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Mathematical modeling of melting point and viscosity of a new molten salt for concentrating solar plant

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Abstract

Selecting the best type of molten medium as energy storage needs a good insight into various properties, which change with temperature and the combination of different compositions. This research aims to understand the influences of the temperature and composition of different mass percent of metal nitrates on the viscosity and thermal conductivity of new molten salt for concentrating solar plants. The experimental outcomes indicate that the viscosity of molten salt strongly changes with the salt composition. In addition, the thermal conductivity and density of molten salt composed of 30 mass% LiNO3, 13 mass% NaNO3, and 57 mass% KNO3 with increasing temperature experience severe decrement. To determine useful correlations for the melting point and viscosity of proposed molten salt, an Artificial Neural Network based on the Group Method of Data Handling is employed. Two polynomials for melting point temperature and viscosity of molten salt are carried out. Results indicate that suggested models predict the experimental values for viscosity and melting point temperature with high accuracy. Calculations of \({R}^{2}\) values for viscosity and melting pointe are 0.9289 and 0.9678 that show reasonable accuracy of models.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades de España (RTI2018-093849-B-C31—MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE) and by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades—Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) (RED2018-102431-T). The author at University of Lleida would like to thank the Catalan Government for the quality accreditation given to their research group GREiA (2017 SGR 1537). GREiA is a certified agent TECNIO in the category of technology developers from the Government of Catalonia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electronics and Information Engineering, Taizhou University, Taizhou, 318000, Zhejiang, China

    Muhammad Zeeshan Malik

  2. Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar

    Farayi Musharavati

  3. Department of Physics, College of Science, University of Halabja, Halabja, Iraq

    Faraedoon Waly Ahmed

  4. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kermanshah University of Technology, Kermanshah, Iran

    Shoaib Khanmohammadi

  5. GREiA Research Group, INSPIRES Research Centre, Universitat de Lleida, Lleida, Spain

    Angel G. Fernandez

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  1. Muhammad Zeeshan Malik
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Malik, M.Z., Musharavati, F., Ahmed, F.W. et al. Mathematical modeling of melting point and viscosity of a new molten salt for concentrating solar plant. J Therm Anal Calorim 147, 4533–4540 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-021-10783-6

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