Performance evaluation of a partially-filled porous foam cylindrical tubular receiver realizing Ni foam material reduction

The optimization of metal foam structure parameters is crucial for enhancing the heat transfer and pressure drop performance of cylindrical tube heat exchangers. In this study, thermal output performance of 16 different nickel foam-filled solar receivers with varying thicknesses and positions is numerically simulate. An optical-thermal conversion model is established using the Monte Carlo ray tracing (MCRT) method and user-defined functions. The influences of foam filling thickness and position on heat absorber, wall hot spot distribution, heat loss type, thermal efficiency, pressure drop, thermohydraulic performance, exergy loss, and outlet temperature were analyzed. Furthermore, a multi-objective optimization algorithm called non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA II) is used to generate the best trade-off solutions between improvement of thermal efficiency and pressure drop. The results show that enhancing the thickness of the filled foam within the CTR tube enhances thermal efficiency and elevates pressure drop. However, optimizing the length and filling position of the foam can effectively mitigate excessive pressure drop caused by longer foam, without compromising thermal efficiency. This approach results in a reduced pressure drop while maintaining optimal performance. The optimal solution of multi-objective optimization is that the 123 mm thickness foam is filled at 0 mm from the inlet of the tube, and the pressure drop and thermal efficiency of the solar receiver are 830.2Pa and 83.1 %, respectively, when the mass flow rate is 0.01 kg/s.