Numerical assessment of a solar pond under transient state with realistic energy extraction from all possible zones

A solar pond from which thermal energy is extracted from its non-convective zone (NCZ), lower convective zone (LCZ) and the ground below is modelled in transient state. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that heat extraction in each of the three zones is considered to be realistic, taking into account temperature drop across the exchanger surfaces. The pertinent weather parameters are described by curve fitting as series of sinusoidal time functions. Using these expressions, implicit finite difference method is used to solve the five coupled partial differential equations involved in the analysis, and the scaled down model is validated with simpler models available in the literature. To quantify the practical utility of pond, the final outgoing water stream heated from the pond is fed to a large scale solar still to assess the usefulness in a desalination application. Annual distillate production of the still coupled to such a pond is calculated and its variation with various manually adjustable parameters is studied. A total of 9 such parameters have been investigated. It is observed that there are five pond parameters related to pond's operation that possess optimum values that maximize annual distillate production. These are: NCZ and LCZ thicknesses, NCZ and LCZ exchanger pipes' radii, and ground extraction mass flow rate. An increase in any of the remaining parameters: upper convective zone (UCZ) thickness, ground exchanger pipes' radius and NCZ, LCZ extraction mass flow rates generate a decrease in distillate produced. It is also revealed that extraction should be carried from how many zones depends on the application coupled to the pond, and in this case, where the application is a solar still, LCZ with ground extraction turns out to be the best choice. Further, the assumption of ideal NCZ and ground extraction used in the literature is seen to overestimate system output by nearly 46%. Therefore, this model is a generalized one and various other single or dual zone extraction models available so far become subsets of it. This generalized model presented here can serve to design such a triple zone extraction based solar pond system in a realistic and practical manner and help evaluate suitable values of user -controlled variables that yield maximum output of the application to which the pond supplies energy.

Automated summary

This study models a solar pond where thermal energy is extracted from three zones: non-convective zone (NCZ), lower convective zone (LCZ), and the ground below. The heat extraction in each zone is realistic and considers temperature drops across exchanger surfaces. A validated model is developed using implicit finite difference method and sinusoidal time functions to describe weather parameters. The study also evaluates the practical utility of the pond in a desalination application, calculating annual distillate production and studying its variation with adjustable parameters.