Experiment and Theoretical Investigation of Solar Convective Furnace System

Abstract

Heat treatment of metal is an energy intensive process. Electrical energy is utilized for this purpose. Efforts are ongoing to develop system which utilizes solar energy for such processes. A retrofitted solar convective furnace (SCF) concept in which hot air is utilized for annealing of aluminum is already proposed. Two possible modes of its operation using a heater and thermal storage (TES) are feasible. Consider these aspects; the thesis presents the detailed experimental and numerical evaluation of this SCF for- (a) understanding of the heat transfer processes and (b) practical realization of this system. For this purpose both experiment and numerical investigations are carried out. The performed experiment of SCF with a heater clearly demonstrates the involved heat transfer process in SCF and temperature development on the experimental metal-ingot. An unsteady one-dimensional mathematical model is developed, which takes into account some of the experimental observations. The comparison between measured and numerically analyzed data shows the acceptability of the model and the adopted numerical approach. As the next step, the SCF is operated using TES. For this purpose, the existing Solar Air Tower Simulator (SATS) facility at IIT Jodhpur is extended. The measurement in TES and SCF demonstrates the second mode of operation. An unsteady tool is being developed for analyzing the heat transfer process in SCF with TES. Validation of this tool is foreseen.