About this facility

This laboratory is aimed at studying in depth at lab scale the solar volumetric technology. Its main component is a test bench specially designed for the test of new volumetric absorbers and configurations and its ageing. This test bench has the flexibility to study:

• The pressure difference across the volumetric absorber for different fluid density and fluid velocity, for the determination of the main properties described by the Forchheimer extension to Darcy’s law: the viscous permeability coefficient and, the inertial permeability coefficient. A differential pressure drop system is installed, with the previously described installation, for the properties determination
• The extinction coefficient of different mediums, which can be used as a tool to approximate radiation analysis in semi-transparent mediums following the Bouger’s law. The main equipment installed in this test bench is:
• Receiver sub-system: with 16 K-type thermocouples, 3 surface thermocouples and an infrared camera,
• Helicoidal Air-Water Heat Exchanger sub-system: with 4 PT100 sensors, a water mass flow-rate measurement, a water pump and 2 surface thermocouples,
• Extraction system: with 1 k-type thermocouple, 1 PT100 sensor, an air mass flow- rate measurement, and an air blower.
• A 4-kW solar simulator, installed in CIEMAT-Moncloa made up of a Xenon lamp and a parabolic concentrator (Figure 8) that can reach fluxes of up to 1400 kW/m2.

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