The onset of thermohaline convection in the advanced solar pond (ASP)

• Published in: Solar energy Vol. 49; no. 4; pp. 245 - 255
• Main Authors: Bemporad, G.A., Rubin, H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.10.1992; Elsevier; Pergamon Press Inc
• Subjects: 141000 - Solar Collectors & Concentrators; 990200 - Mathematics & Computers; ANALOG SYSTEMS; Applied sciences; CALCULATION METHODS; CONVECTION; ENERGIA SOLAR; ENERGIE SOLAIRE; Energy; ENERGY TRANSFER; ENSAYO; EQUATIONS; ESTANQUES; ETANG; Exact sciences and technology; EXPERIMENTATION EN LABORATOIRE; EXPERIMENTOS EN LABORATORIO; FUNCTIONAL MODELS; GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE; HEAT TRANSFER; INSTABILITY; LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS; laboratory simulators; MASS TRANSFER; MATEMATICAS; MATHEMATICS; MATHEMATIQUE; NATURAL CONVECTION; Natural energy; PONDS; RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR INSTABILITY; SIMULACION; SIMULATION; SIMULATORS; SOLAR COLLECTORS; SOLAR ENERGY; Solar energy storage; SOLAR EQUIPMENT; solar pond performance; SOLAR PONDS; STABILITY; STRATIFICATION; SURFACE WATERS; TESTAGE; TESTING; Thermodynamics; Laboratory study; Solar pond; Stability; Thermohaline convection; Theoretical study; Performance; Flow field
• ISSN: 0038-092X; 1471-1257
• DOI: 10.1016/0038-092X(92)90003-S

This manuscript concerns the onset of thermohaline convection in a solar pond subject to field conditions as well as a small scale laboratory test section simulating the solar pond performance. The onset of thermohaline convection is analyzed in this study by means of a linear stability analysis in which the flow field perturbations are expended in sets of complete orthonormal functions satisfying the boundary conditions of the flow field. The linear stability analysis is first performed with regard to an advanced solar pond (ASP) subject to field conditions in which thermohaline convection develops in planes perpendicular to the unperturbed flow velocity vector. In the laboratory simulator of the ASP the width and depth are of the same order of magnitude. In this case it is found that the side walls delay the onset of convection in planes perpendicular to the unperturbed flow velocity vector. The presence of the side walls may cause the planes parallel to the flow velocity to be the most susceptible to the development of perturbations in the flow field. Finite rolls, namely, cells with two non-zero velocity components dependent on all three spatial variables, are predicted. They may develop in planes parallel or perpendicular to the unperturbed velocity vector according to the value of the Reynolds number of the unperturbed flow and the ratio between the width and depth of the ASP simulator.