A fast thermo-mechanical model for full-scale external molten salt receivers

Rapid evaluation of the overall performance of external molten salt receivers is essential for receiver design, power prediction, and structural safety assessment. Conventional computational fluid dynamics simulations are time-consuming due to the large geometric scale and high tube count, while existing simplified models cannot provide both rapid calculation and full receiver coverage. This study presents a simplified receiver heat transfer model coupled with an analytical thermoelastic stress model, enabling efficient evaluation of thermo-mechanical performance across the entire receiver. By discretizing the receiver and performing calculations sequentially, the simplified receiver heat transfer model enhances computational efficiency, while accuracy is improved through refined discretization of receiver surfaces and coupled calculation of convection, radiation, and molten salt heat transfer. Validation against computational fluid dynamics results under multiple operating conditions demonstrates that the model reliably captures key thermal behaviors and temperature distributions. The proposed coupled model allows quasi-steady analysis of temperature and stress throughout the receiver, supporting rapid design assessment, energy evaluation, and laying the groundwork for full-scale lifetime and reliability studies.