A fast tool for receiver life estimation and design

This paper describes a software tool for predicting the service life of a tubular panel solar receiver operating at elevated temperatures. The current version of the tool, available at https://github.com/Argonne-National-Laboratory/srlife as open-source software, provides full 1D, 2D, or 3D thermal and structural analysis and creep-fatigue service life prediction for a single material, Alloy 740H. Future version will include an expanded material library as well as heuristics designed to reduce the cost of the receiver analysis. The goal for this package is to become a part of a software stack, including solar field and thermohydraulic simulations, for optimizing receiver designs to meet service life and economic targets. These design and optimization frameworks could be crucial in producing viable high temperature receiver designs, operating at outlet temperatures targeting high efficiency energy conversion and storage systems.