Experimental Analysis on a Designed and Fabricated Cost Effective Solar Pond Model

Abstract

The SP with LNCZ is a large surface area thermal storage device. Heat energy stored for a long time at a lower temperature range can be used for various applications. Using more copper tubes for a large HE area is much expensive and its welding cost also increases expenditure. The demerit is copper gets corroded very easily by brine, so it is not suitable. To make the SP more economical and durable, a small working model was developed and aluminum tubes were used instead of copper ones and welding cost was saved by applying plastic tubing at U joints. The shape of the SP model was truncated trapezoid with HE. The shape of the solar pond model was truncated trapezoid with base side, topside, and depth of dimension 1.2 m, 1.6 m, and 0.85 m respectively. Heat exchanger made up of aluminum tubes was placed diagonally. The ambient temperature range was 30–35 °C. The maximum temperature of LNCZ has reached up to 52 °C and a maximum temperature gain of 16 °C was obtained in water flowing through HE with a discharge of 500 L/hour.