Honeycomb ceramic absorbers are considered to be one of the most practical options for the air receiver of a solar central receiver plant. To explore the influence of the average input solar heat flux, air flow rate, and absorber geometric parameters on the honeycomb ceramic air receiver performance, six samples were tested under different conditions and the outlet air temperature, thermal efficiency, and anti-interference characteristics of the receivers were determined. The investigation showed that as the input solar flux or air flow rate increased, the change in the outlet air temperature and thermal efficiency had opposite trends. The sample with the shortest length, thinnest wall, and highest porosity had the best performance. Among the three absorber geometry parameters, the porosity was the dominant factor affecting the receiver outlet temperature and thermal efficiency.

The high-temperature superconducting (HTS) central solenoid (CS) coil in spherical tokamaks drives the plasma current by carrying rapidly varying currents, ultimately confronting the critical challenge of severe AC losses. To reduce AC losses, an interleaved transposition winding method based on a special joint for inductive balancing is proposed. This study develops a multi-physics framework integrating an equivalent circuit model, T–A formulation, and thermal analysis. This framework is applied to study a 1/10-scale CS model coil co-wound with 36 HTS tapes, which attains a peak field-on-coil of 13.3 T at 7.2 kA terminal current and a maximum magnetic ramp rate of 70 T s ⁻¹ , thereby validating the proposed winding methodology. Numerical results demonstrate a tenfold reduction in hysteresis losses via the novel winding strategy, while the coil’s peak temperature remains below 54 K post-discharge. This method enables non-twisted stacked HTS coils to achieve both fabrication simplicity and AC losses suppression, advancing compact fusion magnet design.