**6. Conclusions**

For the first time, the complete set of analytical solutions, which fully considers the combined effects of turbulence, tortuosity, thermal dispersion, compressibility

*Turbulent Heat Transfer Analysis of Silicon Carbide Ceramic Foam as a Solar… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93255*

on the convective, conductive and radiative heat transfer within a ceramic foam receiver, is presented based on the two-energy equation model of porous media. Both the Rosseland approximation and the P1 model are applied to account for the radiative heat transfer through the solar receiver, while the low Mach approximation is exploited to investigate the compressible flow through the receiver. Based on the P1 model, two positive roots were found from the characteristic equations of the fifth-order differential equation, indicating possible occurrence of hydrodynamic and thermal instabilities. However, it has been found that the Rosseland approximation for this case, despite its failure near the inlet boundary, is fairly accurate and may well be used for quick estimations and further analysis. Due to their advantages, such as high thermal conductivity and fluid mixing, silicon carbide ceramic foams are considered as a possible candidate for the receiver, which can overcome the problems associated with thermal spots and flow instabilities. The results show that the pore diameter must be larger than its critical value to achieve high receiver efficiency. As a result, there exists an optimal pore diameter for achieving the maximum receiver efficiency under the equal pumping power. The optimal pore diameter yielding the maximum receiver efficiency may be found around the critical value given by Eq. (71). A simple relation is derived for determining the length of the volumetric solar receivers of silicon carbide ceramic foam.
