STUDY OF THERMAL STABILITY OF SOLAR POND INTEGRATED WITH SOLAR COLLECTOR

In this study, heat supply to LCZ of a salinity gradient solar pond was evaluated. The dimensions of the rectangular solar pond are 45 cm height, 90 cm length and volume of 0.18225 m3. The main aim is to evaluate the heat storage capacity of the solar pond and to increase its heat storage capacity by using flat plate collectors for a period of 10 days. An in-pond heat exchanger covering the bottom wall area of the pond was installed, and its performance was compared with the traditional in-pond without heat exchangers. Temperature at the LCZ was observed as 48ºC with the bottom heat exchanger and 42.5ºC without exchanger. This indicates an increase in the solar pond efficiency of 12.94 % .The difference between the amount of heat energy stored is 14.44 kJ. The results demonstrate that efficiency of solar pond increases with bottom heat exchanger, when compared to the efficiency of solar pond without bottom heat exchanger