Turbulent flow inside a solar concentrator receiver

A solar concentrator receiver is a heat exchanger designed to absorb a beam of radiant heat coming from a field of heliostats. Inside the device, a slow forced flow generated bye an external pressure gradient is present, together with a natural convective a turbulent flow produced by the large temperature gradients due to intense heating. We present a model of this device based on the numerical solution of the mass, momentum and energy conservation equations. We consider heating conditions that lead to turbulence convective flow. For this season, a large eddy simulation model is incorporated. The results are potentially useful for the design of solar concentrator receivers.