Title: Research advancements and challenges in the design and fabrication of glass to metal seals for solar receiver tube applications

Authors: Vinod Kumar Verma; Kunj Bihari Rana; Brajesh Tripathi

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Government Engineering College Ajmer, Rajasthan, 305025, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rajasthan Technical University, Kota, 324010, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rajasthan Technical University, Kota, 324010, India

Abstract: Glass to metal joints has a vast field of application due to their distinct properties in terms of electric conductivity, thermal conductivity, transparency, emissivity, reflectivity, coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), density, wettability, and crystalline structure. This wide diversification in their properties makes this combination very useful in the special application like concentrated solar receiver tubes (CSRT), etc. This challenge becomes bigger when such seals are subjected to a very high temperature range, ultra-high pressure or ultra-high vacuum, and also gone through repeated number of thermal cycling over a period of time, as may be in the case of CSRT. Hence how to prepare a good quality seal for such constraints, study and control of many factors are essential covered such as seal design, oxidation layer thickness, manufacturing method, temperature and time of making seal, surface roughness, and residual stresses in glass, etc., that has been vigorously studied and reported in this paper.

Keywords: concentrated solar receiver tubes; CSRT; glass to ceramic joints; glass to metal seal; GM seals; solar receiver tube.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESD.2021.116861

International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, 2021 Vol.20 No.3/4, pp.381 - 403

Received: 25 Jan 2020
Accepted: 14 Oct 2020
Published online: 05 Aug 2021 *

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