Constructal method to optimize solar thermochemical reactor design

The objective of this study is the geometrical optimization of a thermochemical reactor, which works simultaneously as solar collector and reactor. The heat (concentrated solar radiation) is supplied on a small peripheral surface and has to be dispersed in the entire reactive volume in order to activate the reaction all over the material. A similarity between this study and the point to volume problem analyzed by the constructal approach (Bejan, 2000) is evident. This approach was successfully applied to several domains, for example for the coupled mass and conductive heat transfer (Azoumah et al., 2004). Focusing on solar reactors, this work aims to apply constructal analysis to coupled conductive and radiative heat transfer. As a first step, the chemical reaction is represented by a uniform heat sink inside the material. The objective is to optimize the reactor geometry in order to maximize its efficiency. By using some hypothesis, a simplified solution is found. A parametric study provides the influence of different technical and operating parameters on the maximal efficiency and on the optimal shape. Different reactor designs (filled cylinder, cavity and honeycomb reactors) are compared, in order to determine the most efficient structure according to the operating conditions. Finally, these results are compared with a CFD model in order to validate the assumptions. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.