Heat Transfer Modeling for a Plate Heat Exchanger Used in Solar Power Systems

The paper tackles the heat transfer modeling in a solar plate heat exchanger. The heat exchanger is designed to perform the internal heat recuperation in a solar assisted Joule Brayton engine. The modeling was carried out for two cases, the first case considers an open hybrid solar engine and the second case evaluates a closed one, using different working agents. The research was done using computational fluid dynamics analyses in CFD module from ANSYS. From the analyses results that for the open Brayton cycle the best heat transfer efficiency is obtained for pressure ratios lower than ten and for the closed Brayton cycle the optimum heat transfer efficiency is obtained at a pressure ratio of two. The output power and maximum temperature, of the working fluid, after heating by internal heat recuperation are higher for the open Brayton cycle.