Pipe Network Analysis for Solar Thermal Plants

Abstract

Efficiency, cost-effectiveness and operational safety of solar plants must be based on the knowledge of pressure loss as well as flow distribution and temperature distribution of branched collector arrays. Therefore, pipe network analysis is an essential step during the dimensioning process. This article presents an explicit, fast converging numerical scheme especially suited for collector fields. The effect of pipe dimensions and pipe routing on flow, temperature and pressure-distribution and collector field efficiency is demonstrated by application of a dedicated software tool, which is provided as an open source code.