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Experimental and Numerical Analysis of a PCM-Supported ...

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productivities at any cooling water mass flow rate is coincidently the same as the<br />

rank <strong>of</strong> their thermal conductivities. The thermal conductivity <strong>of</strong> the packing media<br />

should not be less than 2W/m/K for better performance <strong>of</strong> the condenser.<br />

The role <strong>of</strong> MEHH is nearly absent or even negatively influencing the distillate rate at<br />

very low hot water mass flow rates <strong>and</strong> low temperature due to cooling effects on the<br />

air in the lower part <strong>of</strong> the evaporator. Both experimental <strong>and</strong> theoretical analysis<br />

indicated that increasing the specific surface area <strong>of</strong> the packing can compensate<br />

<strong>and</strong> outpace the role <strong>of</strong> MEHH, as the conductive packing has rather limited<br />

influence under such conditions. Therefore, when operating HDH plants under<br />

forced convection, industrial packing media which have high specific surface area<br />

<strong>and</strong> lower cost would be ideal c<strong>and</strong>idates for the evaporator <strong>and</strong> condenser.<br />

However, conductive packing media may have a potential that it could be utilized to<br />

improve the natural flow characteristics in other important applications such as<br />

cooling towers.<br />

Moreover, the study revealed that the inlet hot water temperature <strong>and</strong> air to water<br />

mass flow ratio have rather stronger influence on the system performance than the<br />

thermal conductivity <strong>of</strong> the packing. The numerical analysis indicated that the<br />

optimum value <strong>of</strong> water to air mass flow ratio is lies between 1.3 <strong>and</strong> 1.5 for the<br />

evaporator <strong>and</strong> between 1.5 <strong>and</strong> 2 for the condenser.<br />

The results obtained from the parametric study on the complete solar HDH system<br />

indicates that the crucial parameters have been identified for practical purposes<br />

under real weather conditions. The ideal HDH performance is approached for: brine<br />

concentration factor (r c )=2, air to hot water mass flow ratio=1.5, cooling water to air<br />

mass flow ratio=2, thermal storage volume 3-5 m 3 per m 3 <strong>of</strong> daily fresh water<br />

production capacity depending on the local climatic conditions.<br />

The once-through flow arrangement in the external <strong>PCM</strong> thermal buffer with a flat<br />

plat collector has a limited efficiency when combined with the HDH plant in<br />

comparison with water storages with the same volumetric capacity. For optimal<br />

operation <strong>of</strong> the external <strong>PCM</strong> thermal buffer, the Stefan number must be small<br />

enough, as this means that there is a great amount <strong>of</strong> latent heat that can be stored<br />

(relative to sensible heat). Utilization <strong>of</strong> <strong>PCM</strong> in the thermal storage is recommended<br />

only for high energy density, <strong>and</strong> in applications where there is a narrow operational<br />

temperature change around the melting range. It is therefore <strong>of</strong> interest to look in<br />

future studies at the techno-economical aspects for different simulation scenarios<br />

<strong>and</strong> coupling setups <strong>of</strong> the external thermal buffer <strong>and</strong> concentrating solar power<br />

collectors with the HDH system.<br />

179

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