Analysis of a salt gradient solar pond with an internal heat exchanger

Solar ponds are bodies of water in which heat convection resulting from the absorption of solar radiation is suppressed by an artificially established salt concentration gradient. In this thesis a new method of heat extraction from the pond was investigated, both theoretically and experimentally. The method consisted of extracting heat from the whole body of the pond by means of a helical coil heat exchanger. Because of the existence of a temperature gradient through the depth, the overall efficiency of such a solar collector was expected to increase. The developed theory of this system based on the steady state heat transfer theory predicts the effect of operating parameters such as insolation, flow rate and design parameters (such as length of the heat exchanger) on the pond and outlet fluid temperature and the efficiency. [Continues.]