Molten salts consisting of 60% sodium nitrate and 40% potassium nitrate have been used successfully as a thermal energy collection and storage fluid in different solar thermal plants. However, the relatively high melting point of this mixture (221°C) represents an important risk of local...

This paper presents a numerical modeling study of coupled thermodynamic, multiphase fluid flow and heat transport associated with underground compressed air energy storage (CAES) in lined rock caverns. Specifically, we explored the concept of using concrete lined caverns at a relatively shallow...

In this work, the premixed flame propagation and pressure dynamics in a closed combustion tube with a 90° bend are investigated using experiment and numerical simulations to provide further knowledge of premixed combustion process in a curved chamber. In the experiment, high-speed schlieren...

The receiver’s back surface radiative characteristics of a heat-pipe evacuated-tube solar collector (ETSC) may have a significant influence on its performance. This influence is generally related to the back surface emissivity and temperature; however it has been not studied previously. This...

In present work, a cavity receiver with quartz glass cover is presented for the dish concentrating system. The quartz glass cover can separate the receiver cavity from the ambient air and its selective coating layer can intercept the infrared radiation emitted from the inner-surface of the...

Experimental and simulated quantitative thermal stratification evaluations of a small un-insulated oil storage tank subjected to heat losses during charging are presented. A model for simulating the thermal profile in the storage is developed. Simulated results using the model are found to be in...

This work aims at optimizing life cycle performance of a hybrid combined cooling heating and power (CCHP) system incorporating with solar energy and natural gas. A basic natural gas CCHP system containing power generation unit, heat recovery system, hybrid cooling system and storage tank, is...

This paper studies the impact of weather variation on energy use by using 5-minutes interval weather–energy data obtained from two residential houses: house 1 is a conventional house with advanced efficiency features and house 2 is a net-zero solar house with relatively more advanced...

Analytical expressions for the electrical efficiencies (ηm) of building integrated opaque photovoltaic thermal (BIOPVT) systems based on thin film photovoltaic (PV) modules have been derived. The expressions are valid for different climatic conditions and different design parameters of the...

This paper proposes a novel Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) method suitable for any application in which very fast changing and not uniform shading conditions continuously occur, as in case of photovoltaic systems (PVs) installed in the roof of electric vehicles. Basically, an Artificial...