Browsing by Author "Baker, D. K."

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Geometric design of micro scale volumetric receiver using system-level inputs: An application of surrogate-based approach
(Elsevier, 2023-09-15) Akba, Tufan; Baker, D. K.; Mengüç, Mustafa Pınar; Mechanical Engineering; MENGÜÇ, Mustafa Pınar; Akba, Tufan
Concentrating solar thermal power is an emerging renewable technology with accessible storage options to generate electricity when required. Central receiver systems or solar towers have the highest commercial potential in large-scale power plants because of reaching the highest temperature. With the increasing solar chemistry applications and new solar thermal power plants, various receiver designs require in micro or macro-scale, in materials, and temperature limits. The purpose of the article is computing the geometry of the receiver in various conditions and provide information during the conceptual design. This paper proposes a surrogate-based design optimization for a micro-scale volumetric receiver model in the literature. The study includes creating training data using the Latin Hypercube method, training five different surrogate models, surrogate model validation, selection procedure, and surrogate-based design optimization. Selected surrogates have over 98% R2 fit and less than 4% root mean square error. In final step, optimization performance compared with the base model. Because of the model complexity, surrogate models reached better objective values in a significantly shorter time.
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Off-design performance of micro-scale solar brayton cycle
(Elsevier, 2023-08-01) Akba, Tufan; Baker, D. K.; Mengüç, Mustafa Pınar; Mechanical Engineering; MENGÜÇ, Mustafa Pınar; Akba, Tufan
A novel methodology to design a micro-scale, solar-only, air-breathing, open Brayton cycle and assess its on- and off-design performance. The methodology is applied to generate and assess six thermodynamic layouts over a range of solar irradiation levels. All plants have the same on-design requirements to create a baseline to compare their off-design performance. PyCycle, a thermodynamic cycle modeling library to model jet engine performance, is revised to transform the jet engine performance modeling to solar thermal plant performance modeling and used to create a volumetric receiver component. A response surface surrogate model of the receiver is created for design optimization to maximize the component-level efficiency. The compressor and turbine maps are scaled for the balance of the plant. Off-design efficiency, mass flow rate, operation range, turbomachinery maps, and maximum power output are presented. Since the methodology can be adapted to all plant sizes, the results are normalized to on-design condition. The outcome of this study demonstrates the impact of the thermodynamic configuration on off-design performance and provides a methodology to design plants that are more robust across a range of solar irradiation levels and can be operated in a more flexible manner. Compared to single shaft configuration, solar radiation operation range is improved by 5%, with 6% less mass flow, and operates more efficiently than the benchmark case over 85% of the operating regime.