Thermal performance analysis of a solar thermochemical reactor using discrete ordinate and P1 radiation models
摘要
Hydrogen is becoming a promising clean energy option, and improving the efficiency of steam methane reforming remains an important challenge. In this work, a solar thermochemical reactor is analysed under different conditions by comparing the Discrete Ordinate and P1 radiation models. The reactor was tested to observe the effect of varying flow velocity, porosity, mean cell size, and heat transfer coefficients on the thermal performance of the reactor under different heat transfer and radiation models. At a flow velocity of 0.05 m s−1, the Discrete Ordinate model reached a peak temperature of 1413.87 K, compared with 1342.55 K for the P1 model. Higher porosity levels also improved performance, with an average temperature of 1391.78 K, about 3% higher than at lower porosities. Under turbulent conditions, the Discrete Ordinate model continued to capture heat transfer more effectively than the P1 model. The non-equilibrium heat-transfer approach provided more realistic and uniform temperature predictions, giving an average temperature of 1389.05 K at 0.005 m s−1 when paired with the Discrete Ordinate model. Overall, the results show that combining the Discrete Ordinate model with non-equilibrium heat transfer and Wu’s heat-transfer correlation gives the most reliable thermal performance assessment for high-temperature reactor applications.