The effect of the tube diameter on the performance of the two-stage receiver

Based on a 10 MW solar power generating unit, this paper proposes the design of two absorbers for a two-stage solar tower power. When the overall size and the flow rate of the receiver of a solar tower power plant are definite, the diameter of the receiver tube has great effect on the receiver thermal performance. The heat transfer performance for different tube diameters were simulated and analysed in this paper. The result shows that the heat absorber I has a better overall performance when the tube diameter is about 38mm and the heat absorber II has a better overall thermal performance when the tube diameter is about 28mm.