Radiative Properties of Silica Solar Team: Yang Lab Group

Aerogel Dr. Sungwoo Yang, Hannah Rose Margavio, Lisa Phan, Evan Patrick, Jessica Philips
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga | College of Engineering and Computer Science

Modelling
Scattering and absorption can reduce the amount of

Introduction light transmitted through an aerogel slab.

Transmittance is significantly decreased at certain Radiative Transfer Equation
wavelengths, thus light intensity, which is wavelength
dependent. So, if we solve the radiative transfer
How light waves propagate through equation for the intensity field, and then wavelength at (polar angle with respect to the incident direction)
aerogel which this is true. Then, solving for the scattering and is the optical depth and x is the spatial coordinate along the incident direction
absorption coefficients, we can estimate the effective is the extinction coefficient
diameter of the scattering center for a better is the scattering albedo where
pore
performing aerogel. and where is the absorption coefficient and is the scattering coefficient
Transmitted
Incident light pore light ~95.6%
beam,
Boundary Conditions
Physical Properties of Silica Aerogel
Since the aerogel’s refractive index is very close to one, the two boundary conditions at x=0 and x=t
The material has a low thermal used to solve the RTE are
conductivity due to the highly porous
structure and low volume fraction of solid.
Heat Mode Suppression Mechanism
-Little solid material to conduct heat
-The pores themselves are <5nm in
Conduction Low solid volume fraction
Over 90% porosity diameter
Solving for Intensity Field
The aerogel’s very low density is due to the
Convection Small pores trap gas • I solve the radiative transfer equation (RTE) for with Gauss-Legendre Quadrature.
Low surface temperature amount of pores in the structure. These are • This method of numerical integration uses roots of the Legendre polynomials to locate the point at
some of the reasons that the aerogel is which the integrand is evaluated
optically transparent are thermally •
Radiation Absorption of infrared light
insulating. I- , , boundary
condition at
I+ , boundary thickness=thickness
• To solve the above equations, we must first determine condition at
the source function, S. thickness=0

Data Output from Python Code

Results Thermal conductivity and
density of aerogel Using Python for Numerical Integration
i= 1 tau(i)= 0.00 q(i)= 2.68124865877704 compared to air and glass • I have written a program in python which uses known raw nodes and weights for quadrature
integration to first solve for the source function, and from that we can solve for the total intensity
i= 2 tau(i)= 0.25 q(i)= 1.94787692300950 Thermal field and flux
Density
Conductivity • By finding the intensity field and flux across the boundary conditions boundary conditions, the
kg/m3
i= 3 tau(i)= 0.50 q(i)= 1.46176600615561 W/m∙K
program integrates intensity and flux to find hemispherical transmittance and reflectance, given
Air 0.03 1.2 by the equations below:
i= 4 tau(i)= 0.75 q(i)= 1.10347148258235 Aerogel 0.02 186 • ,
Glass 1.38 2,203
i= 5 tau(i)= 1.00 q(i)= 0.841235940709549

i= 6 tau(i)= 1.25 q(i)= 0.642812943145045 -With this data and the equations given in the modelling
section, we can calculate the hemispherical transmittance
i= 7 tau(i)= 1.50 q(i)= 0.494095112140738
and reflectance.

Applications
i= 8 tau(i)= 1.75 q(i)= 0.379997763990692
-We can now plot transmittance and reflectance on separate
i= 9 tau(i)= 2.00 q(i)= 0.293615500411023 contour plots with respect to albedo and optical depth
Solar thermal power plants offer a scalable and economical
i= 10 tau(i)= 2.25 q(i)= 0.226753017431499 -If we draw the curve at the specified transmittance and mechanism to store thermal energy, but the efficiency of energy
reflectance from the python output and superimpose the conversion to electricity at high temperatures is limited by increased
i= 11 tau(i)= 2.50 q(i)= 0.175860609220109
curves, we see that they intersect at exactly one point, shown heat losses in the receiver.
i= 12 tau(i)= 2.75 q(i)= 0.136231390496769 below.
STAR Power Plant Advantages
i= 13 tau(i)= 3.00 q(i)= 0.105979944572798 • Aerogel suppresses conduction, convection, radiation loss
The STAR system is (k<0.02 W/m∙K)
i= 14 tau(i)= 3.25 q(i)= 8.232751705557621E-002
• High solar energy transmission (>95%)
designed to generate high
i= 15 tau(i)= 3.50 q(i)= 6.425640051016414E-002 • High operating temperature at low concentrations (400 ⁰C at 45
temperatures at the power
plant scale for electricity suns)
i= 16 tau(i)= 3.75 q(i)= 5.010028915431647E-002 • Simple & low cost concentrating optics
generation and thermal
• 25% reduction in levelized cost of energy over industry standard
i= 17 tau(i)= 4.00 q(i)= 3.930939217265396E-002 storage.
1) Sunlight is concentrated using a
i= 18 tau(i)= 4.25 q(i)= 3.087737151589311E-002
-Finding the intersection of the transmittance and linear Fresnel collector
reflectance curves, we now have the albedo and 2) Sunlight is collected through
i= 19 tau(i)= 4.50 q(i)= 2.452238128949618E-002
optical depth of the same protective glass & insulating
i= 20 tau(i)= 4.75 q(i)= 1.964328446917746E-002 aerogel layers
-Now we can find the scattering and absorption 3) Pipes absorb & transfer heat to a
i= 21 tau(i)= 5.00 q(i)= 1.618542651672801E-002 coefficients for the sample using the equations and working fluid
definitions in the modelling section. 4) High temperature fluid is used for
tr= 5.151981360259128E-003 re= -0.146532030035643
thermal storage & electricity
Note: from the output, the variable i is intensity and q(i) is incident generation
flux of the light beam of intensity i.

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