Heat Extraction from Salt‐Gradient Solar Pond

Abstract

Heat extraction is done by recycling pond water: Hot water stored in the lower region (convective storage zone) of a salt‐gradient solar pond is pumped from the end of the pond, passed through a heat exchanger, and returned to the other end of the pond. By the water circulation, a horizontal flow takes place in the convective storage zone. It is necessary that the velocity of the flow should be small enough to prevent the disturbance of the concentration gradient in the upper region (non‐convective zone). The extent of the disturbance is estimated by analyzing a problem of the stratified flow in hydraulics. The variation of the storage temperature owing to the heat extraction is estimated by a simulation method. The comparison of an experimental result on heat extraction with the calculated values supports the availability of the analyses.