THERMAL SCIENCE

International Scientific Journal

Thermal Science - Online First

Junhu Hu

,

Kaiqiang Hu

,

Lei Xin

,

Hao Liu

,

Xiaohong Yang

,

Shunli Wu

online first only

Experimental study of photothermal conversion of heat absorbers filled with metal foams of different pore densities

ABSTRACT
High output temperature and photothermal conversion effectiveness were achieved with the absorber platform structure. A novel solar receiver was manufactured to integrate pre-heating and thermal conversion, aiming to enhance heat utilization and output temperature. This work is based on the engineering design and experimental testing of a solar cavity-receiver containing a porous copper foam that can volumetrically absorb high-flux radiation and heat up, through convection with air flow. The air outlet temperature, outer wall temperature, thermal performance, and efficiency were experimentally determined by pore density, air mass flow rate and solar irradiance. Additionally, the temperature growth of unit incident power (ζ),the unit volume efficiency growth rate (ψ) and output temperature were employed to evaluate the thermal conversion characteristics of the endothermic body(copper foam).The results indicated that the air outlet temperatures can reach 500°C with lower input power. Furthermore, it was found that under a pore density of 30 pores per inch and a flow rate of 60 L•min-1, the photothermal conversion efficiency of the absorber with copper foam reached as high as 87.61%, which is 35.04% significantly higher than that of an absorber without copper foam. The manageable solar receiver design proved to deliver a high-temperature air flow (approximately 500°C) with a reasonably high thermal efficiency(over 85%).
KEYWORDS
metal foam, photothermal conversion, absorber, pore density
PAPER SUBMITTED: 2023-10-30
PAPER REVISED: 2023-12-16
PAPER ACCEPTED: 2024-03-14
PUBLISHED ONLINE: 2024-04-14
DOI REFERENCE: https://doi.org/10.2298/TSCI231030080H
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Experimental study of photothermal conversion of heat absorbers filled with metal foams of different pore densities