Experimental and numerical investigation on the geometric parameters of an open-to-atmosphere vortex-based solar particle receiver

•Measurement and simulation of particle egress of an open vortex-based solar receiver.•The effect of the amount of airflow ingress and egress, swirl intensity, and flow symmetry on particle egress and swirling flow behaviour.•To assess such effect, the aperture-to-cavity diameter ratio, the outlet-to-cavity diameter ratio, and the number of outlets are varied.•The particle egress is further reduced due to the swirling flow features.