Solar Thermal Reactor Materials Characterization

Carl Bingham

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaper

Abstract

Current research into hydrogen production through high temperature metal oxide water splitting cycles has created a need for robust high temperature materials. Such cycles are further enhanced by the use of concentrated solar energy as a power source. However, samples subjected to concentrated solar radiation exhibited lifetimes much shorter than expected. Characterization of the power and fluxdistributions representative of the High Flux Solar Furnace(HFSF) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory(NREL) were compared to ray trace modeling of the facility. In addition, samples of candidate reactor materials were thermally cycled at the HFSF and tensile failure testing was performed to quantify material degradation. Thermal cycling tests have been completed on super alloy Haynes 214samples and results indicate that maximum temperature plays a significant role in reduction of strength. The number of cycles was too small to establish long term failure trends for this material due to the high ductility of the material.
Original languageAmerican English
Number of pages8
StatePublished - 2008
Event2008 14th Biennial CSP SolarPACES (Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems) Symposium - Las Vegas, Nevada
Duration: 4 Mar 20087 Mar 2008

Conference

Conference2008 14th Biennial CSP SolarPACES (Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems) Symposium
CityLas Vegas, Nevada
Period4/03/087/03/08

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/CP-550-42879

Keywords

  • concentrating solar power (CSP)
  • SolarPACES 2008

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