HeatTracer - A novel Monte Carlo radiative heat transfer tool for cavity receivers simulation

Abstract

The development of new receivers for central receiver systems operating at high temperatures require the development of suitable tools able to accurately simulate heat and mass transfer processes.Such tools should be able to process complex receiver geometries with nongray and directionally nonideal surfaces. This work introduces the development of a new tool, HeatTracer, for the simulation of radiative heat transfer based on the Monte Carlo method, directed to the study of radiation exchange for arbitrary user-defined cavity geometries with spectral and/or directional nonidealities. The main characteristics of this tool are presented, including the main physical models as well as some of the more relevant mathematical and computational algorithms.