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Go to Editorial ManagerThis study presents both experimental and theoretical investigations of an absorption refrigeration system using environmentally friendly working fluids, specifically the acetone–zinc bromide (Acetone/ZnBr₂) pair. The system was designed to operate under outdoor climatic conditions in Hilla City, Iraq, utilizing hot water as the heat source. Performance evaluation was carried out under various operating conditions, including changes in heat source, absorber, condenser, and evaporator temperatures. Experimental testing was conducted during September 2019. The results indicated that the coefficient of performance (COP) of the absorption cooling system ranged from 0.13 to 0.487, with an evaporator temperature drop of approximately 16 °C. Condensation and absorption temperatures remained below 41 °C, while the maximum driving water temperature reached 80 °C. A steady-state theoretical model was developed using the Engineering Equation Solver (EES) program, applying mass and energy balance equations to predict operating parameters such as temperature, pressure, and COP. Model predictions showed good agreement with the experimental measurements. Furthermore, the results confirmed that generator temperature has a significant influence on overall system performance.
In this paper, a theoretical study of the conventional solar-still system integrated via the design of heat recovery of air exhausted from the air conditioner condenser employing heat exchangers (WHRUs) was conducted. This study aims to improve desalination performance by compensating for the non-existence of sunlight during the night. A comparison was made between the desalination performance in the event of exposure to solar radiation and its performance in the case of exposure to the system (WHRUs). It was found that the (WHRUs) system has a minimal impact on the production of the conventional desalination rig during the night period, as the highest cumulative productivity in the presence of the (WHRU S ) reached (2.15 kg) in August. In contrast, the productivity dependent on solar radiation was (4.58 kg) for the same month, with the most significant percentage of improvement reaching (31.91 %).
A mathematic model is presented for solar updraft tower power plant with water-storage system. This model is developed to evaluate the effect of geometrical parameters of the solar tower power plant and thermal storage system as well as the wind velocity on the power production of the plant. The analysis based on variable solar incident radiation along the day. The results show that the tower tall, the tower diameter, the wind velocity, and the collector diameter have a significant effect on the power production while lhe thickness of the water-storage layer is shifted the peak value of the output power far away from mid-day and more smoothing tha output power curve. The results are compared with other model and experimental data. A good agreement is obtained.
This study presents solar chimney power plant integrated with sea water desalination system. A simple mathematical model is based on the conservation of mass and energy. The results show that the integrated system of solar chimney power plant and solar still can achieve simultaneously. The analysis is performed for both summer and winter at latitude 30 o N. It’s noted that, the water layer thickness is of a significant effect on the fresh water productivity while the dimensions of solar chimney and the solar collector are of a minor effect. The productivity of fresh water and output power for summer are the highest. The present work is compared with experimental data of the other work and showed a good agreement.
In this proposed study, all environmental factors affecting the aboveground and buried pipes, such as solar radiation and temperature, and soil temperature, have been studied on the characteristics of flow inside the aboveground and underground pipelines by building a mathematical model using MATLAB based on energy balance equations. From the mathematical model, the effect of solar radiation on the aboveground section of the pipeline is significate. During March and an inlet temperature of 34 °C, the pipeline outlet fluid temperature will rise to 50 °C. Other parameters affecting the aboveground section of the pipeline, such as ambient temperature and wind speed, have a much smaller effect on the fluid temperature, and the temperature difference is approximately 4 °C between the highest and lowest pipeline outlet fluid temperature. The result for the underground section of the pipeline showed that the main affecting parameter on the fluid temperature is the burry depth of the pipeline, the deeper the pipeline depth the lower the temperature variation and the lower fluid temperature can be seen, at 1 meter of bury depth the minimum and maximum fluid temperature was 18 °C and 36 °C respectively, and at 5 meters of bury depth, the minimum and maximum fluid temperature was 26 °C and 31 °C respectively. This study also checks different process parameters. Some of these are fluid flow, pipe diameter, and pipe material. The effect of the fluid flow and pipe diameter has a similar impact on the fluid temperature (while fixing all the other parameters), the higher the fluid flow or the smaller the pipe diameter resulted in a better heat transfer and more considerable temperature difference, and vice versa. The final process parameter, pipe material, had little to no effect on the fluid temperature variation.
The solar chimney is a natural draft device that uses solar radiation to provide upward momentum to the in-flowing air, thereby converting the thermal energy into kinetic energy through an air turbine which in turn can be converted into electrical energy. The main parts of the solar chimney power plant are a large circular solar collector, a tall chimney, and an air turbine. In this paper, a theoretical study was performed to evaluate the performance of a solar chimney power plant system in Basrah City, where sunny days and solar radiation are high. A mathematical model was developed to study the effect of various parameters on the output power of the solar chimney. I1 was found that the output power depends strongly on the chimney tall and the difference between the collector air temperature and the ambient air temperature as well as the outside heat transfer coefficient, which essentially depends on the wind speed.
In several countries, residential buildings are responsible for high energy consumption. The majority of energy is consumed on air conditioning to ensure maximum indoor comfort. In Iraq, the demand for electricity increases significantly, especially during the summer for cooling purposes. In this paper, two technologies are proposed for buildings to reduce the cooling load. These approaches included the use of phase- changing materials (PCM) in different locations in the walls and roof, in addition to roof shading by galvanized iron. The effects of these proposals were simulated in the latest software tool (designbuilder) and compared with the standard building model. The results were clear when PCM was installed on the outer surface of the wall and roof, which achieved the highest reduction in the cooling load of about 18 %. While the roof shading method using corrugated galvanized iron proved its effectiveness by decreasing the cooling load to 5 % compared to the standard case.
The desalination market is gradually growing as a result of the significant water scarcity in various regions throughout the world. Concentrated solar power (CSP) can be used to power distillation, which is an effective method for addressing water shortages in areas where there is both a severe lack of water and abundant direct normal irradiation. CSPs are ideal candidates for the advancement of desalination technologies due to their capacity to produce both thermal and electricity energy. This review article offers a comprehensive of the current status of cutting-edge CSP-desalination systems. The paper reviews previously published studies conducted by researchers in the field of multi-effect desalination using concentrated solar collectors, and they are classified into two main types. Exclusively freshwater generation and freshwater / electricity cogeneration. In addition, the paper reviews conventional desalination. This review illustrates that there are numerous prospective methods for integrating desalination systems into CSPs. Potential areas for future investigation in CSP-desalination systems. In particular, the most significant obstacles to be surmounted are lowering the costs and efficiency improvements of solar repayment and desalination equipment. A potential method to expedite the commercialization of these plants is to develop innovative strategies that optimize thermal efficiency and reduce costs. Environmental factors (solar radiation intensity, ambient temperature and wind speed) and design factors (solar field area, number of mirrors, number of stages, steam temperature, steam quantity and pressure) are the main effective parameters that affect the distilled water production process. In general, the CSP desalination systems are environmentally and technically appealing; however, there remains substantial progress to be made in order for these plants to be commercially viable.
Solar chimney (SC) together with earth to air heat exchanger (EAHE) is being employed as a low-energy consuming technique to remove undesirable interior heat from a building in the hot seasons. A numerical program "FLUENT 6.3 code" of an earth to air heat exchanger (EAHE) is studied for predicting the outlet air temperature and cooling potential of these devices in Basrah climate. Theoretical analyses have been conducted in order to investigate the ventilation in a solar chimney. The investigation into the viability of Low Energy Earth Pipe Cooling Technology in providing thermal comfort in Basrah. The demand for air-conditioning in buildings in Basrah affects the country escalating energy consumption. Therefore, this investigation was intended to seek for an alternative passive cooling to air-conditioning. The passive technology, where the ground was used as a heat sink to produce cooler air, has not been investigated systematically in hot and humid countries. A sub-soil temperature model adapted for the specific conditions in Basrah is presented and its output compared with CFD modeling. The results have shown that the potential of Earth Pipe is providing lower output temperature of air inlet to the room. We found that the resulting temperature at the buried pipe outlet decreases with increasing pipe length, decreasing pipe diameter, decreasing mass flow rate of flowing air in the pipe and increasing depths up to 4m.
Concerning commercial and residential buildings, one of the major parts related to water supply systems is the water storage tanks. For gravity- fed buildings, the tanks must be installed on the roof. In Iraqi summer, the temperature of water in storage tanks reaches above 50 °C due to high solar intensity, which makes it inappropriate for domestic usage. One of the proposed solutions to overcome this problem is feeding the hot water into an earth-water heat exchanger (EWHE) which consists of a set of buried pipes installed underground level to reduce its temperature. The storage tank and the earth-water heat exchanger were studied experimentally and theoretically by using ANSYS 20/FLUENT software to estimating the water temperature in the storage tank and the temperature of the water leaving the EWHE. The most important results obtained theoretically and experimentally that when using pipe length, pipe diameter, and mass flow rate of 100 m, 0.016 m, 0.7 LPM respectively, at a depth of 3 m, the water temperature decreases by about 15 °C. Also, the results have shown a good agreement between the experimental and theoretical works. One can conclude that an earth-water heat exchanger is an effective way to decrease the temperature of the storage water to an acceptable level for domestic usages.
The thermal performance of an absorption refrigeration system powered by solar pond heat was studied, simulated, and evaluated under the climatic conditions of Basra, Iraq. The simulation used MATLAB to solve the heat and mass transfer equations within the three layers of the solar pond (assuming NaCl as the salinity gradient medium) and linked them via a heat exchanger to the absorption refrigeration system to determine the temperatures supplied to the absorption cycle. The absorption cooling system operates on a lithium bromide-water pair and contains an internal heat exchanger between the generator and absorber with an assumed efficiency of 80%. The simulation was conducted over several months of the year, from March to October, and daily climatic variables such as solar radiation and ambient temperature specific to Basra were considered, allowing the system's performance to be evaluated under realistic climatic conditions. The objective was to evaluate the coefficient of performance (COP) of absorption refrigeration systems and demonstrate the feasibility of using solar ponds as a sustainable heat source for cooling in hot regions. The study demonstrated the feasibility of operating an absorption refrigeration system using the thermal energy stored in the lower layer of the solar pond, while maintaining good thermal stability in that layer throughout the day, especially in areas with high solar radiation, such as Basra. The simulation model was developed entirely in MATLAB using fundamental physical equations that describe each component of the solar pond and absorption refrigeration system, without relying on pre-existing components or tables. This provides greater modeling flexibility and a deeper understanding of system behavior under hot climate conditions.