Thermal performance of an experimental solar pond provided with heat exchanger in Egypt

This work aims to study the availability of absorbing, trapping and exploiting the high radiation- as heat energy- in Egypt. Therefore, a set of practical experiments were conducted to evaluate both the thermal performance of an experimental salinity gradient solar pond (SGSP) and the heat extraction by using an internal heat exchanger (IHE). All experiments were carried out at Faculty of Agriculture, Zagazig University, Egypt (Latitude 30o 35/ N, Longitude 31o 31/ E) during 2013. The results revealed that, the average temperature stored in the lower convective zone (LCZ) of the pond was about 32.4, 49.3 and 53.2 °C at average penetrated solar radiation flux of 151.8, 239.5 and 298.6 W/m2 for months of January, April and July, respectively .It was found that, about 28.8% of the incident solar radiation on the pond’s surface reached the LCZ. Ultimately, the average values of IHE’s effectiveness and the thermal efficiency of the pond were 0.505 and 24.5 %, respectively at month of July. Hence, it is clear that, the SGSP has a good thermal performance and suitable for different thermal applications under the Egyptian climate conditions.