transfer was presented. The effects of scattering albedo, refractive index, and convective heat-transfer coefficient on the temperature distribution of the molten salt were investigated. The numerical results showed that the maximum deviations in the elevated temperature of the molten salt at the cross section x = 0.5 and fluid outlet surface are 39.8% and 50.7%, respectively, when the radiative heat transfer is neglected.