Experimental and numerical investigations of salt gradient solar pond under Jordanian climate conditions

Solar ponds are large-scale energy collectors with integral heat storage for supplying thermal energy. In the present work, both experimental and numerical parts of solar pond performance under Jordanian climate conditions have been investigated. In the experimental part, an insulated solar pond with a surface area of 3.5 m2 and a depth of 1.0 m was built at the University of Jordan to investigate the performance of solar pond under Jordanian climate conditions. The three salty water zones (upper convective, non-convective and heat storage) were formed by filling the pond with salty water of various densities. 16 thermocouples (type T) were used to measure the temperature profile within the pond. In the theoretical part, a MatLAB code was developed to predict the temperature distribution along the solar pond. A maximum temperature of 47 °C was recorded in the heat storage zone in spring time (April 2010). The results obtained from the numerical simulation are compared with the experimental results and it has been found that they are in a good agreement.