Design and CFD analysis of an industrial fan for a concentrating high-temperature solar powerplant

Year 2019, Volume: 22 Issue: 4, 184 - 191, 29.11.2019

Nicolò Cuturi , S. Aronica L. Bellini A. Salvati

https://doi.org/10.5541/ijot.643311

Cited By: 1

Abstract

The increasing request for the use of
renewable energy sources leads to the study of different types of new
alternative powerplants, one of them being the electricity generation by means
of solar concentration powerplants with open volumetric receiver, using
non-pressurized air as the heat transfer fluid. Due to the poor heat transfer
characteristics of the fluid, a large air mass flowrate is needed in the solar
tower to transfer a sufficient amount of heat to a conventional steam cycle.
The aim of this study is to design a machine with 5 MW electrical power output and
1.125 compression ratio that is able to work in this severe environment. The
compression needed by the forced convection circuit, requires verification of
the relevance of the compressibility phenomena. The design start from the machine
type selection and the sizing of the compressor, based on the standard
mono-dimensional turbomachinery theory, and continue with the verification of
the fluid dynamic performance of the fan, based on a commercial CFD code
(ANSYS-FLUENT). A first 2D case is evaluated to ensure that the geometry is
working correctly, then the full 3D geometry is simulated to quantify the real
performance of the compressor. A preliminary structural analysis of the blade is
also performed to verify the structural integrity of the chosen configuration.

Keywords

Large compresor fan, forced convection, concentrated solar power, cfd analysis, open volumetric air receiver, turbomachinery

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