A review of solar collectors and thermal energy storage in solar thermal applications

Thermal applications are drawing increasing attention in the solar energy research field, due to their high performance in energy storage density and energy conversion efficiency. In these applications, solar collectors and thermal energy storage systems are the two core components. This paper focuses on the latest developments and advances in solar thermal applications, providing a review of solar collectors and thermal energy storage systems. Various types of solar collectors are reviewed and discussed, including both non-concentrating collectors (low temperature applications) and concentrating collectors (high temperature applications). These are studied in terms of optical optimisation, heat loss reduction, heat recuperation enhancement and different sun-tracking mechanisms. Various types of thermal energy storage systems are also reviewed and discussed, including sensible heat storage, latent heat storage, chemical storage and cascaded storage. They are studied in terms of design criteria, material selection and different heat transfer enhancement technologies. Last but not least, existing and future solar power stations are overviewed.Peer reviewe

Numerical investigations of heat transfer in phase change materials using non-equilibrium model

Phase change materials (PCMs) are drawing increasing attention of researchers nowadays, and they play a pivotal role in thermal energy storage (TES) used in renewable energy resources applications, since these renewable energy, such as solar energy, wind energy and tidal energy, are intermittent and not available at any time. However, most of PCMs suffer from low thermal conductivities prolonging the charging and discharging processes. Metal foams with relatively high thermal conductivities, are believed to be able to enhance heat transfer performance of PCMs for those applications. In this paper, a two-equation non-thermal equilibrium model has been employed to tackle the phase change heat transfer problem in PCMs composites embedded into metal foams. Numerical results show good agreement with experimental data, and indicate that a better heat transfer performance can be achieved by using the metal foams of smaller pore size and smaller porosity, and heat transfer performance of PCMs can be enhanced by up to 10 times by embedded metal foams into PCMs.Peer reviewe

Exergy optimisation for cascaded thermal storage

Cascaded thermal storage, consisting of multiple Phase Change Materials (PCMs) with different melting temperatures, has been proposed to solve the problem of poor heat transfer caused by unavoidable decrease of temperature differences during heat exchange process. This paper conducts a theoretical study of the overall thermal performance for a cascaded thermal storage system. Both heat transfer rate and exergy efficiency are taken into account. The main findings are: the cascaded arrangement of PCMs enhances the heat transfer rate by up to 30%, whilst it does not always improve the exergy efficiency (-15 to +30%). Enhanced heat transfer and reduced exergy efficiency can both be attributed to the larger temperature differences caused by the cascaded arrangement. A new parameter hex (exergy transfer rate) has been proposed to measure the overall thermal performance. It is defined as the product of heat transfer rate and exergy efficiency, representing the transfer rate of the utilisable thermal energy. The simulation results indicate that the cascaded thermal storage has higher overall thermal performance than the single-staged storage despite of higher exergy efficiency loss.Peer reviewe

Analytical considerations of flow boiling heat transfer in metal-foam filled tubes

Flow boiling in metal-foam filled tube was analytically investigated based on a modified microstructure model, an original boiling heat transfer model and fin analysis for metal foams. Microstructure model of metal foams was established, by which fiber diameter and surface area density were precisely predicted. The heat transfer model for flow boiling in metal foams was based on annular pattern, in which two phase fluid was composed by vapor region in the center of the tube and liquid region near the wall. However, it was assumed that nucleate boiling performed only in the liquid region. Fin analysis and heat transfer network for metal foams were integrated to obtain the convective heat transfer coefficient at interface. The analytical solution was verified by its good agreement with experimental data. The parametric study on heat transfer coefficient and boiling mechanism was also carried out.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

REMOVED: Study on Separation Properties of Aquaporin-Based Proteoliposomes and Synthesizing of High Performance Aquaporin Based Biomimetic Membrane

This article has been removed: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy).This article has been removed at the request of the Executive Publisher.This article has been removed because it was published without the permission of the author(s)

Extended calculations of energy levels, radiative properties, AJ , BJ hyperfine interaction constants, and Landé gJ-factors for nitrogen-like Ge XXVI

Employing two state-of-the-art methods, multiconfiguration Dirac–Hartree–Fock and second-order many-body perturbation theory, highly accurate calculations are performed for the lowest 272 fine-structure levels arising from the 2s22p3, 2s2p4, 2p5, 2s22p23l (l = s, p, d), 2s2p33l (l = s, p, d), and 2p43l (l = s, p, d) configurations in nitrogen-like Ge XXVI. Complete and consistent atomic data, including excitation energies, lifetimes, wavelengths, hyperfine structures, Landé gJ-factors, and E1, E2, M1, M2 line strengths, oscillator strengths, and transition rates among these 272 levels are provided. Comparisons are made between the present two data sets, as well as with other available experimental and theoretical values. The present data are accurate enough for identification and deblending of emission lines involving the n=3 levels, and are also useful for modeling and diagnosing fusion plasmas

Extended calculations with spectroscopic accuracy : energy levels and radiative rates for O-like ions between Ar XI and Cr XVII

Using the multiconfiguration Dirac–Hartree–Fock and the relativistic configuration interaction methods, a consistent set of transition energies and radiative transition data for the main states of the 2s22p4, 2s2p5, 2p6, 2s22p33s, 2s22p33p, 2s22p33d, 2s2p43s, 2s2p43p, and 2s2p43d configurations in O-like Ions between Ar XI (Z=18) and Cr XVII (Z=24) is provided. Our data set is compared with the NIST compiled values and previous calculations. The data are accurate enough for identification and deblending of new emission lines from hot astrophysical and laboratory plasmas. The amount of data of high accuracy is significantly increased for the n=3 states of several O-like ions, where experimental data are very scarce

Studies of Prototype CsI(Tl) Crystal Scintillators for Low-Energy Neutrino Experiments

Crystal scintillators provide potential merits for the pursuit of low-energy low-background experiments. A CsI(Tl) scintillating crystal detector is being constructed to study low-energy neutrino physics at a nuclear reactor, while projects are underway to adopt this technique for dark matter searches. The choice of the geometrical parameters of the crystal modules, as well as the optimization of the read-out scheme, are the results of an R&D program. Crystals with 40 cm in length were developed. The detector requirements and the achieved performance of the prototypes are presented. Future prospects for this technique are discussed.Comment: 32 pages, 14 figure

Variational approach to a class of nonlinear oscillators with several limit cycles

We study limit cycles of nonlinear oscillators described by the equation $\ddot x + \nu F(\dot x) + x =0$. Depending on the nonlinearity this equation may exhibit different number of limit cycles. We show that limit cycles correspond to relative extrema of a certain functional. Analytical results in the limits $\nu ->0$ and $\nu -> \infty$ are in agreement with previously known criteria. For intermediate $\nu$ numerical determination of the limit cycles can be obtained.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure